When studying population, demographers often base their predictions and analysis off of factors such as the crude birthrate, crude death rate, life span, and migration. One individual who contributed to the study of population when he published "An Essay on the Principle of Population", in 1798 is Thomas Malthus. In his essay, Malthus addresses his concerns of a population which was exceeding its means of survival. He indicates that a society growing at such a fast pace, would exceed it's ability to survive through a lack of food supply. In his essay, Malthus states what he believed to be the most critical concepts of population and population control. They are as follows:
Overall, Malthus believed that population needed to be controlled in order to avoid famine and poverty. He urged that the poor needed to educated in order for them to raise their standards of living, and choose to have smaller families by practicing "preventative" checks. He believed that through education, "positive" checks could be avoided, in order to create a society which operated under "preventative checks.
- An uncontrolled population leads to an insufficient food supply
- There are "positive" and "preventative" ways to perform population checks. Positive checks would include events such as war, famine, and disease which would increase the mortality rate. Preventative checks would include things such as sexual abstinence and marrying at a later age.
- The poor have a lower standard of living, and a lower per-person food consumption rate due to their income being spent on additional births. This eventually leads to death. Therefore, the poor do not practice preventative checks, but rather fall under the hands of "positive" checks.
- The wealthy and well educated already exhibit "preventative" checks
Overall, Malthus believed that population needed to be controlled in order to avoid famine and poverty. He urged that the poor needed to educated in order for them to raise their standards of living, and choose to have smaller families by practicing "preventative" checks. He believed that through education, "positive" checks could be avoided, in order to create a society which operated under "preventative checks.