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Population growth
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Side-by-side line graphs compare exponential and logistic population growth. The exponential growth graph shows a curve rising steeply upward, while the logistic growth graph shows an S-shaped curve leveling off at the carrying capacity of the environment. Line graph showing cyclical rises and falls in snowshoe hare and lynx populations from 1855 to 1925, with hare numbers peaking before lynx numbers, illustrating predator-prey dynamics. Snowy forest background and a legend with animal illustrations identify each species. A multi-line chart titled ā€œFertility rates through the decadesā€ shows fertility trends by global region from 1950 to 2050, with years on the horizontal axis and fertility rates from 1 to 7 on the vertical axis. Each region is represented by a colored line: Africa in light brown remains the highest throughout, peaking above 6 in the 1960s before steadily declining toward 3 by 2050. Asia in light gray begins above 5, declines sharply after 1970, and falls just above 2 by 2050. Central and South America in dark gray follow a similar decline from around 5 to below 2. Europe in dark gray-purple starts near 2.7, falls below the replacement line in the 1970s, and remains near 1.5. North America in light teal declines from around 3.5 to about 1.8. Oceania in dark blue peaks near 4 in the 1960s and declines to about 2. A red line for the world average trends downward from about 5 to below 2. A black dashed horizontal line marks the replacement rate at roughly 2.1. The area from 2024 to 2050 is shaded to indicate projected. global warming scenarios
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Side-by-side line graphs compare exponential and logistic population growth. The exponential growth graph shows a curve rising steeply upward, while the logistic growth graph shows an S-shaped curve leveling off at the carrying capacity of the environment.
Figure 1: Exponential versus logistic population growth Graphs representing exponential population growth (left) and logistic population growth.

Population growth

biology
Written by
Fatima Foflonker
Fatima Foflonker is a computational biologist, with a Ph.D. in microbiology and expertise in algae, evolutionary genomics, and bioinformatics.
Fatima Foflonker
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Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
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Population growth, in population ecology, a change in the number of members of a certain plant or animal species in a particular location during a particular time period. Factors affecting population growth include fertility, mortality, and, in animals, migrationā€”i.e., immigration to or emigration from a particular location. The average change in a population over time is referred to as the population growth rate. A positive growth rate indicates a population increase, and a negative growth rate...

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