Which measure describes the number of live births per 1000 people per year?

• A. Bioremediation
• B. Biotic
• C. Birth rate
• D. Boiler

Answer: (C)

The concept being tested is understanding what a birth rate is. A birth rate describes how many live births happen in a year for every 1000 people in the population. It’s a rate, not just a raw count, because it standardizes births by population size so you can compare different countries or times.

Birth rate is calculated as (number of live births in a year ÷ mid-year population) × 1000. For example, if there are 10,000 births in a year in a country with about 2,000,000 people, the birth rate would be (10,000 ÷ 2,000,000) × 1000 = 5,000 ÷ 1,000 = 5 births per 1000 people per year.

Other terms don’t describe this measure: bioremediation is about cleaning pollutants with living organisms, biotic refers to living components in ecosystems, and a boiler is a device for producing steam.