If you are planning on using national troops (especially capital units), you might wish to consider getting a Stone Idol as soon as possible, and drop *your* Dominion from your capital. 1,000 population is the absolute minimum you can go to and keep a working capital (with 100% resources), though finding gold will be another matter altogether.
Growth past 1 will virtually do nothing to stop population loss: Growth 3 gives +0.6% population per turn, while you lose 1% population per level of Dominion in all provinces. So unless you have a very low Dominion (not your best notion), you will lose population too quickly for Growth to matter. On another note, high Dominion will have an unfortunate downside: it will make it easier for your Dominion to spread around, especially in enemy territories. And not everybody will like your Turmoil/Sloth/Misfortune/Heat + population loss Dominion.
