Population size

In population genetics and population ecology, population size (usually denoted N) is the number of individual organisms in a population.

The effective population size (N_E) is defined as "the number of breeding individuals in an idealized population that would show the same amount of dispersion of allele frequencies under random genetic drift or the same amount of inbreeding as the population under consideration. N_E is usually less than N (the absolute population size) and this has important applications in conservation genetics.

Small population size results in increased genetic drift. Population bottlenecks are when population size reduces for a short period of time.

Overpopulation may indicate any case in which the population of any species of animal may exceed the carrying capacity of its ecological niche.