Eli Horner

Michael Mewborne
AP Human Geography 6B
09/09/13
Thomas Malthus and His Theory on Human Populations
Thomas Malthus was an English political economist who lived in the 18
th
and 19
th

centuries. He wrote an essay, An Essay on the Principle of Population, in 1798. His
ideas caused a huge uproar among the common people of the world [1], and are still
discussed today.
Thomas Robert Malthus was born on February, 13 1766, in Surrey, England.
Instead of attending public school, his father, Daniel Malthus, hired private tutors for his
education [2]. He attended Cambridge for college, beginning in 1784. After college, he
began his career as a political economist. He published many works over the period of
his career, but his most famous was his essay on population. He married in 1804, and
had two children. On December 29, 1836, Malthus passed away. His remains are
buried in Bath, England.
An Essay on the Principle on Population was an essay written by Thomas
Malthus in 1798. The essay talked about the relationship between human population
and food supply [1]. He explained that human population will increase geometrically (2,
4, 8, 16, etc.), while food production could increase arithmetically (2, 3, 4, 5, etc.). The
effects of this are fairly obvious, the population will soon begin to die out. This rising
death rate would quell the birth rate, and the population would stagnate. This is called
the Malthusian Equation. [3] Malthus noted factors like marrying late, having few
children, and dealing with poor living conditions also increased the chance of a
population decrease [4]. These ideas, while not his intended point, caught the attention
of many around him, and caused uproar. Even today, Malthus is portrayed as a
pessimist about human growth and survival.
However, this is not completely true, Malthus was intrigued by the fact that,
against all of the odds, the population was not dropping, or leveling off, but, was in fact
rising. He stated that because humans have not died off due to starvation, there must
be some economic choices that are at work [1]. These choices, he claimed, were what
was saving humanity, and were what needed to be further studied.
Malthuss theory on population had a major impact on the world, as how human
population is thought about. It changed the perspectives of many different people, and
earned him much respect from the academic community [1]. One of the biggest symbols
of this influence, is the fact that we still discuss and contemplate his ideas today.






Works Cited
"Thomas Malthus." Thomas Malthus. NNDB, n.d. Web. 7 Sept. 2013.
"Thomas Malthus' Views on Population." Thomas Malthus' Views on Population. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 8 Sept. 2013.
"Thomas Robert Malthus." : The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. Library of
Economics and Liberty, n.d. Web. 8 Sept. 2013.
The Ecology of Human Populations: Thomas Malthus." The Ecology of Human
Populations: Thomas Malthus. UC Berkeley, n.d. Web. 8 Sept. 2013.


[1] - "Thomas Robert Malthus." : The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics. Library of
Economics and Liberty, n.d. Web. 8 Sept. 2013.
[2] - "Thomas Malthus." Thomas Malthus. NNDB, n.d. Web. 7 Sept. 2013.
[3] - "Thomas Malthus' Views on Population." Thomas Malthus' Views on Population.
N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Sept. 2013.
[4] The Ecology of Human Populations: Thomas Malthus." The Ecology of Human
Populations: Thomas Malthus. UC Berkeley, n.d. Web. 8 Sept. 2013.