An Essay on the Principle of Population, published in 1798, was written by
- A.David Ricardo
- B.Thomas Malthus
- C.Adam Smith
- D.Alfred Marshall
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is B, Thomas Malthus. In this essay of 1798 Malthus argued that population tends to increase in a geometric progression while the means of subsistence can increase only in an arithmetic progression, so growth must be restrained either by positive checks such as famine, disease and war, or by preventive checks such as late marriage and moral restraint. Option A is wrong because David Ricardo is known for the theory of comparative advantage and the law of rent. Option C is wrong because Adam Smith wrote The Wealth of Nations in 1776 and is called the father of economics. Option D is wrong because Alfred Marshall wrote Principles of Economics in 1890. Fix the pairing of Malthus with the year 1798 and with geometric against arithmetic growth.
Read the full article: World Population: Distribution, Density and Growth
Practice Questions
View allThe density of population is usually expressed as
- A.Persons per square kilometre
- B.Square kilometres per person
- C.Persons per thousand births
- D.Births per thousand persons
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Density of population is a ratio between the number of people and the area they occupy, and the standard unit is the number of persons living in one square kilometre; it is the simplest way of measuring the pressure of people on land.
Read the full explanation →The United Nations observed the Day of Eight Billion, marking the world population reaching eight billion, on
- A.11 July 1987
- B.12 October 1999
- C.31 October 2011
- D.15 November 2022
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The United Nations marked 15 November 2022 as the Day of Eight Billion, the date on which the world population was estimated to have reached eight thousand million.
Read the full explanation →The replacement level of total fertility rate for India is
- A.1.0
- B.2.1
- C.2.5
- D.0
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Replacement level fertility is the total fertility rate at which a generation of women exactly replaces itself in the next generation.
Read the full explanation →In which stage of the demographic transition are both the birth rate and the death rate high, so that population grows slowly?
- A.The first or high stationary stage
- B.The second or early expanding stage
- C.The third or low stationary stage
- D.The stage of population explosion
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In the first stage of the demographic transition the society is rural and agrarian, life expectancy is low, medical facilities are poor and literacy is low, so both the birth rate and the death rate are high and they roughly cancel each other, leaving population almost stationary.
Read the full explanation →A population pyramid with a very broad base and a narrow top indicates
- A.A declining population
- B.A high birth rate and a young population
- C.An equal number of men and women
- D.A high dependency of old people
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The width of each bar in a population pyramid shows the share of that age group, so a broad base means that children form a very large part of the population, which happens where the birth rate is high; the narrow top shows that few people survive to old age.
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