Population not enough

[ExChairman (OP)]

Guys (I presume we all are guys playing this game ) how do you handle the problem of to little manpower for all you whant to do....

I recently found out a system whith 4 planets that can be made habitabel and all had alien construction on them, but myproblem is that I have to little population to exploit this bonanza....

My leaders are trying to increase the population, but not fast enough....

Suggestions?

[Whitecold]

Smaller populations have higher population growth rates, so expanding to them will help already.
The only other way I can see is finding some other suitable alien population, conquer in, and ship in your new laborers.

[SgtVennamo]

While it's true that smaller populations have greater growth in percentage points, the absolute growth amounts are higher with high populations.  For example; Let's say we have two populations, homeworld of 700m with annual growth rate of 2%, and a colony of 10m with annual growth of 10% per year (which are numbers I've seen in the game).  With 2% growth, the population doubles in size in about 35 years, and with 10% doubling time is about 7 years.  So the colony doubles five times in the time that homeworld populations doubles just once.  So we get the following (assuming that growth remains constant):

Homeworld: 700m*2=1400m => 700m increase in population over 35 years
Colony: 10*2*2*2*2*2 = 320m => 310m increase in population over 35 years

So the absolute growth is over double in homeworld, despite the higher percentage of growth in the colony.

But back to the question.  Like Whitecold said, just start the colonies with good leaders and the populations will grow surprisingly fast.  And, if there are suitable and agreeable aliens, you could get some labour from there. 

[alex_brunius]

So the absolute growth is over double in homeworld, despite the higher percentage of growth in the colony.

Absolute growth is not interesting since the only choice presented is either to keep the home-world or colonize several smaller bodies with the same population, which will always lead to higher growth and more population in the end.

And your math produce strange numbers since the Colony with 10 mil will not sustain 10% growth for that long.

Let's start with looking at annual numbers instead. Alternative #1 ( doing nothing with the 700mil pop ) and Alternative #2 ( colonizing 5 worlds with 10mil each ).

#1 700*0.02 = 14 mil growth
#2 650*0.02 + 50*0.1 = 18 mil growth

While this doesn't seem that impressive 18 mil is actually 29% more growth then 14, and it will be compounded by time when the extra population raises growth further.

[SgtVennamo]

Absolute growth is not interesting since the only choice presented is either to keep the home-world or colonize several smaller bodies with the same population, which will always lead to higher growth and more population in the end. 

And your math produce strange numbers since the Colony with 10 mil will not sustain 10% growth for that long. 

Let's start with looking at annual numbers instead.   Alternative #1 ( doing nothing with the 700mil pop ) and Alternative #2 ( colonizing 5 worlds with 10mil each ). 

#1 700*0.  02 = 14 mil growth
#2 650*0.  02 + 50*0.  1 = 18 mil growth

While this doesn't seem that impressive 18 mil is actually 29% more growth then 14, and it will be compounded by time when the extra population raises growth further. 

I never disputed having colonies wouldn't result in greater overall population, which it obviously does.   I just wanted to point out that saying smaller colonies, by themselves, have greater population growth is not true.   That being said, having colonies in addition to the homeworld results on greater pop growth quite quickly.   By your numbers even one colony with 1.  5m people will have greater growth than the homeworld alone.   
I admit my example was misleading one and a result of hasty thinking.   

The main reason for my posting was that I'm moving to an english speaking country for a few months, and decided to brush up on the language.   :p