Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Population \Pop`u*la"tion\, n. [L. populatio: cf. F.
   population.]
   1. The act or process of populating; multiplication of
      inhabitants.

   2. The whole number of people, or inhabitants, in a country,
      or portion of a country; as, a population of ten millions.

Source : WordNet®

population
     n 1: the people who inhabit a territory or state; "the population
          seemed to be well fed and clothed"
     2: a group of organisms of the same species populating a given
        area; "they hired hunters to keep down the deer
        population"
     3: (statistics) the entire aggregation of items from which
        samples can be drawn; "it is an estimate of the mean of
        the population" [syn: {universe}]
     4: 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"
     5: the act of populating (causing to live in a place); "he
        deplored the population of colonies with convicted
        criminals"