Template talk:Population

What the template is not about
This recent addition to the template of a list of things that it is not about seems kind of strange, and not like encyclopedic content, so I removed it. (There are lots of other things it isn't about, haven't seen anybody try to add the items listed to the template, etc.) Seems like the discussion page here would be more reasonable place to discuss if there are problems with the template getting unfocused, or to explain why those topics in particular need to be prohibited. Zodon (talk) 09:06, 17 June 2008 (UTC)


 * The aim of this template is to group together overpopulation literature and directly-related biological articles. There is a good chance that this template will become a "laundry list" of human population plights (i.e., world hunger, pregnancy stats, peak oil, apocalyptic times). These topics could be argued as on-topic, although they are not part of the original aim. Please help keep it on-topic. StevePrutz (talk) 01:17, 23 June 2008 (UTC)

How to deal with resource usage/scarcity/depletion
As I see it, the template has several items in it that relate to resource usage/scarcity/depletion. At the moment they are:
 * Over-consumption (i.e. how much being used), Carrying capacity (i.e. how much resources available)
 * Specific resources: Water crisis, Food security, World energy resources and consumption, Ecological footprint

Seems to make sense to have the items about specific resources together. Had gathered them together, but somebody had another idea for it and split water crisis out from the group, and put it (but not the others) as parenthetical after over-consumption. (They didn't necessarily have to be in that specific category.) Could you explain the logic behind that arrangement? Thanks. Zodon (talk) 09:30, 17 June 2008 (UTC)

Change of heading - was human expansion and overpopulation
I think the older heading was better (before this edit), indicated more what the template is about/helped keep it focused.
 * Not clear that many of the items on the template are not related to overpopulation.
 * The template is at a reasonable size now, if start adding a lot of topics about other aspects of population it may become unwieldly.
 * Another way to handle it would be to rename the template. Zodon (talk) 04:10, 18 November 2008 (UTC)


 * I have made a change to Human overpopulation which seemed to be the essence of what the template was about. The human expansion may have been moved to that title. Gregkaye (talk) 18:32, 6 July 2014 (UTC)

Title color
At present the title has black and blue words which IMO is not easy on the eye. It is possible for the title to be both a single color and a hyperlink. I have changed the title but I understand there may need to be discussion. Granitethighs (talk) 09:19, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

Suggested section
One thing that I had tried was the addition of a section to give a list of people who had spoken out on the need to do something about population problems. This was fairly reverted as a consensus had not been sought but the idea remains. Gregkaye (talk) 18:44, 6 July 2014 (UTC)

What's in it for us
I recently added a section on "Human impact on the environment" and was wondering about a section on the knock on effects of that impacted environment on people. I was thinking about links to food shortage/famine, water shortage/water scarcity, overcrowding, a link about property market pressures to Real estate economics .. things like that. Are there more?? Gregkaye (talk) 19:22, 6 July 2014 (UTC)

Proposed additions of "Day of Six/Seven/Eight Billion"
As per the section title, I propose that the articles The Day of Six Billion, Day of Seven Billion, and Day of Eight Billion be added to the template under the "Events and organizations" section. Edderiofer (talk) 12:02, 15 November 2022 (UTC)



Removed the group on literature and publications
I've just removed this, and my reasoning was: this is a bold move but I think a list of literature and publications does not make sense here and will either grow to become incredibly long or be outdated and arbitrary.


 * group5 = Literature


 * list5style =


 * list5 =


 * A Modest Proposal


 * Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind, Peopling of Countries, etc.


 * An Essay on the Principle of Population


 * "How Much Land Does a Man Need?"


 * Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth


 * Population Control: Real Costs, Illusory Benefits


 * The Limits to Growth


 * The Population Bomb


 * The Skeptical Environmentalist


 * The Ultimate Resource


 * Fatal Misconception


 * Development as Freedom


 * group6 = Publications


 * list6style = font-style:italic;


 * list6 =


 * Population and Environment

EMsmile (talk) 15:09, 8 February 2023 (UTC)
 * Population and Development Review

Bloated template
What is going on with this template now. It is extremely bloated and is a complete mess. This template does not need to have every single environmental, energy and society topic under the sun in it. Why is peak oil, electricity generation and user charge, for example in here? There are other templates such as Template:Peak oil, Template:Sustainability and Template:Sustainable energy where the breadth of these topics can be covered. This template is for articles that directly relate to global human population. I am going to be WP:BOLD and revert these recent changes. Potentially there is scope to include more areas but this is absolutely too far. Welcome any thoughts if needed as per WP:BRD Arcahaeoindris (talk) 14:44, 11 February 2023 (UTC)
 * Agreed. I had somehow overlooked that User:CommonKnowledgeCreator was adding too many terms. I think we should also delete the group "Related topics" as this could become overly long. Perhaps move some of the terms that are under "related topics" to other groups in this template. Also I would like to remove the group "publications" as it seems arbitrary to me. EMsmile (talk) 10:46, 13 February 2023 (UTC)