These questions mix the five lessons of the development, population and environment module.
They run from straightforward reading of figures to short judgements. Attempt each on paper, then open the answer. Log each slip in the mistake log and retest queue and return to the matching lesson.
Questions
Q1. A fictional country had 5.0 million people in 2010 and 5.6 million in 2020. Find the percentage change and state the period.
Show answer
Change = 5.6 − 5.0 = 0.6 million. 0.6 ÷ 5.0 × 100 = 12% over ten years. It is not 12% a year.
Q2. In 2024 a country had a birth rate of 22 per 1,000 and a death rate of 7 per 1,000. Find the natural increase as a percentage.
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22 − 7 = 15 per 1,000. Dividing by 10 gives 1.5% in that year.
Q3. A country has 10.0 million people: 2.5 million aged under 15, 0.7 million aged 65 and over, and 6.8 million aged 15 to 64. Find the dependency ratio per 100 working-age people.
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Check: 2.5 + 0.7 + 6.8 = 10.0. Dependants = 2.5 + 0.7 = 3.2 million. 3.2 ÷ 6.8 ≈ 0.47, so about 47 dependants per 100 working-age people.
Q4. A workshop has 30 workers who each make 12 units a day. After training they each make 15. Find the new daily output and the percentage rise in output per worker.
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Before: 30 × 12 = 360. After: 30 × 15 = 450 units a day. Output per worker rises (15 − 12) ÷ 12 × 100 = 25%.
Q5. A student writes: “More schooling raises GDP.” Rewrite it as a chain of reasoning with a limit.
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For example: “More schooling raises workers’ skills, so output per worker rises, which means total output and incomes can rise. This depends on there being jobs that use those skills.”
Q6. Country X has income per person of US$12,000, life expectancy of 70 years and literacy of 90%. Country Y has US$8,000, 76 years and 96%. Compare them fairly.
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X is higher on income by US$4,000, which is 4,000 ÷ 8,000 × 100 = 50% higher than Y. Y is higher on life expectancy by 6 years and on literacy by 6 percentage points. The indicators point in different directions, so “X is better” is not supported. Both income and literacy are measured for a given year only.
Q7. Literacy rises from 80% to 84%. State the change in percentage points and as a percentage.
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4 percentage points. As a percentage change: 4 ÷ 80 × 100 = 5%.
Q8. A fictional fishery records: 5 boats catch 60 tonnes, 10 boats 100, 15 boats 120, 20 boats 110. Calculate catch per boat and assess the claim “more boats always means a bigger catch”.
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Per boat: 60 ÷ 5 = 12, 100 ÷ 10 = 10, 120 ÷ 15 = 8, 110 ÷ 20 = 5.5 tonnes. Total catch peaks at 15 boats and falls at 20, so the claim fails beyond 15 boats. The data covers one fishery, so it does not show why.
Q9. Four households have monthly incomes of RM800, RM900, RM1,000 and RM5,300. Find the mean and the median and say what the gap shows.
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Total = 8,000, so mean = RM2,000. The median is the average of the middle two: (900 + 1,000) ÷ 2 = RM950. Three of four households earn below the mean, so the mean overstates a typical household.
Q10. A report says: “Population is 3.2 million and rising 2%.” Name two details missing and calculate the population after three years if 2% is an annual rise.
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Missing: the date of the 3.2 million and whether 2% is per year. If annual: 3.2 × 1.02 × 1.02 × 1.02 = 3.2 × 1.061208 ≈ 3.40 million.
Q11. A population of 1.0 million falls 10%, then rises 10%. What is the final population and why is it not 1.0 million?
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After the fall: 1.0 × 0.9 = 0.90 million. After the rise: 0.90 × 1.1 = 0.99 million. The 10% rise applies to the smaller base. The percentage-base explorer shows this stage by stage.
If you got these wrong
| Type of error | Go back to |
|---|---|
| Treated a multi-year change as annual, or mixed per 1,000 with percent (Q1, Q2, Q3, Q10, Q11) | Interpret demographic data with units and dates |
| Gave a claim with no steps or limit (Q4, Q5) | Explain a human-capital mechanism |
| Judged a country from one indicator, or confused points with percent (Q6, Q7) | Compare development indicators |
| Accepted the model from early rows, or ignored the per-unit figure (Q8) | Assess an environmental model |
| Treated the mean as what everyone gets (Q9) | Identify a missing distributional detail |
Return to the module route for the study order. The ratio interpretation tool helps with per-unit divisions.
If one type of error stays stubborn after revisiting the lesson, our online one-to-one Economics tuition can target it directly.