Population

The distribution of human world population in 1994

Key

A population is a summation of all the organisms of the same group or species, which live in a particular geographical area, and have the capability of interbreeding.

Quotes

• If this were true, the population of the world would be at a stand-still. In truth, the rate of birth is slightly in excess of death. I would suggest that the next edition of your poem should read: “Every moment dies a man, every moment 1 ¹/₁₆ is born.” Strictly speaking, the actual figure is so long I cannot get it into a line, but I believe the figure 1 ¹/₁₆ will be sufficiently accurate for poetry.
  • Charles Babbage, cited in: New Scientist, 4 December 1958, pg.1428.
  • Comment in response to Alfred Tennyson’s poem Vision of Sin, which included the line Every moment dies a man, // every moment one is born.

• Population, when unchecked, increases in a geometrical ratio, Subsistence, increases only in an arithmetical ratio.
  • Thomas Robert Malthus An Essay on The Principle of Population, Chapter I, paragraph 18, lines 1-2.

See also

• Overpopulation