The book predicted a grim future, as population would increase geometrically, doubling every 25 years, but food production would only grow arithmetically (rising as 1,2,3,4, etc.), which would result in famine and starvation, unless births were controlled.As the world's population continues to grow at a frighteningly rapid rate, Malthus's classic warning against overpopulation gains increasing importance.ature which has in view no such extensive utility; the propensity to truck, barter, and exchange one thing for another.

An Essay on the Principle of Population examines the tendency of human numbers to outstrip their resources, and argues that checks in the form of poverty, disease, and starvation are necessary to keep societies from moving beyond their means of subsistence. Malthus's simple but powerful argument was controversial in his time; today his name has become a byword for active concern about humankind's demographic and ecological prospects.

Thomas Robert Malthus was an English cleric and scholar, influential in the fields of political economy and demography.