The Natural growth of population is the outcomes of which of the following? 1) Crude Birth Rate 2) Crude Death Rate 3) Migration 4) Marriages Select the correct answer from the codes given below:

Natural increase is simply births minus deaths, so the correct pair is 1 and 2, which is option D. Natural growth rate = (CBR - CDR) / 10, expressed as a percentage. It ignores movement of people entirely, which is why migration is excluded.

• Statement 1 (CBR): Births add to the population, so a high crude birth rate pushes natural growth up.
• Statement 2 (CDR): Deaths subtract from the population. A falling death rate is a key reason natural growth rises during the demographic transition.
• Statement 3 (Migration): Migration changes a region's population but is not a component of natural increase. It belongs to net migration, which is part of total population change.
• Statement 4 (Marriages): Marriages influence fertility only indirectly and are not counted in the natural growth formula.

Concept: vital statistics and the demographic transition. Mains link: the gap between a falling death rate and a still-high birth rate in India explains rapid population growth, which is why family planning and female education feature in population policy.

Trap: candidates pick B or C because migration and marriages feel like population drivers. The question asks specifically about natural growth, which depends only on births and deaths.