Theory question 104
PopulationSection B
(a) Briefly outline the views of Thomas Malthus about population.
(b) How valid are such views about the Nigerian situation today?
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(a) Malthus (Essay on the Principle of Population, 1798):
- Population, if unchecked, grows in geometric progression (1, 2, 4, 8, 16…), roughly doubling every 25 years.
- Food supply grows only in arithmetic progression (1, 2, 3, 4, 5…) because of diminishing returns on land.
- Population will therefore outrun food supply.
- Positive checks (famine, disease, war) will bring population down.
- He urged preventive checks: late marriage, moral restraint/abstinence.
(b) Validity for Nigeria:
- Valid in part: rapid population growth, food shortages and imports, high food prices, poverty, rural-urban drift and unemployment.
- Not fully valid: improved technology (fertilisers, improved seeds, mechanisation) can raise food output faster than he expected; food can be imported; family planning and education reduce birth rates; Malthus ignored such progress.
Give both sides in (b).