This month — and some sources cite this date — is the 250th anniversary of the 1766 birth of Thomas Malthus in Dorking, England. Given that birthplace, he perhaps naturally became an economist, demographer and statistician. He’s remembered for “The Principle of Population,” a 1798 essay foretelling widespread famine caused by population growth far outstripping the food supply. While the forecast remains unrealized, his theory of demand-supply mismatches was a precursor to later theories about the Great Depression. When Malthus wrote his essay, the world population was a little under 1 billion. Currently, the global population is nearly 7.3 billion people. You can find more facts about America’s people, places and economy, from the American Community Survey, at <www.census.gov>.