Population guide

== Population upkeep ==
For one's nation to maintain the population, you would need food to feed them, like real life o.0. It seems to scale respectively, and the government type can affect the amount of food that is consumed. It is the biggest (numerically) amount of resources going out of the country due to the population, and you would lose 6 happiness if you don't feed them. Due to the fact you would get no taxes at ALL at this time, it would be worth it to buy food, even at higher prices, though farms are your friend when buy now is high.
The population also consumes power and Consumer good. If you have no power, then there is no consequences, that I know of, if there is no power, but due to the general abundance of power, and the need of it to power the factories mean that most players just have power anyway. It is the second largest amount of resources going out of the country
Consumer goods (after 100k population) are also used by your population, and it is less than than either power or food. If you don't have enough to consume for the hour, the happiness of you're nation goes down by 4, so from the usual 2, it'd go down to -2. Again, it is mostly, if not always, worth it to buy CGs to keep your nation happy, and I would also admit that me buying CGs early on rather than leaving them happy kept me afloat, and otherwise, I would of quit (please don't quit nations though)
Most governments also take up money, and though a dictatorship gives you money. The effects of having no money is unknown, other than having to take out a loan, and I believe no-one is willing to test the theory, so we will never know, though it is very hard to run out of money, and are unable to sell anything and I would send condolences to you if you have. 
If, for some odd reason, you have no food nor Consumer goods, you wouldn't lose 10 happiness, rather 8, and, though this is not confirmed, as not many people would give up happiness willingly, if you are below 0 happiness anyway, if you have no Consumer Goods, then you only lose 2 happiness, though it is still worth it to have Consumer Goods, and with maths, (at 15.6M population) it is worth it to buy Consumer Goods at 12 per even if you have less than 0 happiness, so have Consumer Goods dammit! 
== Population Growth ==
Base growth is capped at 1% of your total population, per hour, so if you are at 10,000,000 population, you would grow 100,000 per hour. This number is then effected by two things. How happy your people are, (how much are they enjoying themselves ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ) and what type of government you are. Each happiness would increase base growth by 10%, so at 2 happiness and 10,000,000 population, it would grow, at maximum growth, 120,000 per hour, before the government modifiers. At the time of writing this, the only information I have is that Capitalist Republics grow 5% less, so if a nation at 10,000,000 at 2 happiness, and was a Capitalist Republic, it would grow at 114,000 population per hour (120,000*(1-0.05)).
== Unlocking Items ==
At certain populations, you can build, recruit and research (to get Technologies) certain things, though this is more tightly linked, and built around tiers
== Advantages and disadvantages of having higher population ==
Many items and rewards scale with population, such as Missions, items, and taxes. Taxes, though at the time of writing this, there is no formula found for amount of money gained from taxes, nor rewards from missions, nor items, though it is clear that it is massively advantageous to go up population, as rewards usually double per tier. 
The only drawback in terms of getting things is that all land clearing and land finding options (expand borders and Colonists) scale with population, and also doubling between tiers. This is why many high tier people recommend lower tiers to stock up in these. Furthermore, at higher tiers, you get more land and resources per expand border/colonists, what is why it is good to stock up on them early on and then use them later, when you can get so much more from them. (also buy them in sales dammit)
Category:Guides