How many do you need? For what?
Prayer for the game to be updated, so we can go beyond level 70!!
Permit office is a little helpful, but the best way to "increase" your population is to get rid of stuff you don't need, such as defensive structures. A lot of the military buildings are unnecessary after you've finished all of the missions.
I kept all defenses i was asked for during missions, have some solar power plants, some shops twice, triple mills, permits office not maxed and still population left. Still don't know why some need more population.
Once u truly understand the game and are in a guild where u work as a team .. You will likely never have enough population.. I have 420 and it's not enough. Storage is a key component and at 50k storage it's not enough .. Population is a major factor!
Yes you need ressources. I donated a million lumber and more than 600k concrete in last boss strikes (each; besides fighting). This can't be done with a single base, no matter how much population one has. And it can be done with very low storage (i have 42k and don't need more). You could say i play with more than 2k population so i'm relaxed for the population on the main base ;)
2k pop sounds like about 5 accounts. For those of us who only use one account we need every pop we can get to help maximize our output to keep pumping out the new units and upgrade our buildings. There is no such thing as enough or too much storage or population! :)
I have over a 100,000,000 in gold andit keeps going up. Is there anything you can do with it? My population is 435 and I have maxed out my expanson. I'm level 70. Waiting for max lecels to increase.
Once you're in a guild that is maxed, there isn't much you can do with gold any more, but as Gere168 pointed out, as long as you have space on your base you should keep building ponds. Would be create if they created a decortation that you could occupy for concrete!