Practise 37 real questions on Living standards, population and development from 2021 to 2026. See the answer and explanation as soon as you answer.
Living standards, population and development is one of the 8 main topics in our O Level Economics (Cambridge (CAIE) 2281) question bank, and about 10% of its real questions come from it. Tayyari Karo has 37 real questions on this topic from 2021 to 2026, from Paper 1, Paper 2; 31 are multiple choice and marked instantly, and the rest are structured questions with a model answer. By difficulty: 24 medium, 9 easy, 4 hard.
Work through the questions below, then open the explanation for each one. Redo the ones you missed a few days later.
These are real past-paper questions. Think of your answer first, then open the explanation.
What is not likely to be used to measure the difference in the standard of living between countries?
Answer: C. the rate of interest
GDP per head, HDI and poverty rates indicate living standards; the interest rate does not.
In many high-income economies, increasing income inequality has led to greater levels of poverty. Which combination of policies would aim to reduce income inequality?
Answer: C. supply-side policy: increase the national minimum wage; fiscal policy: increase inheritance tax
A higher minimum wage raises the pay of the lowest earners and inheritance tax reduces the transfer of wealth, so both narrow inequality.
Other things being equal, what will cause a population both to increase and to age?
Answer: B. a fall in the death rate
A lower death rate means more people survive to old age, so the population grows and ages.
In some developing countries a large percentage of the population is involved in subsistence farming. What can be concluded from this?
Answer: B. Production is unlikely to be capital intensive.
Subsistence farming uses mainly labour and simple tools because capital equipment is scarce and expensive.
What is likely to cause an immediate decrease in the size of the labour force?
Answer: C. a reduction in the age of retirement
Earlier retirement removes workers from the labour force straight away; birth rate changes take years.
The richest 60% of the population of a high-income economy received an increase in income. The income of the rest of the population did not change. What happened to absolute and relative poverty?
Answer: C. absolute poverty remained constant and relative poverty increased
The poor are no worse off in absolute terms, but they now fall further behind average incomes.
| Session | Paper 1 | Paper 2 |
|---|---|---|
| May/June 2026 | 2 | – |
| May/June 2025 | 2 | 1 |
| Oct/Nov 2025 | 3 | 1 |
| May/June 2024 | 2 | – |
| Oct/Nov 2024 | 2 | – |
| May/June 2023 | 3 | 1 |
| Oct/Nov 2023 | 5 | 1 |
| May/June 2022 | 4 | 1 |
| Oct/Nov 2022 | 2 | – |
| May/June 2021 | 3 | 1 |
| Oct/Nov 2021 | 3 | – |
37 real O Level Economics (2281) questions on Living standards, population and development from 2021 to 2026, from Paper 1, Paper 2. Each one shows the year, session and paper it came from.
Yes. Every question shows the correct answer and a short explanation the moment you answer.
You can start free with no signup. A small set of papers per subject is free, and Premium unlocks every paper, the full question bank and the paper PDFs.
