The Itrius Foundation, a privately funded research group, released its sixth census report a year ago. Improved polling measures and calculation methods made the census the best taken since the first colonial driveship left Earth. For six months, Itrius representatives traveled throughout the stellar nations, gathering information. The census publishers are proud to report a margin of error estimated at less than 30% in population figures and less than 1% in religious affiliation; more skeptical observers note that the accuracy of religion responses is impossible to guarantee. The Itrius data defies earlier estimates that placed human population in excess of 10 trillion. A revised estimate holds that 10 trillion sentient beings will dwell in explored space within three years.

The table below presents the master summary of the census. The population of each stellar nation is broken down into the six principal species and a default category to include other species. As a casual glance at the table reveals, humans outnumber alien species by a generous margin; for every 40 humans in explored space, the census found only one alien.

Individual sentient beings provided their religious affiliation after polling. Two facts should be noted. First, sentient beings were not asked if they regularly attend or support their religious affiliation. Some atheists view the inclusion of so-called 'casual believers' as evidence that religious estimates are inflated.

Finally, it's noteworthy that representatives of the stellar nations were sometimes present when their citizens revealed a religious affiliation. Since confidentiality couldn't be assured, the representatives may have affected their citizen's answers.

For the first time, the Itrius Foundation has given Insight its own listing, ending its classification as “Other.” The move is thought to be a response to public pressure and an attempt to end Grid attacks against the foundation's computer core.

In population terms, the Union of Sol still remains the largest nation, almost twice as populous as the next largest and six times bigger than newcomers such as Insight. In terms of population density, though, the Galactic Concord is the most thinly settled nation, with 631 billion citizens. Its battered territories suffered bombardment, bio-warfare, starvation, and wholesale slaughter during the Second Galactic War; even after the war, many of its constituent parts collapsed from lack of infrastructure. Before the war, the region's population had stood at 790 billion souls. The greatest increase in the Concord's population lately has been due to the addition of the t'sa, whose numbers have quadrupled in the last 30 years.

Most of the other alien species remain clustered near their homeworlds; the fraal are the obvious exception. Due to their nomadic lifestyle and their odd ship designations, the Wanderers among the fraal introduce a high degree of uncertainty into their numbers. Some city-ships are surely miscounted, and others may roam beyond civilized borders. The margin of error is higher in this category than for other species and approaches 6%.

Finally, the Itrius Foundation has recently been commissioned by the Galactic Concord's Committee on Verge Integration to undertake a complete census of the Verge. Preliminary sampling has already begun, though the foundation is still hiring census takers to visit some of the region's more remote systems. A fully compiled report isn't expected until 2504 at the earliest.