does system population impact # ships at RES?

From my experince it doesn't, or at least not that I have noticed.

Same I find with NPCs in SC in general, numbers do vary but almost seems random. Even when it is busy (say 10+ in range) still feels small when you consider some systems have millions or billions of citizens.
 
I believe this is another case of 'should but probably doesn't' in Elite. It's pretty common, don't assume the game follows logic everywhere, it is only half complete after all.
 
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