population

population — noun

1. everyone living in one city, region, or country, seen as a whole or measured by

1.nounB1
Definition

everyone living in one city, region, or country, seen as a whole or measured by number.

Example

Tokyo's population passed fourteen million in the latest city count.

population + number

After the mine closed, the town's population fell year by year.

Common collocations
  • city population
  • population growth
  • population decline
  • world population
  • total population
Synonyms
  • residents

    everyday and often about the people who live in a place individually

  • inhabitants

    slightly more formal; common in geography or history

  • populace

    more formal or literary; stresses the people as a mass

Grammar Patterns

population of + place

a population of + number

Usage Note

Often used with numbers and change words such as rise, fall, grow, and decline. Distinguish from sense 2, which focuses on one kind of people or animals inside a place rather than everyone there.

Common Mistakes

Taipei has many populations.
Taipei has a large population.
for one place, this sense usually means the whole number of people there.

2. people or animals in the same place that are counted together because they belon

2.nounB2
Definition

people or animals in the same place that are counted together because they belong to one kind.

Example

Doctors worry about the fast-growing elderly population in rural Taiwan.

adjective + population for subgroup

The wolf population recovered after hunting was banned in the park.

animal + population

Common collocations
  • elderly population
  • student population
  • wolf population
  • insect population
  • female population
Synonyms
  • group

    very general and not limited to people or animals in one place

  • community

    often human and may suggest shared identity, not just a counted set

  • subgroup

    stresses being one part of a larger whole

Grammar Patterns

adjective + population

animal/group + population

Usage Note

Usually paired with a word that names the type, such as elderly, student, wolf, or insect. Distinguish from sense 1, which means all the people living in the place as one whole.

Common Mistakes

The city population of old people is growing.
The elderly population of the city is growing.
in this sense, name the group clearly before or after 'population'.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

'Population' is the standard word when you mean all the people in a place or the number of them. 'Populace' is more formal and often sounds political or literary. 'Residents' points to the people who live there one by one, especially in news reports or official notices. 'Inhabitants' is slightly more formal and is common in geography, history, and science writing. 'Community' is different because it often suggests shared identity or social ties, not only location. A census counts the population, local residents may oppose a building plan, and a fishing community may help one another after a storm.

population ↗populaceresidentsinhabitantscommunity ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Phrases

  • a large population
  • a small population
  • a growing population
  • a shrinking population

Prepositions

  • population of
  • population in

Etymology

LatinFrenchEnglish

Population entered English in the early 1600s through Late Latin and related French forms. The word is built from Latin populus, meaning 'people' or 'nation'. Its earliest core idea was the people of a place taken together, and later English extended it to special uses for animal groups and other counted sets.