Optimum Population Questionnaire
Distributed by Vermonter’s for a Sustainable Population

There are many reasons to be concerned about what is the optimum population size of any given area. Population size and growth have an impact on global warming, the amount of land needed for development and for growing food, the amount of natural resources for habitat for wildlife, the availability clean water and air, and quality of life as a result of crowdedness, just to mention a few. One major concern that is going to impact each of us very personally is peak oil production. US oil production peaked in the 1970’s and world oil production may peak in this decade---perhaps it has already peaked. This means that we are going to have to depend on alternative forms of energy for our transportation, food production, heating and cooling, and meeting many of our other needs. Without cheap fossil fuels we are going to have to grow more of our own food locally. Our highly consumptive lifestyles will probably have to change. Given these changes what do you think is a long term optimum population size for our country and our state?

The current U.S. population is around 310 million.
What do you think is the optimum U.S. population size?
550 million 400 million 300 million 200 million 100 million other no idea

The current Vermont population is about 625,000.
What do you think is the optimum Vermont population size?
1 million 800,000 600,000 400,000 200,000 other no idea

On what information or values are you basing your guesstimate?

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Questionnaire: Population Questionnaire