History Main / PopulationControl

* In ''Literature/ScrappedPrincess'', the entire world is allowed to have only so many human residents; when the population gets too big, the excesses are killed off by the Peacemakers.
* A major theme in ''Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann'', where this is practiced in villages, planets and entire universes.
* Inverted in ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED'' where the Coordinators' society--whose population was steadily reducing--in the space colonies actually mandated ArrangedMarriage in the hopes of increasing birth rates. It didn't work.
* In ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'', when a third of humanity's territory is overtaken by the titular giants, a fifth of the population-- mostly refugees from the lost territory-- is hastily conscripted for a suicidal counterattack. While the best-case scenario is obviously for the attack to succeed and the territory be retaken, the government barely even tries to conceal that the true objective is to reduce the population to free up food and resources for those that remain. It does not succeed, and the attack force is lost nearly to a man.
* ''Manga/{{DNA2}}'' has an extreme example, the future has a problem with overpopulance and a strict law was enforced that allows people to only have one child. Men who father more than one child ''get the death penalty''. When they found out that a mega playboy of the name of Junta Momonari had fathered ''100 children'' and had left behind mostly male descendants with the same potent DNA, he had already been dead for quite some time. They decide that instead of altering the DNA of those descendants, it'd be much easier to just [[TimeTravel go back in time]] and alter Junta's DNA ''before'' he became a playboy and fathers any children. Which starts up the plot.
* In ''Manga/DrStone'', Gen explains the concept of Dunbar's number, which states that any person can only maintain relationships with a maximum of around 150 people (which happens to be the size of the Kingdom of Science at that point). If the group gets any larger, it will split. For this reason, Senku didn't start trying to make more revival fluid after [[spoiler:the cave was destroyed]] but before [[spoiler:they found platinum, which allowed him to make an infinite revival fluid generator]]. He doesn't restrict people from increasing the population the old-fashioned way, though.
* In ''Manga/KamiKatsuWorkingForGodInAGodlessWorld'', an apocalyptic incident reduces mankind to a single empire secretly ruled by machines. In this empire, people are born artificially, [[NoSexAllowed know nothing of sex]] and are set to be executed upon becoming "useless" to society. All of them are conditioned to accept this as normal, and the few who protest are banished to towns surrounding the empire where they might live to an old age but must not conceive children.

* ''WesternAnimation/Sister2018'' consists of a man's memories of growing up with his little sister--until the end when he reveals that his little sister was never born. Her mother aborted a pregnancy that would have been his little sister, due to China's One Child Policy.

* ''Film/Fortress1992'' has the protagonist and his pregnant wife try to leave a dystopian US after it implements a one-child policy to fight increasing population growth. In fact, their first baby was stillborn, though the government apparently doesn't make an exception- one shot is all you get. For this "crime" they are sent to a huge underground prison.
* ''Child Reduction Act''. Families with more than one child must either pay a tax on the extras or send them to concentration camps.
* ''Film/{{ZPG}}''. All parents are forbidden from having children for one generation (30 years). The penalty for violation is death.
* ''The Last Child''. Each U.S. couple is only allowed to have one child. If the first child dies, they can't have another, even if they died before puberty.
* Mentioned in the opening expository voice-over in ''Film/AIArtificialIntelligence'', as well as the Creator/BrianAldiss short story it was based on, "Super-Toys Last All Summer Long", as a response to the polar ice-caps melting and flooding the coastlines.

* Inverted in ''Film/RobotJox'' which has the government using propaganda to encourage pregnancy after most of the world was devastated by WorldWarIII.

* Notably averted in ''Film/SoylentGreen''. That lack of any sort of population control at all is exactly the reason why it's such a CrapsackWorld to begin with.
* In Creator/CliveBarker's ''The Plague'', having ANY children is declared illegal worldwide, as a mysterious ailment has caused all children under the age of nine (unborn babies included) to fall into a coma. Until a cure can be found, producing more comatose infants will only exhaust the resources already strained by the need to care for so many inert children.
* In ''Film/InTime'', society has been rendered [[TheAgeless ageless]], but to counteract the inevitable population explosion, every living person has a clock which holds their exact amount of time left to live. People can earn more time through various means, but once they hit zero they die instantly. The system is skewed to [[KillThePoor place the burden on the poorest part of the population]].
* ''Film/LogansRun'': The population in the [[CrapsaccharineWorld seemingly utopian]] future world is maintained by executing everyone who reaches the age of thirty.

* ''Literature/StandOnZanzibar'' by Creator/JohnBrunner has eugenically-based population control, with incredibly strict genetic screening requirements (e.g., people who carry color-blindness genes or genes correlated with schizophrenia are not allowed to have children). The title comes from the idea that, if you gave everybody on Earth something like two or three square feet, at the time of the story's start, they would just fit onto the island of Zanzibar. Even with the above, by the story's end, humanity would be well into the waters off Zanzibar...
* In the ''Literature/KnownSpace'' series by Creator/LarryNiven on Earth the number of children you can have is based on several factors: you can be assigned children based on a fixed metric, buy licenses for extra children, or even win them in a lottery (this last is the result of alien influence by a species that's attempting to breed [[BornLucky psychic luck powers into humanity]]). At one point there are even legalized gladiatorial death duels for birthrights, winner take all. The ARM police go on "mother hunts" for those who illegally went over their reproductive limits, and very rare individuals are awarded an unlimited breeding license-- their genes are declared to be so useful that humanity needs them more than it needs the room and resources freed up by not having them. Notably Carlos Wu's genius and fitness gives him an unlimited birthright, while Beowulf Shaeffer's albinoism revoked his birthrights. So Carlos fathered Beowulf's son Louis Wu. However, by Ringworld only the lottery remains due to corruption in the boards, so all of Louis's children are Lucky. Presumably they'd also run out of health-impairing genetic traits to select against by that point.
** Also humanity's colony worlds lack population control of any kind. Eventually Beowulf found a planet that was close enough to Earth that it wouldn't set off his wife's phobia of non-Earth environments and they had more children there.
* In another Niven verse, ''Literature/AWorldOutOfTime'', the State has become a OneWorldOrder where IndividualityIsIllegal, and only massive fusion-powered desalinators on every shoreline can provide enough fresh water for the massive population. A few generations back, the State instituted compulsory sterilization for all those with harmful genes, both for eugenic reasons, to save money on heath care, and to slow the rapid population growth. No wonder they're so desperate to {{Terraform}}.
* ''Literature/EndersGame'' has a two-child limit enforced by punitive taxation. However, because Earth is governed by a somewhat weak version of TheFederation, certain individual jurisdictions, particularly predominantly-Catholic ones, seem to have lax enforcement policies. Ender is a state-sponsored exception as his parents were supposed to breed a fleet-commanding prodigy and his older siblings turned out to be a sociopath and a pacifist. He still took a lot of crap in school because of his Third status. [[VoodooShark It is hinted]] in the ''Literature/EndersShadow'' spinoff series that the population laws were actually a ZeroApprovalGambit designed to be so unpopular as to hasten the dissolution of TheFederation after the war so that humanity would not be controlled by a single monolithic government that could be corrupted.
* In ''Literature/GreenMars'', one character proposes to fight overpopulation by giving everyone the tradable birthright to three-quarters of a child. (That is, each couple has the right to 1.5 children; they can then buy or sell half-children to get the number they want and can afford.) This doesn't ever get implemented, though.

** ''Literature/IWillFearNoEvil'' has population control -- each person gets licensed for a set number of children when he/she turns eighteen. Eunice mentions at one point her marriage is considered a "second class contract", since she's licensed for children and her husband is not, implying that if he were, their marriage would be in a different category.
** It also appears in ''Literature/TimeForTheStars''. Each family can have three children. Extra children are taxed and the family doesn't receive government financial help for them. Families can trade for each other's unused child slots or apply for reclassification for more children.
** In ''Literature/PodkayneOfMars'' Marsmen apply to the 'Population, Ecology and Genetics' Board to be 'pegged' at a preset number of children, probably because of the necessity of not exceeding the support potential of the semi-terraformed colony. However none of the mentioned families seem to have any trouble getting the number they want. Podkayne's parents are in fact offered seven children but her mother prefers five as 'all she has time for'.
** The end of ''Literature/MethuselahsChildren'' mentions that earth now has such an overpopulation problem that you need a license to have kids. [[spoiler:Which is why earth needs Andy Libby's FTL drive.]]

** On the other hand, rejected outright in ''Literature/StarshipTroopers''. The Terran Federation believes that if humanity were to instate birth control and stop expanding they'd be wiped out by another, more aggressive species.
* ''The Literature/ShadowChildren Sequence'' by Margaret Haddix is a series about a world where families can only have 2 children (the main character is, of course, a secret third child). Rich people are allowed to cheat, and the Population Police are utterly corrupt.
* Lisa Mason's future in her book ''Summer of Love'' has a lottery for who can and cannot have children, but include the concept of "skip-children", where frustrated parents can put their combined DNA in a bank to be born decades or centuries later, to be raised by a descendant.
* In ''[[Literature/{{Animorphs}} The Andalite Chronicles]]'', it is mentioned that the Andalites used to have population control laws, but that they were repealed because of the war.

* The ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'' has many different planets, using different methods:
** UterineReplicator technology is widely used on many planets, as it allows for having children without the inherent risks of pregnancy. Combined with genetic testing and embryo selection this also serves to ensure the birth of healthy, defect-free children or on some planets even DesignerBabies.
** Barrayar is underpopulated, and has unfettered reproduction (though it is somewhat "backward" and considers all sex out of wedlock to be illicit). During the Time of Isolation however, the Barrayarans practiced infanticide of any child possessed of obvious defects or mutations, as they lacked the medical resources to care for any disabled individuals.
** Beta Colony is a marginally habitable world, and has strict population control. All babies must be licensed, though getting a baby license seems to be about as difficult as getting a driver's license (at least for the first two.) Since contraceptives are legally required for all females (and hermaphrodites), all sex between consenting individuals is considered to be normal recreational behaviour, though they do have statutory rape laws.
** Athos is underpopulated, but since its entire population is male, it requires Uterine Replicators for anyone to reproduce. The actual cost of raising children to the age where they are self sufficient is a major part of the planetary government budget, unlike most other planets where it is part of the informal economy. There is a credit system where men earn the right to father children through voluntary civil service. As Athos is gradually terraformed, the population is slowly being allowed to grow, with new reproduction centers getting built as appropriate.
** The Cetagandan Empire is a group of planets exercising [[SuperBreedingProgram extreme bio-engineering]], where every child "born" (at least among the Haut class) has its genetic makeup designed by the central government. What is more, it would be possible for the child's parents never to have even met, let alone had sex.
* Creator/FredSaberhagen wrote a TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture book like this: {{Stripperific}} clothing and casual sex are societal norms but couples are limited to two offspring, with severe penalties for violations.
* Creator/AnneMcCaffrey's ''Literature/PegasusInFlight'' has limited children laws; theoretically, each woman is permitted two children (however, the rules can be bent by people with influence, such as the Center). These laws are enforced by having the extra children (and any women caught producing them) sterilized. The first protagonist is an example of an illegal extra child, who was retroactively legalized in exchange for services rendered to Law Enforcement and Order. It also has a plot with a child smuggling ring. These laws have apparently been repealed later in the ''Literature/TowerAndTheHive'' series, as multiple characters are shown having more than two children without any difficulty, presumably because practical interstellar travel has solved the crowding/resource issues that made the population control laws necessary in the first place.
* In ''Literature/PosterGirl'' the tyrannical Delegation enforced a strict One-Child-Policy on it`s citizens, except of course the priviledged elite who were regularly granted exceptions. 'Illegal' children caught would be taken from their parents and given up for adoption to childless couples [[spoiler: if they were still very young that is. If they were old enough to remember their birth parents they would instead be killed, just on the off chance they could one day become a threat to the regime.]]
* In ''Literature/TheGiver'', every family unit is allowed two children. If a child dies, the parents either can apply or are simply given another baby of the same gender and same name as a replacement. However, they come from Birthmothers, which only have 3 children, then a lifetime of hard labor. Even then, only 50 newbabes are given to parent units in December.
* In ''[[Literature/TheSpaceOdysseySeries 2061]]'' by Arthur C. Clarke it's explained that the one-child policy of China was eventually replaced by one where a person can have two children for free but any additional children cost a prohibitively-expensive fee which doubled with every additional child; one character, Sir Lawrence Tsung, is a multimillionaire who was able to afford to have ten children (his ninth child, William Tsung, has a shuttle craft named after him).
* In the Literature/CoDominium universe, Earth is so overcrowded the government is slipping contraceptive drugs into the [[strike:Proles]] Citizens' food supplies and releasing infertility viruses into the ghetto/reservation-like Welfare Islands. Only those who move to frontier planets can have larger families.
* In David Brin's ''Literature/{{Uplift}}'' universe, all reproduction has to be carefully screened, both as population control and as a prerequisite to joining the Galactic civilization. Probationers are those who fail-- they are permanently sterilized to avoid spreading undesirable genes. [[UpliftedAnimal Client races]] have a card-system, colors determine how many kids you can have, and a White Card is an unlimited license-- your genes are so good, anyone who wants them can have them.
* A short story 'The Sliced-Crosswise Only-on-Tuesday World' by Creator/PhilipJoseFarmer, involves a world so overcrowded that it couldn't support more than a seventh of humanity; so HumanPopsicle technology was perfected, allowing for each person to be awake only one day out of each week. The story had a DownerEnding, after working hard to get on the same day with a woman he's [[DudeShesLikeInAComa fallen in love with after seeing her in her cryo-tube]], he finds she has worked equally hard to get onto ''his'' old shift... Later expanded into the Dayworld series of novels.
* In Larry Niven's and Steven Barnes's ''Saturn's Race'', the world discovered that a vaccine distributed throughout the third world nations twenty years prior had the deliberate side-effect of causing sterility in the children born to the inoculated.

* ''The Bladerunner'' ([[Film/BladeRunner no relation]]) by Alan Nourse had the government require sterilization as the price of medical treatment. A "bladerunner" was someone who smuggled surgical tools for doctors willing to perform unauthorized medicine (doctors weren't permitted to take medical equipment out of the hospitals).
* A variation of this based on gender is put out in ''Literature/TheDarkElfTrilogy''. The main character Drizzt was, incidentally, a third son.
* In the ''Literature/InsideSeries'' by Maria V Snyder, the population is divided into two castes, the Uppers and the scrubs. Scrubs are encouraged to have as many children as possible and are denied birth control. Men and children who break the rules are executed, but fertile women who commit infractions become "breeders", kept chained down and constantly pregnant until their bodies give out from the strain. Uppers, on the other hand, are allowed one child per couple. If there's an accident with their birth control, the extra child is dyed to look like the scrubs' ethnicity and given to a scrub foster mother. The overlords use this to foster class division, telling the scrubs that the Uppers are spoiled rotten and telling the Uppers that the scrubs are too lazy and selfish to use birth control despite their overpopulation.
* In Creator/MikhailAkhmanov and Christopher Nicholas Gilmore's novel ''Literature/CaptainFrenchOrTheQuestForParadise'', all colonies impose birth licensing policies once they reach a certain population density. While there are plenty of dystopian governments, even the nice ones do it. There is a group of women, whom the eponymous space trader nicknames "the Frantic Mothers", whose goal in life seems to be to bear as many children as possible, regardless of who the fathers are. They will do anything to move to a new colony that encourages this sort of behavior, including paying for passage with sex (preferably with a fertile male, for obvious reasons). Since the protagonist had himself sterilized (completely reversible), the Frantic Mothers are a little disappointed in him. Since most humans in this universe undergo a procedure that stops aging, it is possible for the same woman to be the progenitor of several colonies (imagine how many babies she can make in several centuries). While the protagonist isn't a big fan of such women, he does admit that they're the driving force behind most colonization ventures, pestering their government until it decides to finance the construction of a colony ship. It's mentioned that getting a child license often requires waiting for decades, if not centuries (kudos to a couple that stays together long enough to get a license), since it requires someone to die to "free up the spot", and natural death is no longer an option for most people.
* In ''Literature/TheCavesOfSteel'', Earth licenses couples to have a number of children based on the parents' genes and social contributions. This is presented quite neutrally (Asimov considered overpopulation to be a major threat). Spacer societies are considered less moral, since they combine population control with eugenic breeding programs and mandated late term abortion (late term as in "all the way up to adulthood").
* In the ''Literature/{{Uglies}}'' series, parents are prohibited, and also incapable because of the whole [[BuffySpeak pretty-mind-thing]], of having more than one child every ten years. This keeps the pretty parents able to focus on one child, and keeps sibling bonds from forming. It's surprisingly effective.
* In Cyril Kornbluth's horrifying dystopia ''Shark Ship,'' the ocean-dwellers have a two-child limit (with officers of the ships forbidden children altogether for fear of nepotism.) [[spoiler:It turns out that the land-dwellers implemented a one-child policy, and this, together with their glorification of violence and torture, has effectively provided a solution to the problem of overpopulation. A Final Solution, as it were.]]
* Creator/RobertWestall's dystopia in ''Literature/FuturetrackFive'' has The Futuretracks: 'jobs' which are designed to help thin out the Unnem populace: most are geared towards a life in which either regular contact with direct violence kills followers, or significant (and artificially increased)risk kills them.

* Inverted in Creator/RobertSilverberg's ''Literature/TheWorldInside''. In the year 2381, most of Earth's 75 billion people live in three-kilometer-high (9,000 feet) "urban monads", where they start their ''large'' families around ''puberty''. One man has four children. It is considered shamefully low, but his wife is infertile due to an accident during surgery. He is considering taking another.
* Creator/PoulAnderson is evidently quite fond of this trope:
** In "Literature/TimeLag", Vaynamo has stablized its population, voluntarily. This incites anger in the conquerors -- Chertkoi is heavily overpopulated. Bors tells Elva that they can't hoard its resources; Elva retorts they should take the consequences of having bred like maggots.
** In "Starfog", when Graydal hears that there are planets where some women do not bear children owing to population control, she immediately concludes that her ship, which they believe can not return home, must stay on the frontier world.
** In "Eutopia", Iason scorns the Westfell reasons: true, they limit their population too, only not because people need space, but because of their greedy desire not to split up their estates -- in service of their reified families.
** In "Goat Song", the population control requires exactly as many children born as decreed, to keep human society human. Harper notes that this means the promise to revive them all in the future must be a lie.
* F. Paul Wilson's ''[=LaNague=] Confederacy'' series has this in place on EarthThatUsedToBeBetter, with a uncommon yet obvious complication to the trope; the population control bureau is completely and utterly corrupt. Though it supposedly enforces a "one child per parent" policy, any and all political activism is punished by sterilization under the guise of eliminating hereditary disease. Luckily, this came about after the development of CasualInterstellarTravel, and deviants are given the option to emigrate.
* Rick Griffin's ''Literature/TenThousandMilesUp'' takes place on board a GenerationShip that has maintained a constant population of 10,000 for four hundred years with contraceptive implants and a waiting list to reproduce. Captain Atari and his wife Jakari took themselves off the list, giving up their chance to have kids [[spoiler:until they steal a planet and a Terraformer and decide to stop enforcing the list.]]
** [=Gre7g=] Luterman's stories in the ''Literature/HayvenCelestia'' expanded universe flesh out the process further. Every geroo born on a generation ship is issued a "birth token" at birth and when they die their token is given to a couple that desires a child. The titular character of the Kanti Cycle novels was born illegally and has to conceal his existence from the commissioner who is willing to depopulate the ship to prevent overpopulation.

* In "Literature/TheMachineStops", humans live their entire adult lives in one-person underground cells in which all their needs are met. The global Machine that provides for them keeps the birth and death rates balanced by mandating encounters for procreative sex -- the only time humans actually interact in the flesh -- and by approving requests for euthanasia from the elderly, sick, or unhappy.

* In the ''Literature/GreatShip'' universe, it is implied that passengers on the Greatship have to pay for additional berths for children. When almost every entity on the ship is some form of life-extended TransHuman, it's a practical (and profitable) method to keep the ship from being overrun by children. That being said, most of the Greatship [[UnnecessarilyLargeVessel remains largely empty]] and only marginally explored, [[PlanetSpaceship as the ship is larger than Saturn]].
* In Dmitry Glukhovsky's ''The Future'', the world of the 25th century is a SocietyOfImmortals, as a result of the development of the anti-aging vaccine 300 years prior. The trade-off is the abandonment of traditional reproduction in favor of strict government-controlled population levels. Not everyone is happy with this, resulting in opposition to the ruling Immortality Party, which uses genetically-engineered soldiers to police the society for any procreation violations, the most vocal of which is the so-called Life Party, members of which use both political and terrorist means to get their way.
* The giant eagles from ''Literature/TalesOfTheMagicLand'' have a law that their tribe must have only a hundred birds, due to limited food resources. Since they often live up to two hundred, any new baby receives a lot of attention. The one bird that appears in the story attempted a coup after the tribe's chief attempted to put himself on top of the queue.
* ''Literature/QuintaglioAscension'': The Quintaglious have Bloodpriests who ritually kill seven out of eight hatchlings to cull the race and ensure their territorial instincts don't overwhelm them with too many people around. [[spoiler:Later they are violently purged for it.]]
* The plot of ''Literature/TheBearAndTheDragon'' is kicked off when a Vatican diplomat and a Baptist minister try to intervene in a late-term abortion mandated by China's one-child policy. They get killed for it, sparking international outrage (but the baby lives).
* The Creator/MarquisDeSade once proposed limiting population growth to what the state deemed best by means of forced abortions as part of his book ''Philosophy in the Bedroom'', citing {{Creator/Aristotle}} making a [[OlderThanFeudalism similar suggestion]].
* ''Literature/HiveMind2016'': In the past, those classified as criminal or socially undesirable were barred from having children. This led to a population crash due to weakened disease resistance and assorted useful characteristics being mistakenly marked as negative. The controls were removed in order to reverse these problems, and Lottery was created to help channel personality traits that could be negative if expressed in an antisocial way. Joint Hive Treaty Enforcement mandates that all adult citizens are allowed to have two children if they want, and certain individuals are allowed to have many more 'duty children'. There do not appear to be rules against having more than two children, but below certain levels it is considered socially unacceptable.
* The Kesh society in ''Literature/AlwaysComingHome'' has strong societal taboos against having more than two children. It's not forbidden or illegal, but it is frowned upon, and since contraceptives and abortion are easily accessed most families stick to it. Since leftover pollution has made miscarriages and stillbirths very common, getting two children can be difficult on its own.

* ''Series/SeaQuestDSV'' had an episode with an island nation where street kids were hunted by death squads as a population control measure, which was almost definitely based off the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_children_in_the_Philippines#Summary_execution_of_street_children Marcos Government]] in Real Life.

* On one of the worlds the ''Series/{{Sliders}}'' visited, the population was kept low by heavy marketing of birth control (billboards advertised "Birth Control Cola"), and by [=ATMs=] which dispense free money to anyone willing to enter a lottery in which the winner must commit suicide via poison. "Winners" are treated like royalty until their time comes, and the ones the Sliders met considered it an honor. This was the result of them paying attention to one Reverend Thomas Malthus, who argued that human population growth would always outpace food production. As a result of their ubiquitous reinforcement of birth control, there are only 500 million people in the whole world.
** One group on this world argues that the Lottery is unnecessary. Instead, they advocate better birth control.

* In the 22nd century of ''Series/TerraNova'' the protagonist was sentenced to six years in prison for having a third child. Fortunately they don't care about population laws in the virgin frontier of 85 million BC.
* Inverted on ''Series/BattlestarGalactica2003'', in which the possibility that couples' reproduction might have to be made ''mandatory'' in order to sustain a decimated human species was broached soon after the destruction of the Colonies.
* ''Series/TheLottery'' has the government forced to do this, in response to a mysterious interruption to the reproductive ability of the human species. The disease, if it is that, is also putting a control by stopping the population from growing any further.
* In ''Series/The100'', the Ark has a one-child policy in order to reduce its population and conserve resources. To this same end, [[AllCrimesAreEqual it applies the death penalty towards even the most minor crimes]], and if resources are becoming truly scarce, the Ark's government is authorized to start [[DeadlyEuphemism "culling"]] large swaths of the population. Octavia was actually an illegal birth, leading to her spending her life hiding in floor panels. She [[CantGetAwayWithNothing is caught the first time she leaves her room]], leading to her arrest and her mother's execution.
* In ''Series/{{Fringe}},'' the United States government in the AlternateUniverse, has proposed a bill that would enact a two-child policy. While most citizens are opposed to the bill, members from two of the three major political parties support it.
* ''Series/StargateSG1'': There's an episode where SG-1 visits a planet where the whole population has been herded into a DomedCity with the rest of the world outside being a DeathWorld similar to Venus. The entire population is also linked to a central computer through neural implants so they can instantly receive new information. When people start disappearing one by one and [[RetGone instantly fade from the collective memory of every other citizen]] (including the wife of a happily married scientist who chillingly doesn't even know who SG-1 are talking about), it turns out that the computer has been selecting people to sacrifice themselves by leaving the dome because the energy supply of the dome has been decreasing for a while, causing the dome to shrink. At the end SG-1 figures out that the city used to support a population of 100,000; when they first arrive on the planet there are only '''''1,000''''' people left.
* ''Series/StargateAtlantis'': There's an episode where the team visits a world [[TeenageWasteland populated only by teenagers and children]] because every member of the tribe commits suicide at the age of 25. This is also because of an energy shield problem, one that was installed by [[{{Precursors}} the Ancients]] to protect the planet from the Wraith (the BigBad of the show who are basically life-sucking space vampires)--only it doesn't cover the whole planet, so the Ancients gave their ancestors instructions on how to manage their population so they wouldn't have to leave the protected area. Atlantis eventually fixes the problem by providing the tribe with a greater power supply.
* ''{{Series/Pandora}}'': A remote Human colony has everyone but its elders depart through a portal at age twenty five to somewhere else, which they claim is good, so the population doesn't grow too high. However, they admit to not actually knowing where this leads. Later it's learned [[spoiler:they all die by doing so]].

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': As {{Worldbuilding}} in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E3FrontierInSpace Frontier in Space]]", a newsreader announces that the Bureau of Population Control has stated that any family willing to move into the [[DomedCity enclosed cities]] that have just been built in reclaimed Arctic land will be allowed to have two children. While a [[GreenAesop depiction of an overpopulated or polluted future]] was almost obligatory in 1970s and '80s ''Who'', clearly SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale, as in this episode Earth is the center of a galactic empire with CasualInterstellarTravel, raising the question of why people don't just emmigrate to other worlds.
* Present on Mars in ''Series/BabylonFive'', and [[JustifiedTrope for good reasons]]: while Mars is being terraformed it's still impossible to survive outside the pressurized domes, so resources to grow food are limited and the original colonists set up strict birth and immigration controls to synchronize the population expansion with that of the ability to grow food. This is also one of the reasons Martians don't like Earth Alliance, as in a moment of utter stupidity the Senate allowed its member nations to deport undesiderables to Mars, and by the time the Senate realized they had messed up and revoked the permissions Mars was already overpopulated and dependant on Earth for food.

** The Drow families are only allowed two sons at any one time, though they can have as many daughters as they like. They sacrifice the third to Lolth. Unless one of them conveniently dies beforehand. Drizzt Do'Urden was the third child of his family, but one of his brothers was assassinated shortly after his birth, so they didn't have to sacrifice him. This tradition exists because Lolth herself demands it. She has...issues...with men, to put it lightly.
** Inverted in another dark elf example, from the old Role Aids third-party D&D supplement line: In ''Elves'', dark elf society is virtually lawless, except that it's prohibited to kill a female dark elf before she's produced at least two offspring. Backstabbing and feuding would probably wipe out their population if not for this rule.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'':

** The Tau use a form of population control, in that all pairings are determined by examining genetic potential and then getting the parents to mate. The offspring will not be raised by the parents but the caste-wide educational system (though parents often take an interest). Tau society functions on HappinessInSlavery and mass mind control, hence the lack of outrage from the Tau.
*** The Tau Empire's human population is speculated to be regulated by the Tau. However, this is stated mostly by inherently biased and unreliable Imperial narrators.
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Mindjammer}}'' the Core Worlds require a license to reproduce, and before the discovery of Planar Drive Old Earth had mandatory euthanasia at the age of 500.
* In ''TabletopGame/HcSvntDracones'' Corptowns can easily afford to provide free food and housing for their citizens that can't afford it, but, to limit any strain on the corporate welfare system citizens' income are evaluated every year and if they fall below a certain bracket they are surgically sterilized. Though it can easily be reversed with their medical technology. It's also not explicitly stated but implied that abortions may be performed as well, as [=MarsCo=] can save the genome of a specific fetus that a parent wants but can't afford at the time to clone later.

* The population of the [[spoiler:Kaka clan]] in ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'' is kept at 100 by the AppliedPhlebotinum that created them. A shortage of males keeps the population count from rising quickly, while parthenogenesis ensures that there will always be at least 100 [[spoiler:Kaka]].

* In ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'' empires can impose population controls on a species, though not on the empire's founding race, which prevents new [=POPs=] of that species from growing in the empire. The "Utopia" DLC also adds species-wide neutering, as a form of [[WouldBeRudeToSayGenocide Purge]].

* In ''VisualNovel/TheLastBirdling'', Birdlings keep a careful limit on the number of births in their species, and any couples who have a child without permission are quietly executed. [[spoiler: This is because adult Birdlings feed on humans and thus need to keep their numbers low to avoid attracting suspicion and/or overhunting their food supply.]]

* In ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'', Earth (Or rather, the United Nations of Sol) seems to have certain population-control measures set up to prevent undesirable genetic characteristics from spreading to future generations. The only such limit that has been mentioned so far is for the overly moronic - basically, stupid people aren't allowed to have children - but one must assume that other characteristics are likewise limited. Since over-population isn't a problem (plenty of planets to colonize, and space-station colonies to boot), such people can still have children, though - by 'ordering' genetically-designed kids at private companies, getting them grown in tanks, and then raising them... apparently, the Nature-Versus-Nurture debate ended with victory for 'Nature' somewhere along the line.
* A variation in ''Webcomic/DanAndMabsFurryAdventures'', when the number of [[OurSoulsAreDifferent Souls]] of the Fae is physically limited. When one of them becomes "available", it can be given or auctioned, allowing one to produce offspring. They also sometimes let their soul randomly regenerate, causing, on one occasion, Mab's tea to turn into a baby.

* China's one-child policy introduced in 1979 (before the policy was instituted, China ''encouraged'' births through the 1960's), although there were ''many'' loopholes (you could have two kids if you live abroad or, presumably, as many as you want if you emigrated ''permanently''; if both parents were only children; if you've divorced and remarried; or if you're an ethnic minority). Also, [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney money helps]]. Eventually, China experienced the same "prosperity + improving women's rights = smaller families" formula as had happened in the West starting in the '60s and '70s - by the new millennium the one-child policy largely stood on its own institutional inertia. Combined with an ''equally'' inertial culture of misogyny, this led to couples aborting female fetuses and [[ParentalAbandonment abandoning baby daughters]] (who often ended up [[HappilyAdopted being adopted by Western families]]) so they could try again for a son. This naturally came back to [[HoistByHisOwnPetard bite the country in the ass]] ''hard'', as now [[MarsNeedsWomen China Desperately Needs Women]]. China moved to a two-child policy in 2016, and then a three-child policy in 2021, but 35 years of the one-child policy has left its mark on China's demographics - according to the CIA, China is tied for the most male under-15 population in the world at 1.17 boys for every girl. To put that in numbers, there are 85 ''MILLION'' surplus men.

* China's one-child policy introduced in 1979 (before the policy was instituted, China ''encouraged'' births through the 1960's), although there were ''many'' loopholes (you could have two kids if you live abroad or, presumably, as many as you want if you emigrated ''permanently''; if both parents were only children; if you've divorced and remarried; or if you're an ethnic minority). Also, [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney money helps]]. Eventually, China experienced the same "prosperity + improving women's rights = smaller families" formula as had happened in the West starting in the '60s and '70s - by the new millennium the one-child policy largely stood on its own institutional inertia. Combined with an ''equally'' inertial culture of misogyny, this led to couples aborting female fetuses and [[ParentalAbandonment abandoning baby daughters]] (who often ended up [[HappilyAdopted being adopted by Western families]]) so they could try again for a son. This naturally came back to [[HoistByHisOwnPetard bite the country in the ass]] ''hard'', as now [[MarsNeedsWomen China Desperately Needs Women]]. China moved to a two-child policy in 2016, and then a three-child policy in 2021, but 35 years of the one-child policy has left its mark on China's demographics - according to the CIA, China is tied for the most male under-15 population in the world at 1.17 boys for every girl.

* Rather violently inverted in Romania under communist rule. President Nicolae Ceaușescu outlawed abortion, birth control and sex education, and instituted a "celibacy tax" for women who failed to have children, with the goal of increasing the country's population. It worked, but it didn't end well. The generation he created turned out to be the one that overthrew him, ironically, as his government was unable to provide good education and jobs to all of them, leaving young people seriously disaffected. Many also were unsurprisingly unwanted by their parents and abandoned, with growing up in state orphanages not doing anything to make them fond of Ceaușescu.

* In Vietnam during the 1960's, they had a two-child policy. It was stopped in 2003, although they are considering reviving it.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': As {{Worldbuilding}} in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E3FrontierInSpace Frontier in Space]]", a newsreader announces that the Bureau of Population Control has stated that any family willing to move into the [[DomedCity enclosed cities]] that have just been built in reclaimed Arctic land will be allowed to have two children. While a [[GreenAesop depiction of an overpopulated or polluted future]] was almost obligatory in 1970s and '80s ''Who'', clearly SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale, as in this episode Earth is the center of a galactic empire with CasualInterstellarTravel, raising the question of why people don't just immigrate to other worlds.

* ''Film/Fortress1992'' has the protagonist and his pregnant wife try to leave a dystopian US after it implements a one-child policy to fight increasing population growth. In fact, their first baby was stillborn, though the government apparently doesn't make an exception- one shot is all you get. For this "crime" their sent to a huge underground prison.

* ''Literature/QuintaglioAscension'': The Quintaglious have Bloodpriests who ritually kill seven out of eight hatchlings to cull the race and insure their territorial instincts don't overwhelm them with too many people around. [[spoiler:Later they are violently purged for it.]]

** In "[[Recap/StarTrekS3E8ForTheWorldIsHollowAndIHaveTouchedTheSky For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky]]", the Oracle chooses everyone's mate for them, to insure their social harmony, except the High Priestess. She is the only one allowed to choose for herself. It presumably also controls how many are born too, preventing any overpopulation in the ship's limited space.

* Inverted in ComicBook/TransformersMoreThanMeetsTheEye: Transformers are born by the planet releasing pulses which settle and create life by coding energy in a spark, which is placed in a body to make a new Transformer. The pulses began to decline (and in other continuities, like Regeneration-1 the race goes extinct) so the then leader, Nova Prime, commissioned life to be drawn from his matrix as he needed to expand the population though his other motive was to make their race great so they could colonize beyond their world.

[[folder:Film]]

* The movie ''Film/{{Fortress 1992}}'' has the protagonist and his pregnant wife try to leave a dystopian US after it implements a one-child policy to fight increasing population growth. In fact, their first baby was stillborn, though the government apparently doesn't make an exception- one shot is all you get. For this "crime" their sent to a huge underground prison.

* Creator/LoisMcMasterBujold's ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'' has many different planets, using different methods:

* A variation of this based on gender is put out in Literature/TheDarkElfTrilogy. The main character (who has since become [[TropeNamer well]] [[DrizztSyndrome known]]) was, incidentally, a third son.

[[folder:Web Animation]]
* In ''WebAnimation/HazbinHotel'', {{Hell}} itself is suffering from overpopulation. Every year, angels from Heaven called Exorcists invade Hell and go on a massive killing spree [[DeaderThanDead destroying the souls of any demon they come across]] until it's time for them to leave. Wanting to prevent the annual genocide, Charlie devises the Happy Hotel to [[AscendedDemon rehabilitate sinners so they can reach Heaven]] as a humane alternative.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Sister|2018}}'': This animated short consists of a man's memories of growing up with his little sister--until the end when he reveals that his little sister was never born. Her mother aborted a pregnancy that would have been his little sister, due to China's One Child Policy. [[/folder]]

* In Paul Verhoeven's adaptation of ''Film/StarshipTroopers'', one of the female infantry recruits says that she joined because she wants to have babies, and it's easier to get a license if you're a citizen.

* ''Series/UtopiaFalls'': The government decides whether or not people can have children, and they practice eugenics, not allowing people to if they're DNA is deemed "unfit". In those cases they're sent to work dangerous jobs such as mining. They justify this on the basis of having limited resources and keeping genetic disease from spreading.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': As {{Worldbuilding}} in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E3FrontierInSpace Frontier in Space]]", a newsreader announces that the Bureau of Population Control has stated that any family willing to move into the [[DomedCity enclosed cities]] that have just been built in reclaimed Arctic land will be allowed to have two children. While a [[GreenAesop depiction of an overpopulated or polluted future]] was almost obligatory in 1970s and '80s ''Who'', clearly SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale, as in this episode, Earth is the center of a galactic empire with CasualInterstellarTravel, raising the question of why people don't just immigrate to other worlds.

* This is the true purpose of the numbers in ''Manga/{{Plunderer}}''