Facts & Figures

Table showing "UK" population figures from AD to 2050

UK population facts & figures

The population of “Britain”. The modern labels, “Britain” and “United Kingdom”, are not too helpful in a brief treatment such as this. It is more manageable if we stick with England and Wales which the Registrar-General for many purposes treats as a single entity. In the two generations before the birth of Malthus in 1766, their combined crude birth rate rose from about 31/1,000 in 1720 to about 35/1,000 when he came into the world, a level around which level it fluctuated until his death.[i] It took another lifespan from then for the birthrate to fall back to what it had been in 1720.

This greatly increased birthrate was coupled with a crude death rate which had fallen from about 35/1,000 to about 30/1,000 in the generation before his birth, and which continued to fall steeply until a decade or so before his death, by which time it was down to around 21/1,000. The death rate then rose to around 22-24/1,000 for another generation before recommencing its earlier steep fall, which then continued until after World War I, well into the 20th century.

In summary, these figures mean that for no less than 175 years the birth rate was substantially higher than it had been at the beginning of the period, while for about 135 of those years the death rate was substantially lower than before B much of the time falling steeply. This was a situation for which my own pet label is demographic transition in reverse, accompanied, as we would expect, by a major population explosion.

The overall picture is that the combined numbers of England and Wales totaled about 7 millions at the time of his birth, around 8.9 millions at the publication of the 1st edition in 1798, rising to some 14.4 millions at his death, just over a doubling during his lifetime. This population doubled again over the next two generations, and a further doubling since then is now nearly complete. The 2001 population of England & Wales is ?? million, and that of the UK as a whole around 60 million.

With such high rates of population growth in the world as a whole, it is difficult to see how any rational and informed person with an interest in human welfare could remain either unaware or unconcerned. The more so today. Certainly, Malthus was deeply stirred by the emergence of these striking demographic facts, together with their economic and social corollaries B especially the widespread poverty to be seen in his own country. It was these issues which drew him into his life's work to try to measure, understand, and improve upon the human outcome of their complex interactions.

World population facts & figures

It is not possible to be precise about world population in those times, but the figures are  approximately 770 million humans when Malthus was born in 1766: 890 million or so when the Essay first appeared, in 1798, and about 1,050 million at the time of his death in 1834. This was an increase of just over one-third in the course of his lifetime, around 280 million more people to feed, house, employ, and so forth, and the rate of increase was itself increasing. (Incomplete)

Table showing "UK" population figures from AD to 2050