Population Growth and the Labor Supply

Britain's population grew rapidly from the mid-1700s, providing both workers and customers for industry. England and Wales held about 8. 9 million people at the first census in 1801 and about 17. 9 million in 1851. Historians link the rise mainly to earlier and more frequent marriage, which raised birth rates, along with falling death rates as famines receded and some diseases declined.

Thomas Malthus warned in 1798 that population would outrun food supplies and bring misery, but Britain escaped his trap through farm improvements, imports and industrial growth. Rapid growth had mixed effects: it supplied cheap labor and large markets, but it also crowded towns and kept many wages low. Whether population growth caused industrialization, or industrial opportunity encouraged earlier marriage, remains a classic chicken-and-egg debate.