Population is the number of billion of inhabitants in the civilization or Colony.
Generation[ | ]
The primary way to generate 
Population is through 
Growth, subject to the hard limit of the 
Population Cap, and the soft limit of 
Approval.
The Population Cap is generally increased by constructing cities using 
Food.
Approval is a soft cap on Population, because Approval is calculated by the Morale divided by the Population. Since Morale is independent of Population, any Growth will decrease Approval, which in turn will decrease the Approval bonus to Growth.
Synthetic Life ignore Growth and instead increase Population through constructing the Manufacture Population improvement.
Other direct effects to Population include:
- The Prolific ability when colonizing
- Crisis events in
Impact[ | ]
Population is the most important bonus to 
Raw Production. For example, a Population of 10 will add +10 to Raw Production. The Population is also the denominator when calculating Approval.