Over and Under Population:

Over population: is when there are too many people in an area relative to the amount of resources
and the level of technology available locally to maintain a high standard of living.
- No change in the level of technology or natural resources, a reduction in a population would
result in a rise in living standards.
- Overpopulation is characterised by low per capita income, high unemployment and
underemployment and outward migration.
- Example: Australia

Under population: occurs when there are too few people in an area to use the resources efficiently
for a given level of technology.
- An increase in population would mean a more effective use of resources and increased living
standards for all the people.
- Under population is characterised by high per capita incomes (but no maximum incomes),
low unemployment and inward migration.
- Example: Amazonia

Optimum Population: This is the theoretical population which, working with all the available
resources, will produce the highest standards of living for people of that area.
- This concept is dynamic- when technology improves; new resources become available which
mean that more people can be supported.
- Optimum population is a concept where population balances the resources.






















Optimistic view - Esther Boserup 1965
Boserup believed tat people have the resources of knowledge and technology to increase food
supplies.
Opposite to Malthus - She suggested that population growth has enabled agricultural
development to occur.
Assumes people knew of the techniques required by more intensive systems and used them
when the population grew.
I.e. Demographic pressure (population density) promotes innovation and higher productivity in
use of land (irrigation, weeding, and crop intensification) and labour (tools, better techniques).
Boserup argued that the changes in technology allow for improved crop strains and increased
yields: GM crops, Green revolution (increased yields of grains)
But Boserup admits overpopulation can lead to unsuitable farming practices which may degrade
the land e.g. population pressure as one of the reasons for desertification in the Sahel region
(so fragile environments at risk)
Boserups theory based on assumption of closed society -not the case in reality (migration)

Pessimistic view - Thomas Malthus (1798)
He argued that increases in population would eventually diminish the ability of the world to
feed itself and based this conclusion on the thesis that populations expand in such a way as to
overtake the development of sufficient land for crops.
Malthus recognised that population if unchecked, grows at a geometric rate: 1 2 4 8 16 32
However, food only increases at an arithmetic rate, as land is finite. 1 2 3 4 5 6
He believed that the populations resources balanced was maintained by various negative
checks: (Things that would slow down birth rates)
- Increased levels of moral restraints such a later marriages.
- Increased incidence of abortion, infanticide and sexual perversions
Positive checks are those, according to Thomas Malthus, that increase the death rate.
- Increased levels of misery through wars, famine and diseases.