malthusian theory essay

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An Essay on the Principle of Population

By thomas robert malthus.

There are two versions of Thomas Robert Malthus’s Essay on the Principle of Population . The first, published anonymously in 1798, was so successful that Malthus soon elaborated on it under his real name. * The rewrite, culminating in the sixth edition of 1826, was a scholarly expansion and generalization of the first.Following his success with his work on population, Malthus published often from his economics position on the faculty at the East India College at Haileybury. He was not only respected in his time by contemporaneous intellectuals for his clarity of thought and willingness to focus on the evidence at hand, but he was also an engaging writer capable of presenting logical and mathematical concepts succinctly and clearly. In addition to writing principles texts and articles on timely topics such as the corn laws, he wrote in many venues summarizing his initial works on population, including a summary essay in the Encyclopædia Britannica on population.The first and sixth editions are presented on Econlib in full. Minor corrections of punctuation, obvious spelling errors, and some footnote clarifications are the only substantive changes. * Malthus’s “real name” may have been Thomas Robert Malthus, but a descendent, Nigel Malthus, reports that his family says he did not use the name Thomas and was known to friends and colleagues as Bob. See The Malthus Homepage, a site maintained by Nigel Malthus, a descendent.For more information on Malthus’s life and works, see New School Profiles: Thomas Robert Malthus and The International Society of Malthus. Lauren Landsburg

Editor, Library of Economics and Liberty

First Pub. Date

London: John Murray

6th edition

The text of this edition is in the public domain. Picture of Malthus courtesy of The Warren J. Samuels Portrait Collection at Duke University.

Chapter III
Chapter VII
Chapter VIII
Chapter XII
Chapter XIII
Chapter XIV
Bk.II,Ch.II
Bk.II,Ch.III
Bk.II,Ch.IV
Bk.II,Ch.VI
Bk.II,Ch.VII
Bk.II,Ch.VIII
Bk.II,Ch.IX
Bk.II,Ch.XI, On the Fruitfulness of Marriages
Bk.II,Ch.XII
Bk.II,Ch.XIII
Bk.III,Ch.I
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Appendix II

Preface to the Second Edition

The Essay on the Principle of Population, which I published in 1798, was suggested, as is expressed in the preface, by a paper in Mr. Godwin’s Inquirer. It was written on the impulse of the occasion, and from the few materials which were then within my reach in a country situation. The only authors from whose writings I had deduced the principle, which formed the main argument of the Essay, were Hume, Wallace, Adam Smith, and Dr. Price; and my object was to apply it, to try the truth of those speculations on the perfectibility of man and society, which at that time excited a considerable portion of the public attention.

In the course of the discussion I was naturally led into some examination of the effects of this principle on the existing state of society. It appeared to account for much of that poverty and misery observable among the lower classes of people in every nation, and for those reiterated failures in the efforts of the higher classes to relieve them. The more I considered the subject in this point of view, the more importance it seemed to acquire; and this consideration, joined to the degree of public attention which the Essay excited, determined me to turn my leisure reading towards an historical examination of the effects of the principle of population on the past and present state of society; that, by illustrating the subject more generally, and drawing those inferences from it, in application to the actual state of things, which experience seemed to warrant, I might give it a more practical and permanent interest.

In the course of this inquiry I found that much more had been done than I had been aware of, when I first published the Essay. The poverty and misery arising from a too rapid increase of population had been distinctly seen, and the most violent remedies proposed, so long ago as the times of Plato and Aristotle. And of late years the subject has been treated in such a manner by some of the French Economists; occasionally by Montesquieu, and, among our own writers, by Dr. Franklin, Sir James Stewart, Mr. Arthur Young, and Mr. Townsend, as to create a natural surprise that it had not excited more of the public attention.

Much, however, remained yet to be done. Independently of the comparison between the increase of population and food, which had not perhaps been stated with sufficient force and precision, some of the most curious and interesting parts of the subject had been either wholly omitted or treated very slightly. Though it had been stated distinctly, that population must always be kept down to the level of the means of subsistence; yet few inquiries had been made into the various modes by which this level is effected; and the principle had never been sufficiently pursued to its consequences, nor had those practical inferences drawn from it, which a strict examination of its effects on society appears to suggest.

These therefore are the points which I have treated most in detail in the following Essay. In its present shape it may be considered as a new work, and I should probably have published it as such, omitting the few parts of the former which I have retained, but that I wished it to form a whole of itself, and not to need a continual reference to the other. On this account I trust that no apology is necessary to the purchasers of the first edition.

To those who either understood the subject before, or saw it distinctly on the perusal of the first edition, I am fearful that I shall appear to have treated some parts of it too much in detail, and to have been guilty of unnecessary repetitions. These faults have arisen partly from want of skill, and partly from intention. In drawing similar inferences from the state of society in a number of different countries, I found it very difficult to avoid some repetitions; and in those parts of the inquiry which led to conclusions different from our usual habits of thinking, it appeared to me that, with the slightest hope of producing conviction, it was necessary to present them to the reader’s mind at different times, and on different occasions. I was willing to sacrifice all pretensions to merit of composition, to the chance of making an impression on a larger class of readers.

The main principle advanced is so incontrovertible, that, if I had confined myself merely to general views, I could have intrenched myself in an impregnable fortress; and the work, in this form, would probably have had a much more masterly air. But such general views, though they may advance the cause of abstract truth, rarely tend to promote any practical good; and I thought that I should not do justice to the subject, and bring it fairly under discussion, if I refused to consider any of the consequences which appeared necessarily to flow from it, whatever these consequences might be. By pursuing this plan, however, I am aware that I have opened a door to many objections, and, probably, to much severity of criticism: but I console myself with the refection, that even the errors into which I may have fallen, by affording a handle to argument, and an additional excitement to examination, may be subservient to the important end of bringing a subject so nearly connected with the happiness of society into more general notice.

Throughout the whole of the present work I have so far differed in principle from the former, as to suppose the action of another check to population which does not come under the head either of vice or misery; and, in the latter part I have endeavoured to soften some of the harshest conclusions of the first Essay. In doing this, I hope that I have not violated the principles of just reasoning; nor expressed any opinion respecting the probable improvement of society, in which I am not borne out by the experience of the past. To those who still think that any check to population whatever would be worse than the evils which it would relieve, the conclusions of the former Essay will remain in full force; and if we adopt this opinion we shall be compelled to acknowledge, that the poverty and misery which prevail among the lower classes of society are absolutely irremediable.

I have taken as much pains as I could to avoid any errors in the facts and calculations which have been produced in the course of the work. Should any of them nevertheless turn out to be false, the reader will see that they will not materially affect the general scope of the reasoning.

From the crowd of materials which presented themselves, in illustration of the first branch of the subject, I dare not flatter myself that I have selected the best, or arranged them in the most perspicuous method. To those who take an interest in moral and political questions, I hope that the novelty and importance of the subject will compensate the imperfections of its execution.

Preface to the Fifth Edition

This Essay was first published at a period of extensive warfare, combined, from peculiar circumstances, with a most prosperous foreign commerce.

It came before the public, therefore, at a time when there would be an extraordinary demand for men, and very little disposition to suppose the possibility of any evil arising from the redundancy of population. Its success, under these disadvantages, was greater than could have been reasonably expected; and it may be presumed that it will not lose its interest, after a period of a different description has succeeded, which has in the most marked manner illustrated its principles, and confirmed its conclusions.

On account, therefore, of the nature of the subject, which, it must be allowed is one of permanent interest, as well as of the attention likely to be directed to it in future, I am bound to correct those errors of my work, of which subsequent experience and information may have convinced me, and to make such additions and alterations as appear calculated to improve it, and promote its utility.

It would have been easy to have added many further historical illustrations of the first part of the subject; but as I was unable to supply the want I once alluded to, of accounts of sufficient accuracy to ascertain what part of the natural power of increase each particular check destroys, it appeared to me that the conclusion which I had before drawn from very ample evidence of the only kind that could be obtained, would hardly receive much additional force by the accumulation of more, precisely of the same description.

In the two first books, therefore, the only additions are a new chapter on France, and one on England, chiefly in reference to facts which have occurred since the publication of the last edition.

In the third book I have given an additional chapter on the Poor-Laws; and as it appeared to me that the chapters on the Agricultural and Commercial Systems, and the Effects of increasing Wealth on the Poor, were not either so well arranged, or so immediately applicable to the main subject, as they ought to be; and as I further wished to make some alterations in the chapter on Bounties upon Exportation, and add something on the subject of Restrictions upon Importation, I have recast and rewritten the chapters which stand the 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th, in the present edition; and given a new title, and added two or three passages, to the 14th and last chapter of the same book.

In the fourth book I have added a new chapter to the one entitled Effects of the Knowledge of the principal Cause of Poverty on Civil Liberty; and another to the chapter on the Different Plans of improving the Poor; and I have made a considerable addition to the Appendix, in reply to some writers on the Principles of Population, whose works have appeared since the last edition.

These are the principal additions and alterations made in the present edition. They consist, in a considerable degree, of the application of the general principles of the Essay to the present state of things.

For the accommodation of the purchasers of the former editions, these additions and alterations will be published in a separate volume.

The additions to the present edition chiefly consist of some further documents and inferences relating to the state of the population in those countries, in which fresh enumerations, and registers of births, deaths and marriages, have appeared since the publication of my last edition in 1817. They refer principally to England, France, Sweden, Russia, Prussia, and America, and will be found in the chapters which treat of the population of these countries. In the chapter on the Fruitfulness of Marriages an additional table has been given, (vol. i. p. 498.) which, from the per centage increase of population in the interval between those decennial enumerations which are now taking place in some countries, shews the period of their doubling, or the rate at which they are increasing. At the end of the Appendix my reasons for not replying to the late publication of Mr. Godwin are shortly stated. In other parts of the work some inconsiderable alterations and corrections have been made which it is unnecessary to specify; and a few notes have been added, the principal of which is one on the variations in the price of corn in Holland under a free trade, and the error of supposing that the scarcity of one country is generally counterbalanced by the plenty of some other.—Vol. ii. p. 207.

Book I, Chapter II.

In my review of the different stages of society, I have been accused of not allowing sufficient weight in the prevention of population to moral restraint; but when the confined sense of the term, which I have here explained, is adverted to, I am fearful that I shall not be found to have erred much in this respect. I should be very glad to believe myself mistaken.

It should be observed, that, by an increase in the means of subsistence, is here meant such an increase as will enable the mass of the society to command more food. An increase might certainly take place, which in the actual state of a particular society would not be distributed to the lower classes, and consequently would give no stimulus to population.

Book I, Chapter III.

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Malthusianism

Quick reference.

In 1798, ThomasRobert Malthus (1766–1834) published his Essay on Population in which he put forward the theory that the power of a population to increase is greater than that of the Earth to provide food. He asserted that population would grow geometrically, while food supply would grow arithmetically. When population outstrips resources, Malthusian checks to population occur: misery, vice, and moral restraint.

Malthus' predictions were not borne out in 18th-century Britain, perhaps because of the increases in food output, and emigration to the colonies; A. Macfarlane (1997) refers to the ‘great escape’ from the Malthusian trap by large chunks of humanity. P. Wissoker (forthcoming) shows how Malthusian theory is deployed to underpin the theory of European historical superiority by arguing that Europeans, uniquely, have generally (and rationally) avoided the Malthusian disasters of overpopulation while non-Europeans (irrationally) have not done so and therefore not developed as Europe has.

‘While old-style Malthusians simply saw an inevitable tendency of human population to outgrow food production, neo-Malthusian scholars offered a more complicated, political argument: overpopulation would cause resource depletion and hunger which in turn would lead to political instability threatening Western interests and world peace’ (Flitner and Heins (2002) Pol. Geog. 21 , 3). Brander (2007) Can. J. Econ./Rev. can d'écon. 40 , 1 sees lower fertility as the central element in achieving sustainable development, ‘which is very much a modern translation of what Malthus wrote in 1798’. Furlong et al. (2006) Int. Interact. 32 , 1 find that the neo-Malthusian factors are significant, but not dramatic, factors in boundary disputes.

From: Malthusianism in A Dictionary of Geography »

Subjects: Science and technology — Earth Sciences and Geography

Malthusianism

Malthusianism , economic theory advanced by the English economist and demographer Thomas Malthus (1766–1834), according to which population growth will always tend to outpace the supply of food. First presented by Malthus in his anonymous pamphlet An Essay on the Principle of Population as it Affects the Future Improvement of Society, with Remarks on the Speculations of Mr. Godwin, M. Condorcet, and Other Writers (1798), Malthusianism represents a form of economic pessimism that challenges utopian notions of the perfectibility of human societies, as exemplified in the work of the English anarchist philosopher William Godwin (1756–1836). In Malthus’s view, a human society free of coercive restraints is an impossible ideal, because the threat of population growth will always be present. Increases in population, if unchecked, will take place in a geometric progression, while the means of subsistence will increase in only an arithmetic progression. A society’s population, therefore, will always expand to the limit of subsistence.

(Read Thomas Malthus’s 1824 Britannica essay on population.)

The argument presented in the first edition of Malthus’s work on population was essentially abstract and analytic. After further reading and travels in Europe, Malthus produced a subsequent edition (1803), expanding the pamphlet of 1798 into a longer book and adding much factual material and illustration to his thesis. He collected information on one country that had plentiful land (the United States) and estimated that its population was doubling in less than 25 years. He attributed the far lower rates of European population growth to “preventive checks,” giving special emphasis to the characteristic late-marriage pattern of western Europe, which he called “moral restraint.” Other preventive checks to which he alluded included birth control , abortion , adultery , and homosexuality —all of which, as an Anglican minister, he considered immoral.

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According to Malthus, societies that ignored the imperative for moral restraint—delayed marriage and celibacy for adults until they were economically able to support their children—would suffer the deplorable “positive checks” of war , famine , and epidemic , the avoidance of which should be every society’s goal. From this humane concern about the sufferings from positive checks arose Malthus’s admonition that poor laws (i.e., legal measures that provided relief to the poor) and charity must not cause their beneficiaries to relax their moral restraint or increase their fertility , lest such humanitarian gestures become perversely counterproductive.

Malthusianism exerted an important influence upon the ideas of classical and neoclassical economists, demographers , and evolutionary biologists, led by Charles Darwin . Moreover, the evidence and analyses produced by Malthus dominated scientific discussion of population during his lifetime. Then again, a fundamental criticism of Malthus was his failure to appreciate the ongoing British agricultural revolution, which eventually caused food production to meet or exceed population growth and made prosperity possible for a larger number of people. Malthus also failed to anticipate the widespread use of contraceptives, which brought about a decline in the fertility rate .

Malthus on Population

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First Online: 01 January 2021
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Joseph R Burger 3 , 4

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An Essay on the Principle of Population ; Exponential growth ; Malthusian growth

An Essay on the Principle of Population by Thomas Robert Malthus ( 1798 ) is a book widely viewed as having profound impact on the biological and social sciences by recognizing basic biophysical, demographic, and economic principles that can lead to population growth and possible collapse.

Introduction

Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground. – Genesis 1:28

The power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence. – Malthus 1798

An Essay on the Principle of Population by the Reverend, Political Economist, and Demographer, Thomas Robert Malthus (1766–1834), is perhaps the most important document ever published on population, yet its central thesis continues to be highly controversial between natural and social scientists today....

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Burger, J.R. (2021). Malthus on Population. In: Shackelford, T.K., Weekes-Shackelford, V.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19650-3_1267

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17.2D: Malthus’ Theory of Population Growth

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Learning Objectives

Discuss Malthus’s controversial theory on population growth, in terms of the concept of “moral restraint”

Early in the 19 th century, the English scholar Reverend Thomas Malthus published “An Essay on the Principle of Population.” He wrote that overpopulation was the root of many problems industrial European society suffered from— poverty, malnutrition, and disease could all be attributed to overpopulation. According to Malthus, this was a mathematical inevitability. Malthus observed that, while resources tended to grow arithmetically, populations exhibit exponential growth. Thus, if left unrestricted, human populations would continue to grow until they would become too large to be supported by the food grown on available agricultural land. In other words, humans would outpace their local carrying capacity, the capacity of ecosystems or societies to support the local population.

As a solution, Malthus urged “moral restraint.” That is, he declared that people must practice abstinence before marriage, forced sterilization where necessary, and institute criminal punishments for so-called unprepared parents who had more children than they could support. Even in his time, this solution was controversial. According to Malthus, the only alternative to moral restraint was certain disaster: if allowed to grow unchecked, population would outstrip available resources, resulting in what came to be known as Malthusian catastrophes: naturally occurring checks on population growth such as famine, disease, or war.

Over the two hundred years following Malthus’s projections, famine has overtaken numerous individual regions. Proponents of this theory, Neo-Malthusians, state that these famines were examples of Malthusian catastrophes. On a global scale, however, food production has grown faster than population due to transformational advances in agricultural technology. It has often been argued that future pressures on food production, combined with threats to other aspects of the earth’s habitat such as global warming, make overpopulation a still more serious threat in the future.

Thomas Malthus warned that without any checks, population would theoretically grow at an exponential rate, rapidly exceeding its ability to produce resources to support itself.
Malthus argued that an exponentially growing population will self-correct through war, famine, and disease.
Malthus cautioned that in order to avoid catastrophe such as famine and war, people should enact deliberate population control, such as birth control and celibacy.
Malthusian catastrophes refer to naturally occurring checks on population growth such as famine, disease, or war.
These Malthusian catastrophes have not taken place on a global scale due to progress in agricultural technology. However, many argue that future pressures on food production, combined with threats such as global warming, make overpopulation a still more serious threat in the future.
carrying capacity : The number of individuals of a particular species that an environment can support.
exponential growth : The growth in the value of a quantity, in which the rate of growth is proportional to the instantaneous value of the quantity; for example, when the value has doubled, the rate of increase will also have doubled. The rate may be positive or negative.
Malthusian catastrophes : Malthusian catastrophes are naturally occurring checks on population growth such as famine, disease, or war.

Malthusian Theory of Population

The Malthusian Theory of Population Definition

The Malthusian Theory of Population is a theory of exponential population growth and arithmetic food supply growth. Thomas Robert Malthus, an English cleric, and scholar, published this theory in his 1798 writings, An Essay on the Principle of Population.

Malthus believed that through preventative checks and positive checks, the population would be controlled to balance the food supply with the population level. These checks would lead to the Malthusian catastrophe.

Malthusian Theory of Population Explained

1. population and food supply.

Thomas Malthus theorized that populations grew in geometric progression . A geometric progression is a sequence of numbers where each term after the first is found by multiplying the previous one by a fixed, non-zero number called the common ratio. For example, in the sequence 2, 10, 50, 250, 1250, the common ratio is 5.

Additionally, he stated that food production increases in arithmetic progression . An arithmetic progression is a sequence of numbers such that the difference between the consecutive terms is constant. For example, in series 2, 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, the common difference of 3. He derived this conclusion due to the Law of Diminishing Returns .

From this, we can conclude that populations will grow faster than the supply of food. This exponential population growth will lead to a shortage of food.

2. Population Control

Malthus then argued that because there will be a higher population than the availability of food, many people will die from the shortage of food. He theorized that this correction would take place in the form of Positive Checks (or Natural Checks) and Preventative Checks. These checks would lead to the Malthusian catastrophe, which would bring the population level back to a ‘sustainable level.’

A. Positive Checks or Natural Checks

He believed that natural forces would correct the imbalance between food supply and population growth in the form of natural disasters such as floods and earthquakes and human-made actions such as wars and famines.

B. Preventative Checks

To correct the imbalance, Malthus also suggested using preventative measures to control the growth of the population. These measures include family planning, late marriages, and celibacy.

Malthusian Trap

The Malthusian Trap (or “Malthusian Population Trap”) is the idea that higher levels of food production created by more advanced agricultural techniques create higher population levels, which then lead to food shortages because the higher population needs to live on land that would have previously used to grow crops.

Even as technological advancement would normally lead to per capita income gains, theorizes Malthus, these gains are not achieved because in practice the advancement also creates population growth. Once the population exceeds what food supplies can support, this supposedly creates a Malthusian crisis with widespread famine as well as rampant disease. This ends up decreasing the population to earlier levels.

The reality, however, has been that population growth has not itself created the crisis that Malthus predicted. We will discuss the ways in which the Malthusian Trap has been disproven in the following section.

Criticisms of the Malthusian Theory of Population

1. Population Growth

The gloom and doom forecasts put forward by Malthus have not played out. In Western Europe, populations have grown (not at the rate Malthus predicted) and food production has also risen because of technological advancements.

2. Food Production

Thanks to many technological advancements, food production has dramatically increased over the past century. Often, the food production rate has grown higher than the population growth rate. For example, during the 1930s in the US, 25% of the population worked in the agricultural sector while the total GDP was less than $100 billion. Today, less than 2% of the population works in the agricultural sector, while the total GDP is over $14 trillion.

3. Global Trade

The limited availability of land at the time was the basis for Malthus’ theory on food production constraints. However, thanks to globalization, we can trade goods and services for food, which increases the amount of food a country can consume.

4. Calculations

Malthus did not provide calculations for the geometric growth of populations and the arithmetic growth of food. Since then, experts have pointed out that the growth rates are not consistent with Malthus’ predictions.

58 thoughts on “Malthusian Theory of Population”

The Malthusian theory is fast becoming the Malthusian Prophesy which does not have to be proved by maths but illustrated by evidence.

Perhaps the discrepancies in Malthus’ theory suggest there are other parameters beside food production capacity, such as: global testosterone levels; population density; Maslow’s hierarchical needs; or ???

Malthus’ projections, while largely true, failed to apply the long term effects of inconsistent waste management and lax public health structure.

If we preposition that the wars that happened didn’t happen (especialy the second world war) his theory would be quite true. The population fall due to the great wars was such great and all the science and medical human experiments had such a high toll of deaths that if all the people lost were still alive and all would have reproduced then the food production would be unable to cope even with all the advancement made.

Hogwash. 75 million people worldwide died over the course of the entire war as a result of the war. Many more people than that die every single year of other causes. The wars were a minor blip in population trends.

He was a doomsayers as is the media circus going on. Yes there will be fatalities…but not like China or Iran. .00007 of the Canadian population have it as reported as of today.

Watch the Michael Moore produced movie “Planet of the Humans” and see what is being done to reveal greed, myths, and fallacies. Moore has angered his base who are seeking to “cancel” him due to his exposure of truths in this film. Millions have watched it in the less than 2 weeks that it has been out. Check it out and see what you think.

Totalmente de acuerdo…. además de que el ser humano se ha vuelto soberbio, y no respeta las leyes de la naturaleza. El planeta lleva décadas dando señales de agotamiento. Solo ha tenido que dar fuerza a un diminuto virus para poner en jaque a la humanidad.

Good thinking and analysis, Patty. However, I’d think occurrences as distinct between developed and developing nations. For example, the average in most African states is way below 20%, or could this be explained by precautionary measures driven by fear such as temporal lock downs? Or is there grand misreporting?

Sam C, Could It be because of lack of facilities to test suspected patients and under reporting both by health authorities and and by symptomatic patients to medical centres.

I heard about this theory back in the 1960s.as time has gone by I have come see it as more credible.

You find it more credible, even though it’s underlying premise of exponential population growth has been proven wrong, and it’s premise of arithmetical food production has also been proven wrong. How can an idea where the two key precepts are demonstrably wrong be credible? Answer, it can’t. The Malthusian model is deeply flawed and demonstrably flawed.

You are focused on two aspects of the whole theory. Do.you factor in the variable of purposeful intervention as a means to curb that growth? If food met the demands, we wouldn’t have starvation globally.

yo are you a college student cause im a freshman doing this work its not fun any tips

Another key prediction of Malthus’ was that an increase in food production/standards of living, would lead to an increase in birth rates, which would result in food shortage/lowering standards of living. And yet, it is in the more developed wealthier countries where birth rates are lowest, and in poorer countries where they are highest. Also world starvation could be improved so much by better food distribution. The food is there, it is just not distributed based on need.

The exponential model has not been proven inarguably wrong, but even if you prefer the logistic growth model in reference to the world population, there is obviously a lack of availability in resources, considering the starvation rate alone is almost 10% of said population. Even if it has plateaued, the current population is utterly unsustainable, which proves that even if the Malthusian theory’s pointing towards a limitless growth until a catastrophe occurs is incorrect, his theory clearly isn’t “incredible”. Flawed, yes, but then again so is your argument.

And, as yet more time will come to pass, we may well have ignored it’s importance and relevance for too long and the Malthusian prophecies may be proven to be accurate after all.

It’s reassuring to read these. Messages to validate my social science studies in the 1960s

We Indians of 130 crores observing complete lockdown of one month & overcome all virus . Do not panic & we all human race shall prevail. Have faith on yourself . Observe discipline . We all humans shall prevail

In Bangladesh, with 170 million people in a land of 144 thousand square kilometers — 12 thousand per square kilometer, this virus can create inferno. Luckily, till date we have only 5 deaths and 44 confirmed cases but we have thousands of people who very recently returned from abroad especially Italy are roaming about carelessly mostly in the village. The whole country is in a panic. There is an unofficial lock-down for 10 days until 4 April which may be extended. We didn’t know what’s going to happen next month.

In India, in certain places, they lack even drinking water. India now has 1.4 billion –with a b– people and projected to surpass China which now has 1.5 billion. The deserts are increasing around the world and more people have no enough food to eat or home to live. Globalization may have helped a little to India and China but not to the workers, in the industrialized world, who lost their jobs to India and China.

What is the motivation of The Virus to grow ? Why it is there ? Is it because of “Natural selection ” ? Should we live and let live ? Who will win ? It is growing and the human being is gettng killed . One fine day this virus will not have any human being to grow and will then die .

The world population growth has slowed down across the spectrum. It has more to do with, rising women’s education and falling infant mortality. Present world population is about 7.8 billion. It’s predicted to rise to 9.7 billion in 2064 and then come down to 8.8 billion, losing about a billion by the end of this century.(source: The Lancet, July 2020). These are the principal findings. a. By 2100, projected fertility rates in 183 of 195 countries will not be high enough to maintain current populations without liberal immigration policies. b. Dramatic declines in working age-populations are predicted in countries such as India and China, which will hamper economic growth and lead to shifts in global powers. c. Liberal immigration policies could help maintain population size and economic growth even as fertility falls.

In today’s world, countries that have higher population will be benefited if they impart skill and education to their people. Predictors and soothsayers like Malthus are very good and leaned people. The problem is, their analysis is based on the past trend ending in the present. It is impossible to factor in future human innovations which are inherently episodic and unpredictable. Let us see how the Lancet predictions work.

Just yesterday reading about the world’s population. Fast-growing population esp in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, where women have average of 7 kids each! Poor and hungry, they multiply fast, but they don’t use as many resources as rich and nourished developed countries. So basically the US with the average just under 2 kids per a woman still consume much more resources per capita than people in Africa. The solution? Other than drastically reducing population world-wide maybe developed countries must cut back on their use of resources?! The data shows that in 2021 we need 1.7 planets Earth to sustain the consumerist population and this number will grow every year.

I am so glad to see these discussions..I am not a great scholar..just an ordinary person….but the other day I googled (of course) theories on population growth and disease…and came upon The Malthusian theory and saw the interest in it..and thought perhaps there are some seeds of truth in the paragraph about disease.

I studied Malthus’s theory back in the mid 1970, it has always stuck in my mind with regard to the world situation and catastrophes since then. We have had many wars, diseases and famine over the years, plus birth control, they have all helped to control the world population. The modern world seems to have been building up to a real disaster for quite sometime, we have HIV, SARS, Ebola and in Africa TB is rife. Is this recent pandemic teaching us a number of things we need to re-think? I spend approximately 6 months each year in Africa and if this virus gets hold in some of their townships it will be devastation. Perhaps now is the time we need to think about:- 1. We have to show more respect to the world and her resources. 2. If we want to interact with other people of the world, ( I know it sounds boring) then we must ALL have an acceptable behaviour that does not endanger others. 3. As we interact more with each other, perhaps the World Health Org must take a more proactive part in policing the worlds local customs and actions and monitor more closely. This has happened in the past, from the bubonic plague to Spanish Flue and as mentioned above more recent diseases, so it is nothing new. Regarding Malthus’s theory, i think it’s a little to sharp in its condemnation of the world and its people, but, perhaps it is a theory we should all keep reminding ourselves of.

The theory is not real and Thomas Malthus has created confusion and left, the super powers are using his theory to create wars and artificial diseases

The most dangerous virus on the planet ‘s future sustainability s Man.. depopulation and the new mindset of production/consumption will save this planet. Maybe we should stop producing new stuff and recycling old ones.

Great idea Trudy. I agree to that point. At least the environment And earth would be restored.

The populations in US hit the hardest with this virus are: nursing homes, prisons, and VA hospitals. It surely would help our administration’ s budget to cull these populations.

Thomas Robert Malthus had two failings. He failed to understand the vast resources the Earth has and the undreamed of technology to develop those resources. What Malthus did understand was no matter how vast the resources and how advanced the technology, those resources are still finite.

“we can trade goods and services for food, which increases the amount of food a country can consume.”

What happens when we run out of rain forest to cut down? Or pump aquifer dry that are needed for irrigation? What about quality of life? Will the American dream become like life in Manila with a population density 119,600 per sq mile?

The old adage of “The bigger they are, the harder they fall.” applies to population as well. I doubt Malthus ever envisioned a population of 8 billion people and growing or the size crash that will follow. Remember we can only kick the can down the road only so long. Even the road is finite and has a end.

George Kirk and I don’t know where you are from but in Africa and Nigeria this theory is so real. If you doubt, then make your research or come see for yourself. even today May 2020 the scarcity of food is affecting pricing and the impact is in the negative and unemployment would bring more hunger. Thus is reality not theory. for real we need to share resources but you have not considered transportation and the knockdown of economy. this makes Malthusian theory a realistic one even though not predicted in the 21century. the earth is calling for adaptation and mitigating standards for it’s recovery

What I’ve yet to see here is this: Much of what we think of as technological improvements in food production is predicted on the fossil fuel endowment which we’re burning our way through and heating up the climate world wide. Nothing and I emphasize NOTHING exists on the horizon or any reasonable time span to replace that fossil fuel endowment afore mentioned here.

Malthus’s theory emphasised ‘food’ as the ‘limiting factor’ ie nature would ensure that population levels be ‘controlled’ by the levels of food supplies & availability. But for ‘food’ read water, medicines, vaccines, hospital beds, health care professionals, hygiene—-when population levels increase uncontrolled, but the above ‘limiting factors’ do not ———enter Malthus!

Malthus and most people who discuss him don’t seem to understand how biological organisms ebb and flow in relationship to their food supply. Google “snow shoe fox and hare graphs” to see the classic graph of the relationship between predator and it’s prey.

When the population of hares decline due to predation, the decline in snow shoe foxes isn’t due to starvation. It’s due to a number of biological factors though actual starvation is probably minor. Off the top of my head, I can only think of one species that overruns it’s food supply leading to massive death by starvation and that is locusts.

Here is an incredibly informative conversation about the connection to population growth and the food supply. It feature author Daniel Quinn (Ishmael, The Story of B, etal) and Dr. Alan Thornhill, PhD. It’s the most informative lesson I’ve ever had on human population dynamics.

The video production is dated but the content is stellar. Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAqWUxCjisE

If you go deep in reading and grinding in brain what Malthus have proposed all are perfectly coming to be correct…

Thomas Malthus observed that birth rates were higher than death rates. Why did he believe this would cause an issue?

Thomas Malthus thought our population would increase by a lot. He believed we would not have enough food or resources if our population kept growing. However, technological advances have advanced food and resource production so his theory is no longer relevant.

Please consider places like Haiti, Bangladesh and India. Even with modern ag methods, the populations have increased 4 to 5 times since mid-20th century. Yet malnourishment increases, and ag lands grow degraded and less productive.

Are you crazy? We are now using more if our natural resources than we can replace, it is a given that we can no longer provide enough safe drinking water for the current population, and i feel most of this debate revolves around our inability to grow up and take responsibility for our reproduction of the species. I thank religion for this neurotic thinking

The death rate has always been 100% and is one of the few things unlikely to change until we destroy the aging gene

Can someone please tell me why Africa is at the receiving end of the Malthusian theory of population?

i think he brought out the theory because of low food supply at that time that caused A.P of food supply.

I believe with time we will all agree that what Malthus is say is true.

I learned about population growth and Malthus around the late 1950s. I also read Erhlich’s Population Bomb and Carson’s Silent Spring during that period. Since then, I have seen 60+ years of those combined statistical events repeatedly prove themselves in mini-niches and thus fully accept the overall outcome and shape of the 3 phase Growth Curve (exponential-like growth; plateau; death phase) as inevitable. It doesn’t have to be that way since Man has learned how to husband their resources during farming and agriculture. But the ability of Man to husband his own numbers is cut off at the knees due to his unwillingness to regulate his own procreation rates in various ethnic and cultural groups worldwide as well as his non-recognition of the physical limitations of his own environment through the blindness of organized religion, demon-ization of science, education, knowledge and intelligence, politicization against coherence of mutual interests, and proliferation of global autocracy as economic and governing power becomes ever-more intertwined and concentrated in the hands of fewer elites, psychopaths, and criminals. When viewing everything through a filter of economic theory, only the most avaricious picture can emerge. Economics has no self-regulating feedback in actual practice. The rich can and will get richer because wealth gives them ever-greater means to acquire and secure more wealth and influence. Without a check and balance mechanism, no system can ever be self-regulating and successful for all.

Mathus’ arguments, just like Ehrlich’s, were describing the elements that will cause our species to eventually decline and fall. But their only mistake, if there was one, is to try and put a hard numerical timeline onto a general process that actually has huge numbers of variables and is inherently chaotic in its Butterfly Effect outcomes when framed in a one-world global picture. If we look at different population niches throughout the world, we see Malthus’ imprint on each. But each is at a different phase in its own unique growth curve. Civil wars, disease, famine and droughts in various areas and countries and collapsed and failed states without effective governments around the world, parasitic autocracies bleeding their respective populations dry of economic and social advancements, are but a news headline away on any day.

No, Malthus had it much more right than this naysayer has when it comes to crystal ball gazing and futurism. Economics, as taught and practiced by ideologues in capitalistic and laissez-faire societies, is a formula for a more rapid decline than would otherwise be likely. And it also blinds and undercuts any potential efforts to work as a single species across all boundaries and divisions to control and balance our numbers to the raw resources we need to survive in balance with the other world processes and cycles. Man is his own worse enemy.

Google Ehrlichs predictions if you want a good laugh. I’m not sre which of the doomsayers predicted that there would be mass starvation in India 30 years ago, but India is now the world’s largest exporter of rice, supplying over 40% of the world’s rice.

The “End of the World Club” has been around for 2,000 years, and they will still be here in another 2,000 years.

1.If growth of population is not controlled with right earnest and allowed to growth then what will be the scenario in the earth? 2.It would be horrible/ terrible. 3.So,need of the hour is to give stress on control.

As the population increase the resources will also increas as necessity is the mother of invention,when evr there is huge population the human will do more effort to meet its need

Kindly help me answer this question: Demonstrate the relevance of the Malthusian theory of population in today’s management of the environment.

Malthus, like every other misanthropic leftist, who forecast doom for mankind, Carson, Ehrlich, Gore has been WRONG! The Wuhan China virus will not change that. Man has NO effect on the planet. The burning, glowing orb, filled with Hydrogen and Helium, in the sky determines climate. Malthus, and his ilk, traffic in fear, gloom and misery to bring about the destruction of free markets, sovereignty and America.

We could say that population growth contributes to climate change due to increased carbon pollution and climate change may significantly impact food production therefore negating tech advances and proving Malthus was correct.

The Malthusian theory i think is better but is so difficult to reduce population through protected sexual intercourse as we know now day are the world of globalization, so there is no meaning of being in relationship or getting marriage without getting a baby in my side

We’ve reached Peak Oil, and Coal? Coal only counts as our savior if we develop a means of utilizing it without the particle polution that it produces. I see proposed theories that suggest the conversion of CO2 in a sort of recycling into ethanol. But there’s still the thermal problem that threatens to up end the whole affair. Atomic energy has promise but not as long as we build plants on fault lines and then do the herd mentality thing if, “It” hits the fan and run screaming for the exit. There are safe forms of nuclear reactors that work safely and can’t go China Syndrome on us like the disaster in Russia. This will all be moot if terrorists use Nukes in an effort to get their 72 virgins in paradise.

Malthusian theory of population was based on a comparative analysis between the growth of population and food production of a particular region. The growth of population continues as per geometric ratio, while the foodstuff/ resources increase arithmetically. Malthus suggests that the population of the particular region must be checked, or else nature, itself, will check it.

it is flawed because it only focused on food availability as its basis but, yes the environment is the main supporter of population but food and other resources; note not only food is linked to human survival even if it greatlyy impacts our lives, but doom of population will come from the environment being a more hazardous place to live in as the water will be unsafe due to pollution, land pollution, chemical hazards, some places will accumulate hazardous gases. then populations will be leveled

Its only use is to justify the continued export of food to Britain during the Irish and Indian famines, thereby excusing the British of any responsibility in the deaths of tens of millions. Nowadays when the use of the poor as cheap labour is decreasing in its appeal, this age old Malthusian nonsense is revived, to the interest of the exploiters once again, to justify their inaction or even active participation in the elimination of “useless” people we are about to see. And make no mistake, when your use as labor and consumer depletes, the masters of this society won’t shed a bit of their obscene profits to help you. Not only distant third world people suffer, you will, too. So stand on the right side and debunk this nonsense.

I love the theory population growth rate let’s say china (one child policy) now ain’t they looking for better places say agriculture production in some places. Why population growth is hitting the limit thus need to increase food production Thanks

While it is true that Malthus’s theory was somewhat simplistic, i.e. population growth is exponential, while resources and food are linear, one only needs to look at the current state of affairs on this planet. Climate change and man’s inability to curtail its growing threat to the entire planet have really supported his initial premise from 1798 when such issues didn’t exist. This planet, before the end of this century, will basically become uninhabitable because of catastrophic environmental degradation, which will include destruction of the rain forests, loss of the major glacial formations which provide water to large numbers of the global population, excessive heat and rising oceanic levels, widespread wars and global migration to escape horrific conditions and tyrannical governments, pollution of the land, sea, and atmosphere on levels that will be incompatible with life for every living thing on this planet. In short, it will be Armageddon on a scale only seen with previous mass extinctions that have occurred many times in this planets 4.5 billion year history. The bottom-line is that you cannot violate the laws of nature indefinitely and think you can fool “Mother Nature”. She doesn’t care!!! Human beings are so presumptuous to think that they are somehow “significant” in this universe. Unique, perhaps, but not significant. Our species is nothing more that a speck of fly excrement on the wall of time who have accomplished what no other species who has come before them has done. But in the end, we will become extinct just like the other 98% of all previous species have have done. The good news is that in millions or perhaps tens of millions of years into the distant future the planet will have a rebirth as it has done so many times before and Earth will go on for a few more billion years. Our brief involvement in the planets glorious history will be relegated to a very, very brief time frame with a small asterisk.

Malthusian Theory of Population: Explained with its Criticism

The most well-known theory of population is the Malthusian theory. Thomas Robert Malthus wrote his essay on “Principle of Population” in 1798 and modified some of his conclusions in the next edition in 1803.

The rapidly increasing population of England encouraged by a misguided Poor Law distressed him very deeply.

He feared that England was heading for a disaster, and he considered it his solemn duty to warn his country-men of impending disaster. He deplored “the strange contrast between over-care in breeding animals and carelessness in breeding men.”

His theory is very simple. To use his own words: “By nature human food increases in a slow arithmetical ratio; man himself increases in a quick geometrical ratio unless want and vice stop him.The increase in numbers is necessarily limited by the means of subsistence Population invariably increases when the means of subsistence increase, unless prevented by powerful and obvious checks.”

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Malthus based his reasoning on the biological fact that every living organism tends to multiply to an unimaginable extent. A single pair of thrushes would multiply into 19,500,000 after the life of the first pair and 20 years later to 1,200,000,000,000,000,000,000 and if they stood shoulder to shoulder about one m every 150,000 would be able to find a perching space on the whole surface of the globe! According to Huxley’s estimate, the descendants of a single greenfly, if all survived and multiplied, would, at the end of one summer, weigh down the population of China! Human beings are supposed to double every 25 years and a coup/e can increase to the size of the present population in 1,750 years!

Such is the prolific nature of every specie. The power of procreation is inherent and insistent, and must find expression. Cantillon says, “Men multiply like mice in a barn.” Production of food, on the other hand, is subject to the law of diminishing returns. On the basis of these two premises, Malthus concluded that population tended to outstrip the food supply. If preventive checks, like avoidance of marriage, later marriage or less children per marriage, are not exercised, then positive checks, like war, famine and disease, will operate.

The theory propounded by Malthus can be summed up in the following propositions:

(1) Food is necessary to the life of man and, therefore, exercises a strong check on population. In other words, population is necessarily limited by the means of subsistence (i.e., food).

(2) Population increases faster than food production. Whereas population increases in geometric progression, food production increases in arithmetic progression.

(3) Population always increases when the means of subsistence increase, unless prevented by some powerful checks.

(4) There are two types of checks which can keep population on a level with the means of subsistence. They are the preventive and a positive check.

The first proposition is that the population of a country is limited by the means of subsistence. In other words, the size of population is determined by the availability of food. The greater the food production, the greater the size of the population which can be sustained. The check of deaths caused by want of food and poverty would limit the maximum possible population.

The second proposition states that the growth of population will out-run the increase in food production. Malthus thought that man’s sexual urge to bear offspring knows no bounds. He seemed to think that there was no limit to the fertility of man. But the power of land to produce food is limited. Malthus thought that the law of diminishing returns operated in the field of agriculture and that the operation of this law prevented food production from increasing in proportion to labour and capital invested in land.

In fact, Malthus observed that population would tend to increase at a geometric rate (2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, etc.), but food supply would tend to increase at an arithmetic rate (2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12). Thus, at the end of two hundred years “population would be to the means of subsistence as 259 to 9; in three centuries as 4,096 to 13, and in two thousand years the difference would be incalculable.” Therefore, Malthus asserted that population would ultimately outstrip food supply.

According to the third proposition, as the food supply in a country increases, the people will produce more children and would have larger families. This would increase the demand for food and food per person will again diminish. Therefore, according to Malthus, the standard of living of the people cannot rise permanently. As regards the fourth proposition, Malthus pointed out that there were two possible checks which could limit’ the growth of population: (a) Preventive checks, and (b) Positive checks.

Preventive Checks:

Preventive checks exercise their influence on the growth of population by bringing down the birth rate. Preventive checks are those checks which are applied by man. Preventive checks arise from man’s fore-sight which enables him to see distant consequences He sees the distress which frequently visits those who have large families.

He thinks that with a large number of children, the standard of living of the family is bound to be lowered. He may think that if he has to support a large family, he will have to subject himself to greater hardships and more strenuous labour than that in his present state. He may not be able to give proper education to his children if they are more in number.

Further, he may not like exposing his children to poverty or charity by his inability to provide for them. These considerations may force man to limit his family. Late marriage and self-restraint during married life are the examples of preventive checks applied by man to limit the family.

Positive Checks:

Positive checks exercise their influence on the growth of population by increasing the death rate. They are applied by nature. The positive checks to population are various and include every cause, whether arising from vice or misery, which in any degree contributes to shorten the natural duration of human life.

The unwholesome occupations, hard labour, exposure to the seasons, extreme poverty, bad nursing of children, common diseases, wars, plagues and famines ire some of the examples of positive checks. They all shorten human life and increase the death rate.

Malthus recommended the use of preventive checks if mankind was to escape from the impending misery. If preventive checks were not effectively used, positive checks like diseases, wars and famines would come into operation. As a result, the population would be reduced to the level which can be sustained by the available quantity of food supply.

Criticism of Malthusian Theory:

The Malthusian theory of population has been a subject of keen controversy.

The following are some of the grounds on which it has been criticized:

(i) It is pointed out that Malthus’s pessimistic conclusions have not been borne out by the history of Western European countries. Gloomy forecast made by Malthus about the economic conditions of future generations of mankind has been falsified in the Western world. Population has not increased as rapidly as predicted by Malthus; on the other hand, production has increased tremendously because of the rapid advances in technology. As a result, living standards of the people have risen instead of falling as was predicted by Malthus.

(ii) Malthus asserted that food production would not keep pace with population growth owing to the operation of the law of diminishing returns in agriculture. But by making rapid advances in technology and accumulating capital in larger quantity, advanced countries have been able to postpone the stage of diminishing returns. By making use of fertilizers, pesticide better seeds, tractors and other agricultural machinery, they have been able to increase their production greatly.

In fact, in most of the advanced countries the rate of increase of food production has been much greater than the rate of population growth. Even in India now, thanks to the Green Revolution, the increase in food production is greater than the increase in population. Thus, inventions and improvements in the methods of production have belied the gloomy forecast of Malthus by holding the law of diminishing returns in check almost indefinitely.

(iii) Malthus compared the population growth with the increase in food production alone. Malthus held that because land was available in limited quantity, food production could not rise faster than population. But he should have considered all types of production in considering the question of optimum size of population. England did feel the shortage of land and food.

If England had been forced to support her population entirely from her own soil, there can be little doubt that England would have experienced a series of famines by which her growth of population would have been checked.But England did not experience such a disaster. It is because England industrialized itself by developing her natural resources other than land like coal and iron, and accumulating man-made capital equipment like factories, tools, machinery, mines, ships and railways, this enabled her to produce plenty of industrial and manufacturing goods which she then exported in exchange for food-stuffs from foreign countries.

There is no food problem in Great Britain. Therefore, Malthus made a mistake in taking agricultural land and food production alone into account when discussing the population question. As already said, he should have rather considered all types of production.

(iv) Malthus held that the increase in the means of subsistence or food supplies would cause population to grow rapidly so that ultimately means of subsistence or food supply would be in level with population, and everyone would get only bare minimum subsistence. In other words, according to Malthus, living standards of the people cannot rise in the long run above the level of minimum subsistence. But, as already pointed out, living standards of the people in the Western world have risen greatly and stand much above the minimum subsistence level.

There is no evidence of birth-rate rising with the increases in the standard of living. Instead, there is evidence that birth-rates fall as the economy grows. In Western countries, attitude towards children changed as they developed economically. Parents began to feel that it was their duty to do as much as they could for each child.

Therefore, they preferred not to have more children than they could attend to properly. People now began to care more for maintaining a higher standard of living rather than for bearing more children. The wide use of contraceptives in the Western world brought down the birth rates. This change in the attitude towards children and the wide use of contraceptives in the Western world has falsified Malthusian doctrine.

(v) Malthus gave no proof of his assertion that population increased exactly in geometric progression and food production increased exactly in arithmetic progression. It has been rightly pointed out that population and food supply do not change in accordance with these mathematical series. Growth of population and food supply cannot be expected to show the precision or accuracy of such series.

However, Malthus, in later editions of his book, did not insist on these mathematical terms and only held that there was an inherent tendency in population to outrun the means of subsistence. We have seen above that even this is far from true.

There is no doubt that the civilized world has kept the population in check. It is, however, to be regretted that population has been increasing at the wrong end. The poor people, who can ill-afford to bring up and educate children, are multiplying, whereas the rich are applying breaks on the increase of the size of their families.

Is Malthusian Theory Valid Today?

We must, however, add that though the gloomy conclusions of Malthus have not turned out to be true due to several factors which have made their appearance only in recent times, yet the essentials of the theory have not been demolished. He said that unless preventive checks were exercised, positive checks would operate. This is true even today. The Malthusian theory fully applies in India.

We are at present in that unenviable position which Malthus feared. We have the highest birth-rate and the highest death-rate in the world. Grinding poverty, ever-recurring epidemics, famine and communal quarrels are the order of the day. We are deficient in food supply.

Our standard of living is incredibly low. Who can say that Malthus was not a true prophet, if not for his country, at any rate for the Asiatic countries like India, Pakistan and China? No wonder that intense family planning drive is on in India at present.

The Malthusian Theory of Population (Criticism)
Malthusian Theory of Population (With Diagram)
Malthusian Theory of Population (With Criticisms) | Economics
Malthusian Theory and the Optimum Theory | Population

What Is the Malthusian Theory of Population?

Definition of the malthusian theory of population.

The Malthusian Theory of Population involves arithmetic food supply growth and exponential population growth. This theory was first published in 1798 in Thomas Robert Malthus’s piece, An Essay on the Principle of Population . Malthus believed that the population could be controlled in order to balance the food supply through positive checks and preventative checks. These checks led to the Malthusian catastrophe.

Malthusian Theory of Population Explained

Population and food supply.

According to Thomas Malthus, populations grow in geometric progression. A geometric progression refers to a number sequence in which each term following the first can be found by multiplying the previous one with a common ratio, which is a fixed, non-zero number. For instance, in the sequence 2, 6, 18, 54, 162, the common ratio is 3.

Malthus also stated that food production increases through arithmetic progression, which is a number sequence with a constant difference between consecutive terms. For example, in the sequence 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, the constant difference is 2. Malthus derived this conclusion from the Law of Diminishing Returns . Since the population grows through geometric progression and the food production increases through arithmetic progression, we can conclude that the population will grow more quickly than the food supply. This will result in a food shortage.

Population Control

Malthus argued that since the population will be larger than the food supply, many people would then die due to the shortage of food. He theorized that this correction would function through Positive (or Natural) Checks and Preventative Checks. These checks resulted in the Malthusian catastrophe, bringing the population down to a sustainable level.

Positive or Natural Checks

Malthus believed the imbalance between population growth and food supply would be corrected by natural forces, such as earthquakes and floods. He also believed the imbalance would be corrected by human actions like wars and famines.

Preventative Checks

In addition, Malthus suggested the use of preventative measures to control population growth. These included celibacy, late marriage, and family planning.

The Malthusian Trap

The Malthusian Trap, also known as the Malthusian Population Trap, refers to the idea that increased food production as a result of advanced agricultural techniques creates higher population levels. These higher population levels then lead to food shortages, as the new population must live on land that was previously used for crops.

Malthus then theorized that even though technological advancement would typically lead to income gains per capita, the gains wouldn’t be achieved because, in practice, the advancement creates population growth. A Malthusian crisis is created as the population exceeds the amount that can be supported by the food supply, and famine and disease will become rampant. Through the Malthusian crisis, the population is decreased to earlier levels.

In reality, though, population growth has not created the crisis predicted by Malthus. In the following section, we’ll go over the ways in which the Malthusian Trap has been disproven.

Criticisms of the Malthusian Theory of Population

Population growth.

Malthus’s dire predictions haven’t played out in the real world. For example, in Western Europe, populations have grown, and food production has risen as well due to technological advancements.

Food Production

Food production has seen a dramatic increase over the past century, thanks to multiple technological advancements. In many cases, the food production rate has increased more rapidly than the population growth rate. For instance, in the 1930s United States, a quarter of the population worked in the agricultural sector, and the total GDP was less than $100 billion. But today, less than 2% of the population works in the agricultural sector, and the total GDP is more than $14 trillion.

Global Trade

Malthus’s theory on the constraints of food production was based on the limited availability of land at that time. But thanks to globalization, we can now trade goods and services for food. This results in a rise in the amount of food that a country can consume.

Calculations

Malthus didn’t provide calculations for the arithmetic growth of food and the geometric growth of populations. Since he came out with his theory, experts have pointed out that the current growth rates are not consistent with the predictions put forth by Malthus.

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Thomas Robert Malthus was an influential British economist best known for his theory on population growth, outlined in his 1798 book "An Essay on the Principle of Population."

In it, Malthus argued that populations inevitably expand until they outgrow their available food supply, causing the population growth to be reversed by disease, famine, war, or calamity.

He is also known for developing an exponential formula used to forecast population growth, which is currently known as the Malthusian growth model.

Key Takeaways

Thomas Malthus was an 18th-century British philosopher and economist noted for the Malthusian growth model, an exponential formula used to project population growth.
The theory states that the supply of food cannot keep up with the growth of the human population, inevitably resulting in disease, famine, war, and calamity.
A noted statistician and proponent of political economy, Malthus founded the Statistical Society of London.
Malthus' theories were later used to justify British colonial policies that worsened the human toll of the Irish Potato Famine.
His theory is now largely dismissed, as modern farming techniques have allowed food production to scale much faster than Malthus could have anticipated.

Understanding the Ideas of Thomas Malthus

In the 18th and early 19th centuries, some philosophers believed firmly that human society would continue to improve and tilt toward a utopian ideal. Malthus countered this belief, arguing that segments of the general population have invariably been poor and miserable, effectively slowing population growth.

Based on his observation of conditions in England in the early 1800s, Malthus argued that available farmland was insufficient to feed the increasing population. More specifically, he stated that the human population increases geometrically, while food production increases arithmetically.

Under this paradigm, humans would reproduce until their numbers surpassed their production capacity, at which point the population would be forcibly reduced by famine or some other catastrophe and return to a manageable level.

The Dismal Science

These conclusions inspired the description of economics as the " dismal science ." Originally coined by the philosopher Thomas Carlyle, the term was used to describe Malthus' conclusions regarding the inevitability of overpopulation and famine.

The naturalist Charles Darwin based his theory of natural selection in part on Malthus' analysis of population growth. Malthus' views also enjoyed a resurgence in the 20th century with the advent of Keynesian economics.

Malthus' Early Life and Education

Thomas Malthus was born on February 13, 1766 to a prominent family near Guildford, Surrey. Malthus was home-schooled before being accepted to Cambridge University's Jesus College in 1784. He earned a master's degree in 1791 and became a fellow two years later. In 1805, Malthus became a professor of history and political economy at the East India Company's college at Haileybury.

Malthus became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1819. Two years later, he joined the Political Economy Club along with economist David Ricardo and Scottish philosopher James Mill. Malthus was elected to be one of 10 royal associates of the Royal Society of Literature in 1824.

In 1833, he was elected to both the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques in France as well as Berlin's Royal Academy. Malthus co-founded the Statistical Society of London in 1834.

He died in St. Catherine, near Bath, Somerset, in 1834.

Published Works of Thomas Malthus

Malthus' most famous work was his book "Essay on the Principle of Population ,: first published in 1798 and enlarged in later editions. This work contained his famous argument that human populations tend to grow faster than agricultural output, resulting in famines or crises .

Later editions proposed that "moral restraint" could slow population growth.

Malthus was a prolific essayist and exchanged many letters with contemporary economists. His other publications included:

"The Present High Price of Provisions " (1800), in which Malthus criticized England's Poor Laws and argued that aid to the poor would encourage them to have more children than they would otherwise.
"Observations on the Effect of the Corn Laws" (1814), in which Malthus argued in favor of importing corn from abroad rather than supporting the protectionist Corn Laws.
"Principles of Political Economy" (1820), a major work in which Malthus outlined his views on free trade in response to the economist David Ricardo, who had written a book with the same title.

The term "political economy" was first used in academic circles when Malthus joined the faculty of the East India Company's college at Haileybury as a professor of history and political economy.

Malthus' severe theory on population growth was shaped by his status as an 18th-century Anglican cleric. He believed that poor people would work hard enough to produce an abundant food supply in favorable times. However, he thought that they would then abuse their newfound abundance, particularly by producing larger families. At some point, their numbers would exceed their ability to provide the necessities of life. Starvation or some other disaster would inevitably follow until the population was reduced to manageable levels.

In short, Malthus was something of a misanthrope, although he denied it. In his "Principle of Population," he wrote that humans are by nature "inert, sluggish, and averse from labour, unless compelled by necessity."

He argued against England's Poor Laws on the grounds that "the aggregate mass of happiness" would be increased if the very poor were denied lifesaving relief.

Criticism of Thomas Malthus

The population theory espoused by Malthus has been largely discredited over time. Technological advances invalidated his main conclusion. His theory was made repugnant by some of the political decisions that it influenced.

However, his theory of the effects of "gluts" or overproduction continued to influence economists, including John Maynard Keynes , who further developed the analysis of the cycle of boom and bust that defines an economy.

An Outdated Conclusion

Malthus' theory that population growth would inevitably exceed its means of production was based largely on his observation of English life in the late 18th century and his later travels in Europe.

The advances of the Industrial Revolution allowed agricultural production to be ramped up to far greater levels than the subsistence farming of his day could sustain. Later advances in farming techniques, chemical fertilizers, and genetic modifications have allowed food production to continue to scale upwards.

For example, the Green Revolution of the 1960s in India, which boasts the world's second-biggest population, helped feed a growing population in the state of Punjab. In Europe after World War II, populations increased steadily without widespread starvation.

An Excuse for Political Malpractice

If simplified enough, Malthus' theory sounds a lot like Ebenezer Scrooge's declaration that the poor might as well just die and "decrease the surplus population."

Malthus' theory of population was used to support genocidal policies in colonial India. Malthus died before the time of the Irish Potato Famine of the mid-19th century, but contemporary politicians leaned on his theory to blame Irish overpopulation rather than British government policies for the massive death toll.

What Did Malthus Predict About Population Growth?

Malthus predicted that natural population growth would inevitably outpace agricultural output, ultimately resulting in famine and other catastrophes until the population was reduced below a sustainable level.

The cycle is endless, he believed: Relative abundance causes an increase in fertility until the population again grows to an unsustainable level and collapses.

How Did Thomas Malthus Influence Charles Darwin?

Darwin's theory of natural selection was influenced by Malthus' population theories. Darwin found that limited resources place competitive pressures on every species. Darwin's revelation was that a species adapted over time to improve its rate of survival.

What Is the Malthusian Growth Model?

The Malthusian growth model is a mathematical equation for population growth. It holds that the rate of growth is proportionate to the current population. This is functionally equivalent to exponential growth, where the size of the population doubles at predictable intervals.

Thomas Malthus was an 18th-century British economist best known for his theory that human populations tend to outgrow their agricultural production capabilities, resulting in famines and other disasters.

These theories have largely been discredited by innovations in agricultural technology , but they remain influential in the field of evolutionary biology.

Encyclopedia Britannica. " Thomas Malthus ."

Goodreads. " An Essay on the Principle of Population Quotes ."

The Conversable Economist. " Best Friends, Best Opponents: Malthus and Ricardo ."

Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance. " Revisiting the Impacts of the Green Revolution in India ."

American Council on Science and Health. " Irish Potato Famine: How Belief in Overpopulation Leads to Human Evil ."

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The Malthusian Theory: A Critical Overview

Introduction, an overview of the malthusian theory, the malthusian theory: critical review, applicability of malthusian theory, works cited.

The topic of population growth has gained traction from scholars in different disciplines. An increase in the number of people means that the economy should be large enough to sustain the housing, consumption needs, institutions, and resources such as land required for infrastructural purposes. Developed and developing economies are always thinking of new ways to sustain their populations while also keeping check on risks associated with overpopulation. Scarcity of economic resources such as land has always forced leaders to worry about the future of their economies. Scholars have taken up the task of investigating and proposing better policy frameworks that could governments in responding to concerns related to population and economic sustenance. Thomas Malthus, who lived from 1766-1836, is among the historical figures who attempted to resolve the puzzle of population growth and distribution of resources. The Malthusian theory has faced both appraise and criticism, and it is still studied in literature today. Some scholars have agreed that Malthus was wrong, but a critical view of his theory reveals that the theorist may have been wrong at the time of coining the theory, but one day he will be right.

Thomas Malthusian coined and explained his theory on the relationship between population growth and economic resources in the essay titled “An Essay on the Principle of Population.” The essay was first published in 1798, but it was reviewed and revised in 1803 as explained by Rahman (14). Scholars have analyzed, critiqued, and raised several arguments about Malthus’ claims raised in the theory. In one of the quotes cited in the essay first published in 1798, Malthus claimed that human beings have a tendency to increase in an geometric ratio, while the needed resources such as food tend to increase in an arithmetic ratio (Malthus 7). This statement has been summarized and interpreted by Cooper and Walter to mean that human population increases with birth rate, while food production tend to increase at a slower rate. The fact that population increases at a higher rate means that there is a time when the population will overpower the available food resources, leading to a crisis (33). Malthus had anticipated that his predictions could happen within a short period, considering that an increase in population without a check could strain economic resources, governments, and other institutions in place. It was in Malthus’ point of view that nature could correct the consequences of unchecked population growth through natural factors such as war, diseases, and calamities. The theorist postulated that the possibility of the population overgrowing the natural resources was inevitable, considering the rate at which man was reproducing. Malthus foresaw a doomed future.

Malthusian theory can be visualized from a graphical point of view. The graph in figure one below is among the simplified versions that scholars have developed to explain the theory. According to Heavey and Walter, Malthus believed that an exponential increase in human population, specifically in England, could drive the graph to the point of crisis (9). The theorist believed that after the point of crisis, society could collapse and force people to revert to traditional methods without influence from industrialization. Many critics of Malthus have labeled him as a prophet of doom and a liar, bearing in mind that his predictions did not materialize. Additionally, people had hoped that industrialization and increase in population could trigger economic and social development, but Malthus was arguing on the contrary. A critical review from the point of critics reveals why the theorist may have made a mistake in coining this theory. Nevertheless, history has justified Malthus in some accounts that have been fulfilled in the past. For instance, Europe responded to overpopulation by opening doors to emigration to new lands that had been occupied. There have also been cases where the struggle for resources has seen people migrate to less populated areas throughout history.

The Point of Crisis in Malthusian Theory

While critics have labeled Malthus as a prophet of doom, the theorist was optimistic and provided a way out of the impending crisis that he had seen in Europe. The theorist suggested the option of positive checks and negative checks, which he believed could be used as a way out of the inevitable crisis. Malthus defined positive checks as natural calamities such as epidemics and wars. These factors can place positive checks on the population growth by increasing death rates as a result of starvation from famine. Malthus also defined preventive checks as artificial interventions aimed at controlling the population growth (Malthus 89). The theorist championed for adoption of preventive checks such as controlled fertility and restrained sex outside and within marriages. The theorist argued that where preventive measures failed, natural checks could apply directly. For instance, poor people who did not exercise controlled births could lose their children to diseases related to nutrition. People who did not take responsibility for their sexual desire risked being corrected by the natural positive factors.

Malthusian theory has attracted significant criticism compared to praise from demographers and sociologists. The theory has also been criticized by politicians and scholars from other disciplines after it has become evident that the doomsday predicted by Malthus may never materialize. While Malthusian arguments take different forms, a common point in any of the statements coined by the theorist is that an increase in human population leads to a decrease or a drop in economic resources. Scholars have proved that contrary to what Malthus had postulated, history has proved that the world economy is resilient enough to withstand population growth.

Technological advancements are among the counter-arguments that have been used against Malthusian theory. According to Heavey and Walter, Malthus was blind to the impact of the growing technology and the potential changes that technological advancements could have had on the population growth and food production (13). Instead, Malthus was pessimistic, where he believed that food production and other resources required sustaining man on the planet could continue diminishing throughout history. Throughout history, technological advancements have been key drivers to solving the problems that man has been facing. In the discussion and criticism of Malthusian theory, Cooper and Walter pointed out that technological advancements have remained key drivers in resolving any challenges that man has faced, even though it is not possible to tell when the problem is in progress (9). For instance, the industrial revolution has been cited as a key milestone in the fight against famine and poverty. During the industrial revolution, scientists came up with better ways and means of producing food which could not have been possible in the absence of technology. It is, therefore, evident that man has remained creative in coming up with strategies to solve challenges even when it does not seem possible at the moment. This counterargument has refuted the Malthusian theory.

Scholars have taken a computational approach to critic and prove that indeed, Malthus was wrong. According to Rahman, Malthus was more pessimistic with the relationship between population growth and food production (18). The theorist assumed that every child who is born comes to the world with a mouth to feed and a stomach to be filled, while ignoring that there is also a pair of hands that are used for resource production. Critics have stated that the pessimist theory of Malthus was focused on England alone, and the theorist did not consider that population increase leads to more manpower required for production. It is evident that an increase in manpower increases the production power of an economy, contrary to the pessimist approach viewed by Malthus. Additionally, neo-Malthusian theorists have proved that the world population does not double after every twenty-five years as argued by the theorist. Instead, the world population has been growing at a slower rate contrary to the Malthusian projections where he did not use any mathematical computations.

Malthus has been criticized for failing to acknowledge the role that people can play when allowed to manage or make decisions about birth control in response to economic needs at the individual level. Malthus assumed a fixed relationship between population growth and economic development, while failing to acknowledge that people can make decisions that could affect birth control and increase in food production. In an economic review of the theory by Unat, the author claimed that Malthusian had failed to take into account the fact that people could limit reproduction or only decide to give birth to a manageable number of children (145). For instance, it is now evident that many parents opt for family planning and other birth control techniques because they are more concerned about quality of education and food availed to families. Today, family planning is no longer a female issue, but men have also realized the importance of giving birth to the number of children that they can support. Globalization has opened doors for developed economies to trade with developing and underdeveloped economies and avail food to millions of people who may have starved today. Many families are no longer willing to give birth to the number of children that they cannot feed or educate. A case in point is England and Europe in general, where Malthus had anticipated a continuous population growth to the point of crisis, but the prophecy has not been fulfilled.

Despite the criticism faced by Malthusian, some of his concerns have been fulfilled, and could be inevitable. Proponents of the Malthusian theory have argued that people in Europe listened and took heed of Malthusian warning during his time, which prevented them from falling into the inevitable crisis. Cooper and Block explained that the Malthusian prophesies have only been postponed, but can occur in any time in future. For instance, people opted to use of contraceptives, delayed marriages, and birth control through family planning to avoid giving birth to a higher number of children that they could not control. In the absence of the Malthusian warning, Europe could have plunged into the point of economic crisis. Even though the main reason why people adopt family planning strategies has not been to avoid overpopulation, a combination of these strategies has always led to positive impacts in preventive checks that Malthus discussed in his theory. For instance, most families that adapt delayed marriages or family planning techniques are compelled by the rising costs of living.

It is important for stakeholders and governments to note that even though years have passed without fulfillment of Malthusian “doomsday,” the consequences of population growth and impact on economic growth and development are inevitable. Technological advancements and increase in food production and agriculture have only provided short-term results, but the long-term consequences are already taking shape. The increasing rates of global warming, outbreaks of epidemics and global pandemics, the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, and the rise in sea level attributed to environmental degradation are just but a few of examples that could prove Malthus right. Scientists have not discovered a better way of increasing the available land. Land is a limited resource, and any attempt to expand its availability has interfered with natural ecosystems, which has triggered human/wildlife conflicts and the rising cases of drought (Rahman 18). The consequences are already unbearable, considering the rising food prices and the increasing number of people dying of hunger and in dire need of relief food in developing economies in Africa and Asia.

The Malthusian theory points at the relationship between population growth and economic development. The theorist has faced criticism for postulating that the world was headed to a doomsday if positive and preventive measures were not in place to control overpopulation. Critics have condemned Malthus for taking a pessimistic approach towards humanity for assuming a fixed relationship between population and economic growth. The world has proved resilient against the Malthusian theory. Despite the criticism, one cannot ignore that most of the preventive measures in place today reflect the theorist’s point of view. People are more sensitive about family and birth control measures in response to rising costs of living. Positive checks are also active, and the impact is felt in every place across the globe in terms of global warning. Malthus may not have been right at the time of coining the theory, but history will prove him right one day.

Cooper, Aidan, and Walter E. Block. “Why Malthus Will Always Be Wrong.” Romanian Economic and Business Review , vol. 14, no. 4, (2019), pp. 32-41.

Heavey, Katharine, and Walter E. Block. “Is Doomsday Approaching? A Critique of Malthus.”

Malthus, Thomas Robert. “An Essay on the Principle of Population.” 1798.

Rahman, Mahfuzur. “Validity of Malthusian Theory of Population in 20th Century in Terms of Using Scientific Technology to the Economic Growth and Strength.” International Journal of Tax Economics and Management , vol. 1., no. 1, (2018), pp. 13-21.

Unat, Ebru. “A review of Malthusian theory of Population under the Scope of Human Capital.” FORCE: Focus on Research in Contemporary Economics , vol. 1., no. 2, (2020), pp. 132-147.

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Biology Article

Malthusian Theory Of Population

Table of Contents

Malthusian Theory of Population

Major elements of the malthusian theory, criticism of malthusian theory of population.

The Malthusian Theory of Population is the theory of exponential population and arithmetic food supply growth. The theory was proposed by Thomas Robert Malthus. He believed that a balance between population growth and food supply can be established through preventive and positive checks.

Population and Food Supply

The Malthusian theory explained that the population grows in a geometrical fashion.

The population would double in 25 years at this rate. However, the food supply grows in an arithmetic progression. Food supply increases at a slower rate than the population. That is, the food supply will be limited in a few years. The shortage of food supply indicates an increasing population.

Checks on Population

When the increasing population rate is greater than the food supply, disequilibrium exists. As a result, people will not get enough food even for survival. People will die due to a lack of food supply. Adversities such as epidemics, wars, starvation, famines and other natural calamities will crop up which are named as positive checks by Malthus. On the contrary, there are man-made checks known as preventive checks.

Positive Checks

Nature has its own ways of keeping a check on the increasing population. It brings the population level to the level of the available food supply. The positive checks include famines, earthquakes, floods, epidemics, wars, etc. Nature plays up when the population growth goes out of hand.

Preventive Checks

Preventive measures such as late marriage, self-control, and simple living, help to balance the population growth and food supply. These measures not only check the population growth , but can also prevent the catastrophic effects of the positive checks.

Also read: Organisms and Population Attributes

The Malthusian theory was criticised based on the following observations:

In Western Europe, the population was rising at a rapid rate. At the same time, the food supply had also increased due to technological developments.

Many times, food production had increased more than the population. For eg., 2% of the total population is working in the agricultural sector in the US. Still, the total GDP is more than 14 trillion dollars.

Malthus’s theory stated that one of the reasons for limited food supply is the non-availability of land. However, the amount of food supply in various countries has increased due to increased globalization.

The estimations for the geometric growth of population and arithmetic growth of population were not provided by Malthus. It was stated that the rate of growth is not consistent with Malthus’ theory.

Important Questions

Q.1. What is the Malthusian Theory of Population?

A.1. Malthus examined the relationship between population growth and resources in one of his works. He then proposed the Malthusian theory of population where he said that the population grows exponentially and the food supply grows arithmetically and that a balance between the two can be established through positive and preventive checks.

Q.2. What is the importance of Malthusian theory?

A.2. The Malthusian theory explained that the human population grows more rapidly than the food supply until famines, war or disease reduces the population. He believed that the human population has risen over the past three centuries.

Q.3. What do you understand by Malthusian trap theory?

A.3. It is a condition where the population will stop growing due to the shortage of food supply.

Q.4. What is a positive check on the population?

A.4. The positive check on the growth of the human population includes war, disease, and famines. These checks were active in nature.

Q.5. How rapidly is the human population growing?

A.5. The human population is growing at an alarming rate. It is believed that the population might increase to 9.9 billion by 2050.

Q.6. What is the Neo-Malthusian theory?

A.6. Neo Malthusian is the advent of population control programmes to ensure resources for current and future populations.

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An Essay on the Principle of Population
The book An Essay on the Principle of Population was first published anonymously in 1798, [1] but the author was soon identified as Thomas Robert Malthus. The book warned of future difficulties, on an interpretation of the population increasing in geometric progression (so as to double every 25 years) [2] while food production increased in an ...
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Introduction. I. The proverbial relationship of great rivers to small springs is well illustrated by Robert Malthus's most famous work. The Essay on Popu-lation surfaced in 1797 in the form of a friendly argument between the author and his father: it has continued to flow, often as a disturbing tor-rent, ever since.
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By Thomas Robert Malthus. Essay on the Principle of Population. The first, published anonymously in 1798, was so successful that Malthus soon elaborated on it under his real name. * The rewrite, culminating in the sixth edition of 1826, was a scholarly expansion and generalization of the first.Following his success with his work on population ...
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Malthusian Population Trap (Malthusian Theory on Population Growth and Economic Development) Reverend Thomas Malthus published An Essay on the Principle of Population in 1798 which argued that population increases geometrically ( i.e. 1, 2, 4, 8, 16..) doubling every 30 to 40 years while food supplies expand only arithmatically (becuase of diminishing returns to fixed factors such as land).

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17.2D: Malthus’ Theory of Population Growth

Malthusian Theory of Population

The Malthusian Theory of Population Definition

Malthusian Theory of Population Explained

2. Population Control

A. Positive Checks or Natural Checks

B. Preventative Checks

Malthusian Trap

Criticisms of the Malthusian Theory of Population

1. Population Growth

2. Food Production

3. Global Trade

4. Calculations

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Malthusian Theory of Population: Explained with its Criticism

Preventive Checks:

Positive Checks:

Criticism of Malthusian Theory:

Is Malthusian Theory Valid Today?

What Is the Malthusian Theory of Population?

Malthusian Theory of Population Explained

Population Control

Positive or Natural Checks

Preventative Checks

The Malthusian Trap

Criticisms of the Malthusian Theory of Population

Food Production

Global Trade

Calculations

Transferring Money Internationally to the USA and the Struggles of the Mighty Dollar

Trickle-Down Economics: Why It Only Works in Theory

Malthus and Population Growth

The Bottom Line

Key Takeaways

Understanding the Ideas of Thomas Malthus

The Dismal Science

Malthus' Early Life and Education

Published Works of Thomas Malthus

Criticism of Thomas Malthus

An Outdated Conclusion

An Excuse for Political Malpractice

What Did Malthus Predict About Population Growth?

How Did Thomas Malthus Influence Charles Darwin?

What Is the Malthusian Growth Model?

The Malthusian Theory: A Critical Overview

Malthusian Theory Of Population

Malthusian Theory of Population

Population and Food Supply

Checks on Population

Positive Checks

Preventive Checks

Important Questions

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