Malthusian Theory

... Malthusian Theory Thomas Malthus, a British demographer, was renowned for his predictions based on world population and food supply. He believed that the worlds population would overrun the ability for them to support themselves. In short, the argument was that too many people and not enough food would cause a crisis. He thought that human population would be regulated by disease, famine, and war. His views were published in 1798. The basis of his theory is in two parts: 1) that population increases exponentially and 2) that food supply increases at an arithmetic rate. Malthus showed that with any increase in population, the population would exceed food supply. (fig.1) Malthus suggested two possible ways to limit further population growth: positive and negative checks. The positive checks were reducing the population through famine, disease, and war. This would have the effect of increasing the

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