Populations management in Stellaris Stellaris guide, tips
Last update: 14 March 2019
A skillful management of population in Stellaris involves bending them to the needs of your politics. Thanks to manipulating edicts and your actions, you can effectively make factions null and void and increase the growth of the individual populaces. Below you'll find some information and tips regarding population management.
Changing government type
With the development of new technologies, you will be given the option to change the political system of your empire. In the initial stage of the game you can choose from only the basic forms of government, based on the ethos that you have chosen. In later stages of the game there will be additional options that will significantly increase bonuses resulting from your basic form of government. Given the option, you should definitely take advantage of the possibility of obtaining more favorable modifiers, or you could also completely change the bonuses along with the form of government.
Change costs 250 influence points, so you can not afford it immediately after the start of the game, but after a while, when your empire becomes sufficiently developed, you can opt for such an expense.
Icon | Name and notes | Effects |
 | Star Empire Each ruler can build a unique, oversized military station. | -30% building cost + 20% slave mineral output + 20% slave food output |
 | Mega Corporation The election of a new ruler takes place every 40-50 years. | + 10% energy credits + 10% minerals |
 | Democratic Utopia Elections are held every 5 years. | +2 leader skill level -10% leader recruitment costs |
 | Neural Network Administration Each ruler can build an elite assault army. | + 10% research speed + 20% survey speed |
 | Illuminated Technocracy The election of a new ruler takes place every 40-50 years. | +2 research alternatives +2 empire leader capacity |
 | Subconscious Consensus Elections are held every 5 years. | +4 core sector planets |
 | Martial Empire The election of the a rulers takes place after the death of the previous one. Each ruler can build unique, oversized ship. | + 40% naval capacity -10% ship upkeep |
 | Ordered Stratocracy The election of a new rulers takes place every 40-50 years. | -20% ship cost -50% ship upgrade cost |
 | Martial Demarchy Elections are held every 5 years. | -20% army upkeep -20% ship upkeep + 10% war tolerance |
Notes: Change of the government system may have a negative impact on the populations living in the empire and contribute to the rise of a separatist faction in the long run. Changing the system will also block access to some of the policies while granting access to some other. Before you change your government, thoroughly consider how the bonuses will change, because you can suffer big losses if the backbone of your economy was based on them.
Happiness
One of the key factors determining the development of your empire. Its native population will generally be more happy with the prevailing political system and less likely to engage in separatist movements. The real problems begin when you empire begins to incorporate planets where the population belongs to a leading species and has been under the influence of other ethics for a long time.
In that case, you can be sure that the population will spawn a separatist faction demanding you to return the planet under the rule of the previous empire. You will probably have to deal with social discontent and various kinds of sabotage.
The picture above shows one such situation. Yellow bar represents insufficient levels of happiness for a given population. Each population has an arbitrarily assigned base happiness. When the actual level of happiness drops below that base value, the productivity of that particular population drops. In case dissatisfaction reaches truly high levels, you will not receive any revenue from the tiles situated on the planets that oppose your governency.
Dissatisfaction can be caused by some of your policies, the political system itself, the neighboring populations, or the war trauma. Simply place the mouse cursor over the happiness bar of a particular population to see what factors are responsible for the current value of the parameter. There are several ways in which you can improve the attitude of the new inhabitants of the empire:
1. Appointment of a governer on the planet.
Notes: The primary mechanism to build positive relations with your subjects. The governor increases the satisfaction level on the planet by 2% with each subsequent experience level. The maximum increase in satisfaction is 10% on the fifth level of experience, assuming the governer has no additional modifiers to increase his level.
2. Edicts
Notes: Planetary edicts are costly in terms of influence points, but they effectively fulfill their role for the entire time when an edict stays in effect. It is important to use edicts reducing ethics divergence and directly enhancing happiness levels. Edicts lasting ten years will easily help you, at least partially, offset the effects of a war.
3. Genetic alteration of a species
Through new technologies you can change the genetic code of certain species and modify their basic features, such as preferred climate or their overall happiness level.
Access to genetic modifications is available after the you develop the technology to uplift pre-sentient species. Enter the relations panel and the species tab. Here you will find all the species with whom you came into contact in the course of the game. You will find their traits and the number of populations. After selecting the species you would like to "enhance", click on the button marked on the picture above.
After clicking the button, you'll see the window as shown above. Depending on the degree of technological advancement and the populations basic traits, you will have a certain number of points that you can spend on trait modification.
You can change the species' planet preference and add traits which you find useful. Having set the right parameters, the species will be subjected to thorough sociological studies; it will also temporarily prevent you from researching new technologies. What is important is that you have to have access to the entire population of a species for the operation to be successful, that is, all members of a species have to live within the borders of your empire.
Notes: If you find an undeveloped species living on a single planet then the situation simple. Just throw in the features that suit you and, if needed, change the population's plant preference. If you encounter species that live on several, different planets or are hostile, then you should invest points in modifiers affecting happiness and ethics divergence. Remember that genetic alterations will not always be successful, and if you do not have access to the entire species they are certain to fail.
4. Policy change
Notes: You can change your policies to raise the happiness of particular species. You must always keep in mind that the changes may work against you if you try to appeal to numerous minor species at the same time while the majority of your empire keeps supporting the previous policy. Remember that in time, due to the effects of the economy and the governor, happiness will naturally grow until it reaches the base level; which means it is not always a good call to discard some of the policies, as you may meet with resistance from the loyalists.