n.1 a the inhabitants of a place, country, etc. referred to collectively. b any specified group within this (the Irish population of Liverpool).
2 the total number of any of these (a population of eight million; the seal population).
3 the act or process of supplying with inhabitants (the population of forest areas).
4 Statistics any finite or infinite collection of items under consideration.
Phrases and idioms:
population explosion a sudden large increase of population.
Etymology: LL populatio (as PEOPLE)