Do provinces grow in pop without Growth Domain?

[thejeff]

0 is the neutral state. No growth no death.

When you buy growth your population grows.
When you take death your population dies.

It's really very simple.

The devs have stated it's intentional that it's far easier in general to lose population than gain it.
The game takes place over a period of a few years, hardly time for a population boom to grow up.
And it's the endtimes. An apocalyptic religious war. People get killed. Lots of them.
Once a pretender wins, then populations can grow again, assuming thats what the new pantokrator wants...