Critically analyse Malthusian theory of population.

Malthus' An Essay on the Principle of Population postulates that food is necessary to the existence of man, and the passion between sexes is necessary for procreation. Both these will remain nearly in its present state. A central argument of the book states that populations tend to increase faster than the supply of food available for their needs. Malthus tried to study the correlation between population and food production. This was a highly pessimistic theory. He believed that if the population continued to grow at the same rate then one day man will have to face starvation as the means of food and natural resources are present in limited amount in the environment. He treated overpopulation as an 'evil' as this would reduce the amount of food available per person. According to him, population increases in geometrical ratio and subsistence increases in arithmetical ratio, i.e. population increases in the progression of 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256 whereas subsistence increases in the progression of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. Population doubles after every twenty-five years, and in two centuries the population would be to the means of subsistence as 256 to 9, in three centuries as 4096 to 13 and in two thousand years the difference would be almost incalculable.

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