Malthus was a product of his time.
Nascent-industrial, before contraception was available to the masses, and pre-mass education. Where he went wrong was predicting conditions would be worldwide.
All developed nations have gone through natural population decline thanks to education and increased participation of women in society. Economic modernity creates its own brakes on the population. Which is why immigration from the developing world is such a hot topic in countries that didn’t traditionally have immigration.
We see the “Malthusian” pressures on developing societies. Ones where the majority population is unfree, uneducated and the economy is subsistence agriculture based.
