Thomas Malthus's Theory Of Overpopulation

In An Essay on the Principle of Population, Thomas Malthus warned that the growth of the world’s population would exceed the rate of food production. According to his theory, population increases exponentially while resources increase arithmetically. In other words, the land’s resources would eventually be unable to support everyone due to overpopulation. In order to control population growth, Malthus claimed that “moral restraint,” including abstinence and birth control, would lower the birth rate. Events such as famine and widespread disease would also “check” the population, or keep it under control. If a population is left unchecked, Malthus believed that it would double every twenty-five years, and food production would be unable to keep up. Whether Malthus’ theory has been proven right or wrong has mixed opinions, and his essay is often misinterpreted. His ideas were considered strange and to some people, …show more content…
Although the world’s current population is nowhere near as large as Malthus would have predicted, there are some places where overpopulation is a serious issue. The population on Earth is not evenly distributed, and natural increase rates are generally higher in developing countries. Malthus considered several different factors of population in his essay, including natural checks on population growth, and the standards of living for the poor. However, during his time industrialization was starting to overpower agriculture. He could not predict that agriculture would become industrialized and that agriculture techniques would improve. Malthus believed that a rise in population growth would result in a total lack of food , but that does not hold true today. A resource such as food is in abundant supply and is not dropping due to overpopulation. Rather, people in certain areas go hungry because resources are unevenly distributed across the