Optimum population refers to the size of a population that produces the best results according to chosen end targets. One text from 1926 presented a single end target as being "...the largest per capital income of consumers' goods possible under the given conditions". Other potential end targets in favour of lower levels of population are cited, including: long term sustainability, efficient operation of democracy, the preservation of personal freedom and the preservation of biodiversity while potential end targets in favour of higher levels of population are cited, including the abilities: to preserve and foster cultural diversity, to stimulate intellectual, artistic, and technological creativity and to facilitate social infrastructure.
Contents
Overview
Regarding the human population, end-targets for an optimum population include ecological sustainability, economic output and philosophical or ethical ends-in-themselves.
Some commentators disagree with the concept of "optimum population", believing that the human population will always, in the long-term, be able to adapt to the requirements of a larger population.
Any conception of an optimum population level must lie between a minimum viable population of the human species and the maximum level of population that can be sustained by the carrying capacity of the planet Earth.
Estimations
Various end-targets are often balanced together in estimating the optimum human population, and different emphasis on different end-targets cause variability among estimates.
The optimal world population has been estimated by a team co-authored by Paul R. Ehrlich. End-targets in this estimation included:
Based on this, the estimation of optimum population was to be roughly around 1.5 billion to 2 billion people.