population

/ˈpɑpjəˌleɪʃən/

/pɒpjuˈleɪʃən/

Other forms: populations

Population means the number of people in a geographic area. The population of Wyoming is just shy of 600,000 people, but the population of California is nearly 40 million!

This word can also be used for subgroups of people. If you plan to start an all-ages ping pong league, you'll want to determine the population of table-tennis enthusiasts in your hometown. Population can apply to groups of animals, too. Because of the worldwide decrease in the panda population, giant pandas are now an endangered species. The word population, like the word populace, derives from the Latin populus, meaning "people."

Definitions of population

1. noun

   the people who inhabit a territory or state
   “the population seemed to be well fed and clothed”

   types:

   home front

   the civilian population (and their activities) of a country at war

   type of:

   people

   (plural) any group of human beings (men or women or children) collectively
2. noun

   a group of organisms of the same species inhabiting a given area
   “they hired hunters to keep down the deer population”

   types:

   overpopulation

   too many individuals of a given species

   type of:

   group, grouping

   any number of entities (members) considered as a unit
3. noun

   the number of inhabitants (either the total number or the number of a particular race or class) in a given place (country or city etc.)
   “people come and go, but the population of this town has remained approximately constant for the past decade”

   “the African-American population of Salt Lake City has been increasing”

   type of:

   integer, whole number

   any of the natural numbers or their negatives or zero
4. noun

   the act of populating (causing to live in a place)
   “he deplored the population of colonies with convicted criminals”

   type of:

   colonisation, colonization, settlement

   the act of colonizing; the establishment of colonies
5. noun

   (statistics) the entire aggregation of items from which samples can be drawn
   “it is an estimate of the mean of the population”

   synonyms: universe

   types:

   subpopulation

   a population that is part of a larger population

   type of:

   accumulation, aggregation, assemblage, collection

   several things grouped together or considered as a whole