Pop growth is inconsistent and it's driving me mad.

[Ohirra]

I colonised half a dozen habitats all at exactly the same time, and they start with 108 pops each. Good.

After about a year, the numbers are out of sync by a few pops. WHY?

The whole point of colonising them all at the same time was so that the pop numbers would be identical for, well, ever.

I never have this problem with my machine pops.

Why is there this erratic pop growth discrepancy?

 

[Metallichydra]

If you have, say, 3.14 pop growth then you will get 3 pops each month and 14% chance to get an extra.

 

[Exasperation]

If you have, say, 3.14 pop growth then you will get 3 pops each month and 14% chance to get an extra.

And, apparently, there is a bug with robot assembly where the fractional assembly gets discarded (so if you have 3.14 assembly you will always get 3, never 4): https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...ction-appears-to-be-entirely-ignored.1746183/
That explains why they never have this "problem" of colonies growing at slightly different rates with machine pops - the numbers are coming out even because they're actually getting short-changed on fractional machine pops.

 

[Anarcomu]

I am also under impression that each pop group (worker-specialist etc. and ethics) each have their very own calculation, even with one specie.
So if you have 3 growth and 6 groups, instead of a guaranteed 3 more pop each year, you get 0-6 pop instead (with a mean of 3 pop).
I noticed, in the very early game, that my capital was gaining semi-random amount of pops each month (and since I had no colonies, couldn't be emigration).

 

[passeris]

I colonised half a dozen habitats all at exactly the same time, and they start with 108 pops each. Good.

After about a year, the numbers are out of sync by a few pops. WHY?

The whole point of colonising them all at the same time was so that the pop numbers would be identical for, well, ever.

I never have this problem with my machine pops.

Why is there this erratic pop growth discrepancy?

Dude. Stick with robots.

 

[Call Me Vandal]

The CIA glowies are inserting pops into your Stellaris colonies as a psyop. Side note, DON'T drink the tap water.

 

[Nithralder]

I colonised half a dozen habitats all at exactly the same time, and they start with 108 pops each. Good.

After about a year, the numbers are out of sync by a few pops. WHY?

The whole point of colonising them all at the same time was so that the pop numbers would be identical for, well, ever.

I never have this problem with my machine pops.

Why is there this erratic pop growth discrepancy?

Pop Growth is basically broken this patch. I am sure it will be fixed by the time 4.14 comes out after Paradox comes out with 50 more DLCs

 

[Tannhäuser Cake]

I colonised half a dozen habitats all at exactly the same time, and they start with 108 pops each. Good.

After about a year, the numbers are out of sync by a few pops. WHY?

The whole point of colonising them all at the same time was so that the pop numbers would be identical for, well, ever.

I never have this problem with my machine pops.

Why is there this erratic pop growth discrepancy?

You see, when a male pop and a female pop like each other very much, sometimes they like to spice things up a bit, and not all spices are equally conducive to producing a healthy baby pop.