Population growth is linked to overall levels of economic development…

The correct answer is Option (4) → Demographic Transition

Option (1) Malthusian theory of population growth — Incorrect. Malthus argued that population grows faster than the means of subsistence (food), so it is kept in check by famine and disease or by limiting births. His theory sees growth as a threat to prosperity, not as a pattern that follows development.

Option (2) Population Explosion theory — Incorrect. The ‘population explosion’ is not a theory: it is the very high growth of the transitional stage of the demographic transition, when death rates fall quickly but birth rates take longer to come down.

Option (3) Theory of Population growth — Incorrect. Too general: it names no particular theory. Of the theories of population growth, the one that links growth to economic development is the theory of demographic transition.

Option (4) Demographic Transition — Correct. This theory links population growth to the level of economic development. Every society passes through three stages: low growth when both birth and death rates are high, rapid growth when death rates fall but birth rates stay high, and low growth again when both are low in a developed society.