Malthusian theory of population
Topic: Schools of Economic Thought and Economic Laws · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Thomas Malthus set out this theory in his Essay on the Principle of Population (1798). It says population grows geometrically, by multiplying (1, 2, 4, 8…), while food supply grows only arithmetically, by adding (1, 2, 3, 4…). So population keeps pressing against food. Two kinds of checks bring the two back into balance. Positive checks raise deaths (famine, disease, war). Preventive checks cut births (late marriage, moral restraint). The result is the Malthusian trap: any gain in output is eaten up by more people, so living standards stay near subsistence.
Example
Suppose population and food both start at 1. After four doublings, population is 16 but food has only reached 5. Malthus would expect famine or disease to close the gap. The world escaped this trap only through the Industrial Revolution and the demographic transition. Fears like it came back in the neo-Malthusian Limits to Growth (Club of Rome, 1972).
Don't confuse with
- Iron law of wages: this uses population pressure to explain why wages sink to subsistence. Malthus's theory is about population against food.
Related concepts
- Mercantilism
- Bullionism
- Physiocracy
- Classical economics
- Laissez-faire
- Night-watchman state
- Division of labour
- Labour theory of value
- Say's law
- Malthusian trap