Hunger & Starvation Myth #9: 

Overpopulation is the source of hunger.

It is overly simplistic to say that overpopulation causes hunger. Countries like India and Bangladesh have grown enormously in the last 50 years, while hunger has decreased. If population were the cause of hunger, then hunger would be a problem for the future, when in fact it was much worse 50 or 100 years ago.

Some would even say that hunger causes overpopulation – in countries where many children die, families have more children to compensate.

In truth, the issues are inextricably inter-linked. Population growth makes it far more difficult to build the schools, health centers and other services needed to have a healthy and productive population.