UPSC Civil Services Exam is the most popular exam conducted by Union Public Services Commission to recruit candidates for the top posts in 24 services in Indian Bureaucracy. The exam is popularly known as the IAS exam, even though the test recruits for not only for IAS (Indian Administrative Service) but also for various other services like IPS (Indian Police Service), IFS (Indian Foreign Service), IRS(Indian Revenue Service) etc.
Also read: How Many IAS Officers Are Selected Every Year?
Vacancies not increasing proportional to the increase in the number of candidates
The number of candidates selected through UPSC Civil Services Examination varies each year depending upon the vacancies. Analysing the statistics from 2005 from 2021, it can be seen that there is an increasing trend in the number of vacancies. The number of vacancies has multiplied near to three times from 457 vacancies in 2005 to 1364 reported vacancies in 2014. The number of aspirants coming forward to write this prestigious exam has also shown a very positive trend. The figure touched 9.5 lakh applicants in 2015.
Category Wise Break up of Vacancies for UPSC Civil Services Examination in Previous Years
Year |
SC |
ST |
OBC |
General |
Total |
2005 |
66 |
32 |
117 |
242 |
457 |
2006 |
80 |
36 |
144 |
273 |
533 |
2007 |
109 |
53 |
190 |
382 |
734 |
2008 |
130 |
61 |
236 |
454 |
881 |
2009 |
127 |
76 |
273 |
513 |
989 |
2010 |
148 |
74 |
271 |
550 |
1043 |
2011 |
157 |
78 |
255 |
511 |
1001 |
2012 |
169 |
77 |
295 |
550 |
1091 |
2013 |
188 |
92 |
326 |
622 |
1228 |
2014 |
194 |
98 |
354 |
718 |
1364 |
2015 |
176 |
89 |
314 |
585 |
1164 |
2016 |
163 |
89 |
347 |
610 |
1209 |
2017 |
166 |
74 |
275 |
543 |
1058 |
2018 |
128 |
61 |
209 |
414 |
812 |
2019 |
129 |
67 |
251 |
397 |
927 |
2020 |
122 |
61 |
229 |
338 |
836 |
2021 |
105 |
60 |
203 |
308 |
749 |
Note 1: The final number of vacancies reported above is based on the vacancies reported while UPSC announces the final result. This figure usually is greater than the number of vacancies reported in the Prelims notification (Reference UPSC Civil Services Notification 2014).
Note 2: The entire vacancies are not immediately filled upon result announcement; but will be split into the main list and a consolidated reserve list. Our article – which explains the last rank to get into various services like IAS – is prepared based on the figures in the main list.
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