Star Wars just dropped a surprise reveal about Coruscant, and it doesn’t make any sense at all. George Lucas always imagined the Galactic Empire to be based on a city-planet (an idea he ripped from Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series). In the end, Coruscant actually made its debut in Timothy Zahn’s 1991 novel Heir to the Empire, although it wasn’t long before it appeared on-screen in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.

Coruscant played a key role in the sequel trilogy, and it’s returned several times under Disney – including in The Acolyte, which revealed what the planet was like during the High Republic Era. This appearance actually means Lucasfilm has just dropped some surprising news about Coruscant in that time period – and it just doesn’t make any sense at all.

Star Wars Has Just Revealed How Many People Live On Coruscant (& It Doesn’t Make Sense)

It Should Have A MUCH Higher Population

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According to The Acolyte Visual Guide, the population of Coruscant is a staggering 2,981,780,000,000. That’s 370 times the population of Earth. At first glance, that seems impressive; but it’s actually not, given the entire surface of Coruscant is one big city. Seven years ago, Eckharts Ladder ran the numbers and came up with a likely population of 20,000,000,000,000 – literally ten times the official figure.

Why is this the case? Well, simply because Coruscant has always been portrayed as a planet that is Earthlike in size – meaning we have a good idea of its surface area. Although there is one ocean, and there are industrial sections such as the Works, we also have to remember that the inhabitants of Coruscant have built one level on top of another. There are over 5,000 levels to Coruscant.

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I Don’t Think The Republic (Or The Empire) Really Know How Many People Are On Coruscant

Where Do The Numbers Even Come From?

But where does the official number even come from? Let’s ᴀssume that, from an in-universe perspective, it’s from some sort of official census periodically taken on Coruscant. In that scenario, I don’t think official figures will mean much; Coruscant doesn’t appear to have customs, with people flying into and away from the galactic capital as easily as you might drive into your closest city.

Meanwhile, I’m also not convinced the lower levels of Coruscant will have even been monitored. You have to understand that, on Coruscant, the wealthier people live on the higher levels near the surface; the poorer you are, the lower down you live, literally out of sight as far as the rulers are concerned. Even the Jedi seldom concern themselves with the lower levels.

The Star Wars galaxy is nothing like Star Trek, which portrays a sci-fi utopia where money has ceased to be an object. ᴀssuming the same pattern holds true for Coruscant that we see in the real world, the bulk of Coruscant’s population will be in the lower levels. They’re barely policed, and I suspect they won’t be subject to any official census. In other words… The Acolyte Visual Guide‘s “official” number may be a mᴀssive underestimate.

Coruscant’s Lowest Levels Are Literally Uninhabitable

People Won’t Live On All 5,000 Levels

There’s one last twist to this too; the fact we know that vast portions of Coruscant are literally uninhabited (and, in fact, uninhabitable). In Star Wars Adventures #4, Delilah S. Dawson and Margaux Saltel tell a short story called “The Right Wrong Turn” in which the young Princess Leia and Amilyn Holdo travel down to level four – and there aren’t even maps of this level anymore. It’s been given over to wildlife that has evolved to deal with permanent darkness.

It does make sense that the lowest levels of Coruscant would be uninhabitable. A city-planet must generate a lot of pollutants; many of the gases are heavier than air, meaning they’d sink down to the surface. I can easily picture the Republic (and most certainly the Empire) allowing waste to build up, not caring about the impact on the forgotten lowest levels.

In Zoraida Córdova’s novel Convergence, a senator’s son admits the ancient history of Coruscant has been completely forgotten – along with the ecumenopolis’ lower levels. “There are ruins in the lowest levels,” he reflects, “but it’s uninhabitable.” With the exception of an occasional adventuress such as Leia, nobody even goes down there, meaning we don’t even know how many levels have been abandoned.

All in all, then, I don’t think we should be surprised at Star Wars‘ surprising low estimate for Coruscant’s population. It probably reflects the sloppy record-keeping of the Republic, and the sheer amount of living-space that’s been abandoned.