Statements: 1. Majority of the citizens in the locality belongs to higher…

Concept: In a cause-and-effect statement pair, one statement is the cause and the other its effect when the first describes a condition that directly and sufficiently produces the outcome named in the second. The two are independent causes when no such link exists between them at all. They are effects of independent causes when each traces back to its own separate, unstated origin, with neither statement producing the other.

Application: Here, the residents' income profile (a majority in the higher income group) is a demographic condition, and greater income directly brings greater purchasing power. That greater purchasing power converts into higher spending at the local supermarket, which is exactly the comparatively higher sales the second statement reports. So the income profile is a sufficient, direct cause, and the sales figure is its natural, observable effect within the very same locality.

Cross-check: Checking this against the remaining categories confirms it is the only fit:

• Reversing the direction, so that the sales figure becomes the cause, fails: a store's revenue for a period cannot retroactively determine which income bracket the surrounding residents belong to, since income composition is set by residents' occupations and earnings, not by retail turnover.

• Treating the two facts as independent, unrelated causes fails: that category applies only when neither statement bears on the other at all, whereas both statements here describe the same locality's economic behaviour, which is exactly the kind of connecting thread that category rules out.

• Treating both as effects of separate, unstated causes fails: that would require neither statement to influence the other, whereas one statement's condition leads directly and immediately to the other's outcome, with no need to invoke a hidden third factor.