Thomas Malthus's father was Daniel Malthus, a person of independent means with literary and scientific interests and who was an acquaintance of Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

From 1779 to 1781 Thomas Malthus was educated by the Reverend Richard Graves at his home. After a period with a private tutor, he became an undergraduate at Jesus College. In 1798 he was ordained a minister of the Church of England. he married Harriet Eckersall in 1804 and they had three children.

Malthus was best known for his work "An Essay on the Principle of Population". His book has been widely interpreted as an apologia for immorality: in particular, Karl Marx and Frederick Engels subjected Malthus to several attacks, which dismissed him as an apologist for the landed aristocracy. Actually, in book IV, chapter 5 of An Essay on the Principle of Population, Malthus blamed the poors and notably that government should "court the return of plague" on them. He did apply his theory in politics as he entered into controversies over the Poor Laws, arguing that the provision of cottages and other resources for the poor would encourage early marriages, leading to children and still more mouths to feed.