Previous Year Question
Malthus argued that the population grows in a ______ progression, while agricultural production/food supply grows in a ______ progression. From the following options, choose the correct answer to fill in the blanks:
Linear, Exponential
Exponential, Linear
Arithmetic, Geometric
Geometric, Arithmetic
Correct Answer: D
Detailed Solution
Thomas Robert Malthus, in his famous work An Essay on the Principle of Population (1798), presented a theory based on the unequal rates of growth of population and food supply.
According to Malthus, if population remains unchecked, it tends to grow in a Geometrical Progression—
1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32...
That is, at each stage growth occurs in proportion to the previous level and population can therefore increase very rapidly.
In contrast, food production or the means of subsistence increase in an Arithmetical Progression—
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6...
Here, an equal amount is added at each stage, making the growth of food supply slower than that of population.
The central conclusion of Malthusian theory was that, in the absence of checks on population growth, population could eventually increase faster than food supply, creating scarcity and pressure on subsistence.
Malthus broadly divided population checks into Preventive Checks and Positive Checks. Preventive checks restrain population growth beforehand, whereas positive checks such as famine, disease and war may reduce population pressure by increasing mortality.
Thus, the correct relationship is—
Population → Geometrical Progression
Food Supply → Arithmetical Progression