I really don't see how you could hope to deal with over population on Earth through colonisation. The figures just don't stack up. The world population is, I believe, currently growing at a rate of around 80 million per year. So in order to just keep the population stable never mind reduce it you'd have to ship out almost a quarter of a million people to the colonies every single day. Realistically that's just not going to happen. If the growth rate was low enough (it is, after all, falling) to make shipping them off to colonies at the same rate practical then I don't think the growth rate would be a issue! We must control our population but colonisation will never make any significant impact on it. Take a look at the colonisation of north America, I doubt that it made the slightest impact on the population of Europe.
There is always a solution...
USDA Estimated Energy Daily Sedentary Caloric Intake Requirements:
(for moderately-active and active requirements, see tables 63b and 63c)
Age 5: M=1,200/F=1,200, Age 10: M=1,600/F=1,400, Age 15: M=2,200/F=1,800
Age 21: M=2,400/F=2,000, Age 41: M=2,200/F=1,800, Age 61: M=2,000/F=1,600
Projected Mean: <18 : 1,567, >18 : 2,000, calc. avg.: = 1,783.5
Average Adult Caloric Value: 110,000-81,500 calories, calc. avg.: 95,750
Initial Calculated Average Result: 95,750/1,783.5 = 53.7
Estimated DSCIR nutritional yield: 80,000,000 x 53.7 = 4,296,000,000
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