Noun

Singular population

Plural populations

population (plural populations)

1. (collective) The people living within a political or geographical boundary

   The population of New Jersey will not stand for this!

2. The people living in a single place.

   The population of some smalltowns is numbered in under four digits

3. (biology) A collection of organisms of a particular species, sharing a particular characteristic of interest, most often that of living in a given area

   A seasonal migration annually changes the populations in two or more biotopes drastically, many twice in opposite senses

4. A count of the number of residents within a political or geographical boundary such as a town, a nation or the world

   The town’s population is only 243.

5. (statistics) A group of units (persons, objects, or other items) enumerated in a census or from which a sample is drawn

   "...it is possible it [the Anglo-Saxon race] might stand second to the Scandinavian countries [in average height] if a fair sample of their population were obtained." Francis Galton et al. (1883). Final Report of the Anthropometric Committee, Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, p. 269.

Derived terms

• population explosion
• population growth

Related terms

• popular
• populate
• populous

In biology, a population is the collection of inter-breeding organisms of a particular species; in sociology, a collection of human beings. Individuals within a population share a factor may be reduced by statistical means, but such a generalization may be too vague to imply anything.

Demography is used extensively in marketing, which relates to economic units, such as retailers, to potential customers. For example, a coffee shop that wants to sell to a younger audience looks at the demographics of an area to be able to appeal to this young audience.