How Many Worlds Were in the Federation?

[Albertese]

I don't know of any reference to exactly how many worlds comprised the UFP during the course of TOS. In First Contact Picard tells Lillie that the Federation is made of about 150 worlds (IIRC), so one would suppose that there are fewer in the 2260's. In "Metamorphosis" Kirk tells Cochrane, "We're on a thousand worlds and spreading out," though I think he was referring to the human diaspora rather than the member worlds of the Federation. Also, I suppose he meant every frontier colony and outpost instead of just full scale sovereign planets/systems.

So if the UFP began with five worlds in 2161 and had 150 worlds about 200 odd years later, then we can deduce that a new member world is being added, on average, about every eighteen months or so. At that rate, then by the time of Kirk's first five year mission, there ought to be 75 or so. Maybe?

In the FJ Star Trek: Star Fleet Technical Manual There is a chart of "UNITED FEDERATION of Planets -- Principal Stellar Systems" on which I count 50 star systems called out. I dunno how much credence I give that thogh, seeing as how it does fail to mention a number of known Federation worlds mentioned on the show. (Although it does include Planet Mongo! Ha! Oh no, Emperor Ming!)

There are other pretty widely ranging numbers in various Star Trek reference material on my shelves. One of my favorites, Starfleet Dynamics, make it 1,500 member worlds as of 2293! (Seems a tad high to me...)

So I was wondering if there was a larger fan consensus regarding the number of member worlds in the UFP in, say, 2270. And also I wonder if anyone has a comprehensive list of them.

Thanks!

--Alex

 

[Wingsley]

Keep in mind that "how many worlds were in the Federation" is a nebulous question in itself. In TOS, it is suggested that Mars is colonized. Is it considered a separate "world"?

What if a colony-world has a relatively small population, in the millions or even in the thousands? Does it have the same weight in being recognized as a sovereign "world" than a founding planet of origin like Earth, Vulcan, or Andor?

Also, there may be varying degrees of involvement that alien civilizations choose on behalf of their peoples. Some may choose to be fully engaged in the Federation, building and maintaining starships and other Federation facilities and bases, sponsoring projects and the like. Other worlds may choose less involvement, opting to be active trading partners. (Coridan in TOS' "Journey to Babel") Still other worlds may simply work jointly on specific science or technology projects, and have only minimal interest in the Federation. (Gideon) And then other worlds may have no interest in the Federation (Malkor III in TNG's "First Contact")

So, even before you consider the proliferation of colonies, it's hard to nail down what a Federation "world" means in practical terms.

It would not surprise me if fully engaged worlds that hold a seat on the Federation Council are still rare in the TOS era. Maybe only a few dozen at most. I would expect that membership in that elite "club" would probably be determined by a society's ability to sponsor, build, maintain and man Federation-spec starships. (In "Tomorrow is Yesterday", Kirk seemed to indicate that United Earth Space Probe Agency was Earth's platform for doing this.)

So Kirk may have been telling Cochrane about the 1,000 worlds that the Federation has at least some relationship with, even if on a minimal level. This likely includes colonies and non-aligned trading partners. As for Federation Council members, it's not clear how many there are as of the TOS era. If the hearing chamber scenes on Earth during TMP4 are any indication, they likely number in the dozens.

 

[Albertese]

You make excellent points. Those were questions that I was wondering about as well. Somehow, I always figured that things were organized more along system lines rather than individual planets, therefore Mars would be under the same flag as Earth. The reason I figure such would be that each "United Planet" probably had holdings within its home system before becoming Warp capable and meeting the requirements for first contact and that those holdings would be respected whenever they decided to join the UFP. On the other hand, there were the Fundamental Declarations of the Martian Colonies Mentioned by Mr. Cogley in "Court Martial," and we know that the Martian Colonies had their own flag inspired by a velvet painting of a bull fighter from DS9's "In the Cards." So I suppose it wouldn't be inconceivable that Mars is a separate political entity from Earth by the time the Federation is founded.

And in "The Could Minders" I got the impression that even though the planet Ardana was a member of the Federation, there were things going on there that the rest of the UFP wasn't really aware of or would be kosher with, thus suggesting that the nature of the UFP is much looser in TOS times that in TNG times, more like sovereign nations forming the body of the UN rather than states comprising the US. (At least since Reconstruction.)

If we go by that TMP4 pic you linked to, then maybe we're looking at about 30 worlds or so with full membership status and perhaps many many more worlds which operate in a limited status, only participating in specific local trading and common defense policies and so on. (I say 30 because it seems like the delegates are seated in pairs and assuming the pattern of the first rows is the same all the way up, then there are 60 persons. Though really, there's no evidence to suggest that's really what's going on, for all we know these could just be people invited to see the trial who happened to be in San Fransisco at the time, the rest of the VIP's watching remotely. After all, in the end of the movie, Spock and Gillian Taylor get seats there too and they certainly weren't elected representatives of anything!)

Anyway, it's interesting to think about.

So let's figure out a list of the planets that are united...

Earth
Mars (maybe)
Vulcan
Andor
Tellar
Alpha Centauri
Aldebaran ("WNMHGB" and "The Deadly Years")
Alpha V (Colony where Charly Evans nearest relatives lived)
Altair VI (Where Kirk was supposed to be for the presidential inauguration in "Amok Time." Might be a UFP world given that they seem to do their own thing in TOS, but maybe not, since they were fighting a civil war IIRC)
Archanis IV (Home of Checkov's imaginary Brother in "The Day of the Dove")
Ardana (The Cloud Minders)
Argelius II ("Wolf in the Fold", struck me as a UFP planet, but maybe it wasn't)
Ariannus (Planet vital as a transfer point in "Let the be Your Last Battlefield.... struck by a plague so that suggests a big population)
Babel ("Journey to Babel"...but maybe not, since Kirk calls it a "neutral planetoid".)
Benecia Colony ("The Conscience of the King" and "The Turnabout Intruder")
Cestus III ("Arena", but this may only count as an outpost in TOS, but it evidently eventually became a member by DS9)
Coridan (Admitted to the UFP shortly after the events of "Journey to Babel")
Cygnet XIV (The place the Enterprise computer was "fixed" just before "Tomorrow is Yesterday")
Cygnia Minor (Threatened by plague in "The Conscience of the King")
Deneb ("Wolf in the Fold" and "I. Mudd")
Deneva ("Operation Annihilate")
Midos V (Where Roger Korby hoped to start building his army of android replacements)
New Paris Colonies (stricken by plague in "The Galileo Seven" Dang I hadn't realized how much plague was rampant in the 23rd Century!)
Planet Q ("Conscience of the King")
Rigel (Rigel gets lots of numbers asscociated with it, I like the FASA explanation that it was an ancient system that was entirely terraformed by some earlier civilization, that's why there's so many of them)
Tarsus IV (Where Kodos the Executioner did his thing)
Tiburon ("The Way to Eden" and "The Savage Curtain")
Wrigley's Pleasure Planet (Maybe. Mentioned in "The Man Trap")


So that's a list quickly culled from the table under "planets" in the Star Trek Encyclopedia. It's really more a list of candidates I suppose, since a lot of those worlds may well be neutral or otherwise independent of the Federation. Nor does it really include post-TOS worlds which we know would have been known from later shows, like Trill, for instance. Or Risa.

Anyway, I think this might be fun to try to pin down.

--Alex

 

[blssdwlf]

Also, do you count Starbases that are on planets (like Starbase 11)?

1000's of planets could work for TOS since they generally had faster travel times. When the production folks of TNG re-calibrated and slowed down warp speed then it would make sense to reduce the number of planets as well, IMO.

You might end up having two lists

 

[Ronald Held]

They could count all of their colonies and planets inhabited in the main system.

 

[Timo]

We have witnessed several star systems that feature multiple populated planets: Rigel, Bajor, Cardassia, Earth. This might be more a rule than an exception, as a warp culture might find it trivially easy to exploit its home system's various nooks and crannies even if those did not possess abundant resources or Class M environments. OTOH, multiple seemingly "naturally occurring" Class M worlds per system also appear to be common, probably due to ancient terraforming efforts rather than true natural evolution (say, "Spock's Brain" or ST:GEN).

It wouldn't be at all unlikely for a culture with X major inhabited planets to be "on" 10X or 50X or even 100X "worlds", then, like Kirk says. 10X would already come from planets in those systems that featured the Xs, while the rest would be worlds within the species' cultural reach but not exclusively owned by them.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[RandyS]

I started to answer 150, then remembered that was a DS9 reference. I don't believe the actual number ever appeared in TOS or TAS, but I could be wrong.

 

[Pauln6]

It's tricky - I would say only worlds with their own officially recognised governments would count as member worlds. Those claimed by the Federation generally or colony worlds of specific governments - such as mining outposts and starbases would not count against the total, although might later be added in if a formal colony is given permission to settle there and create its own independent government. The planets are like US states and the Federation is the over-arching federal body.

So let's figure out a list of the planets that are united...

Earth
Mars (maybe)
Vulcan
Andor
Tellar
Alpha Centauri
Aldebaran ("WNMHGB" and "The Deadly Years")
Alpha V (Colony where Charly Evans nearest relatives lived)
Altair VI (Where Kirk was supposed to be for the presidential inauguration in "Amok Time." Might be a UFP world given that they seem to do their own thing in TOS, but maybe not, since they were fighting a civil war IIRC)
Archanis IV (Home of Checkov's imaginary Brother in "The Day of the Dove")
Ardana (The Cloud Minders)
Argelius II ("Wolf in the Fold", struck me as a UFP planet, but maybe it wasn't)
Ariannus (Planet vital as a transfer point in "Let the be Your Last Battlefield.... struck by a plague so that suggests a big population)
Babel ("Journey to Babel"...but maybe not, since Kirk calls it a "neutral planetoid".)
Benecia Colony ("The Conscience of the King" and "The Turnabout Intruder")
Cestus III ("Arena", but this may only count as an outpost in TOS, but it evidently eventually became a member by DS9)
Coridan (Admitted to the UFP shortly after the events of "Journey to Babel")
Cygnet XIV (The place the Enterprise computer was "fixed" just before "Tomorrow is Yesterday")
Cygnia Minor (Threatened by plague in "The Conscience of the King")
Deneb ("Wolf in the Fold" and "I. Mudd")
Deneva ("Operation Annihilate")
Midos V (Where Roger Korby hoped to start building his army of android replacements)
New Paris Colonies (stricken by plague in "The Galileo Seven" Dang I hadn't realized how much plague was rampant in the 23rd Century!)
Planet Q ("Conscience of the King")
Rigel (Rigel gets lots of numbers asscociated with it, I like the FASA explanation that it was an ancient system that was entirely terraformed by some earlier civilization, that's why there's so many of them)
Tarsus IV (Where Kodos the Executioner did his thing)
Tiburon ("The Way to Eden" and "The Savage Curtain")
Wrigley's Pleasure Planet (Maybe. Mentioned in "The Man Trap")


So that's a list quickly culled from the table under "planets" in the Star Trek Encyclopedia. It's really more a list of candidates I suppose, since a lot of those worlds may well be neutral or otherwise independent of the Federation. Nor does it really include post-TOS worlds which we know would have been known from later shows, like Trill, for instance. Or Risa. --Alex

You might still want to include those races that were cited in TMP, which was set a few short years after TOS and/or the animated series:

Amazzarites, Arcturians, Beltelgeusians, Caitians, Edoans, Deltans, Kazarites, K'normians, Rhaandarites, Saurians, Megarites, Zaranites etc

 

[Timo]

It sounds a bit artificial to restrict membership to "integer planets", when in theory a single continent or a geographically uncontained political party could be a member, too.

Yes, there are upsides to requiring that an entire planet be living in peace and under one government. But an entire planet might live in peace and be under six governments, just as nicely as six planets may live in peace under a single government. And if "humans" or "Vulcans" or "Andorians" can be members, why not "Galactic Free Labor Party"? It's just as arbitrary a selection of individuals - unless one considers biology, which sounds awfully nasty.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[mythme]

Vega - Vega Colony (The Cage)
Earth Colony II (George Kirk wanted a position at the science station here. Unknown if it was a planetary installation)
Delta IV - TMP (Ilia)
Efros(?) - Homeworld of the Efrosians (TVH, TUC)
Cait - (TAS, TVH)
Edos - (TAS)
Ithana(?) - Ithanites (the little gold guys from Journey to Babel)
Arkena(?) - Arkenites (TVH)
Grazer(?) - Jaresh-Inyo had entered politics in 2072, 11 years after TUC

Perhaps the homeworlds of the aliens seen on the Federation Council in TVH - Arcadians, Ariolo, Bzzit Khaht, Kasheeta, Xelatians, Zanarites

 

[T'Girl]

The way I figure it, the Federation membership didn't grow at a stead rate of speed, from a half dozen to 150 plus, rather the bigger it got, the then faster it grew. During TOS, Kirk rarely mentions new members, while it was a frequent subject during TNG. So kind of figure there were thirty or forty member in Kirk's day, a century after the creation of the Federation. And physically the Federation was only a quarter the size as in PIcard's time.

In addition, the Federation had outside political allies, trade partners and just plain neighbors.

The Klingons were about the same size as the Federation and the Romulan half the size of each of them, 15 or 20 star systems.

And in "The Could Minders" I got the impression that even though the planet Ardana was a member of the Federation, there were things going on there that the rest of the UFP wasn't really aware of or would be kosher with

In the case of Ardana, it hard to say, likely the other Federation member knew about the social and government situation. Ardana wasn't a little visited word off by itself in the galaxy, it was a well visited world, Kirk himself had been there once before and knew that Stratos chief occupation was art, Spock knew that there was a class system and the working class were referred to as Troglyte. Ardana would have been known to be a aristocratic state, likely it was one at the time Ardana became a Federation member

And if the numerous Federation members have a wide variety of government types, including other aristocracies, then Ardana's system at the time of admissions might have been no big deal. Oligarchies may be a common in the Federation. With their rigid societal structure it would not be hard to imagine the Vulcans to have a form of class system as well. If hypothetically 30 Federation members had some sort of class society systems and 10 did not, that would make Earth and the few others the odd ones out, not Ardana.

 

[Albertese]

...

Ithana(?) - Ithanites (the little gold guys from Journey to Babel)

...

Oh yeah, those guys! I always wondered what they were supposed to be. One time I was showing that episode to a friend of mine (he'd seen some TNG but not much TOS) and as soon as those fellows showed up, he jumped out of his seat, pointed at the screen and loudly proclaimed, "They're midgets! Midgets made of GOLD!!!" It was quite funny.

And yes I am inclined to include those races too.

The way I figure it, the Federation membership didn't grow at a stead rate of speed, from a half dozen to 150 plus, rather the bigger it got, the then faster it grew. During TOS, Kirk rarely mentions new members, while it was a frequent subject during TNG. So kind of figure there were thirty or forty member in Kirk's day, a century after the creation of the Federation. And physically the Federation was only a quarter the size as in PIcard's time.

In addition, the Federation had outside political allies, trade partners and just plain neighbors.

The Klingons were about the same size as the Federation and the Romulan half the size of each of them, 15 or 20 star systems.

And in "The Could Minders" I got the impression that even though the planet Ardana was a member of the Federation, there were things going on there that the rest of the UFP wasn't really aware of or would be kosher with

In the case of Ardana, it hard to say, likely the other Federation member knew about the social and government situation. Ardana wasn't a little visited word off by itself in the galaxy, it was a well visited world, Kirk himself had been there once before and knew that Stratos chief occupation was art, Spock knew that there was a class system and the working class were referred to as Troglyte. Ardana would have been known to be a aristocratic state, likely it was one at the time Ardana became a Federation member

And if the numerous Federation members have a wide variety of government types, including other aristocracies, then Ardana's system at the time of admissions might have been no big deal. Oligarchies may be a common in the Federation. With their rigid societal structure it would not be hard to imagine the Vulcans to have a form of class system as well. If hypothetically 30 Federation members had some sort of class society systems and 10 did not, that would make Earth and the few others the odd ones out, not Ardana.

Those are good points too.

--Alex

 

[Magellan]

How do we define worlds? In TNG 150 would certainly be too low if it were inhabited planets/planetoids, as the Solar system alone should have more than 10 or even 100. I kinda figured "worlds"are kind of like states but not the same as races. Maybe each star system counts as a world, maybe the Solar system and a nearby system are both administered as Earth. I always figure that there are fewer than 150 species in TNG but 150 administrative units, many of which are human colonies(explaining the high number of humans in starfleet, for example humans and vulcans are both member species but there are billions more humans through the Fed). Humans could possibly be on live on 1,000 worlds in TOS, at 10 worlds a system it would be 100 systems, at 100 per system, with kirk referring to pluto, ceres and moons as worlds, it's only 10 systems

 

[ZeroArmour]

I don't want to "muddy the waters" but it's unavoidable. The real question is how many "member" world within the UFP.

Just because a planet is withing the boarders of the Federation, it doesn't mean that world is a UFP member. Also, quite a pew of those star systems could be uninhabitable or pre-warp worlds.

When you take that into consideration, the seemingly low number of 150 member worlds looks more reasonable.

 

[T'Girl]

I don't want to "muddy the waters" but it's unavoidable. The real question is how many "member" world within the UFP.

Strictly speaking, canon wise, when Lily asked Picard "how many planets are in this Federation," Picard said over 150. I can't remember any other mention of the 150 figure as it applies to the Federation's total membership, we all assume that Picard's reference is to 150 full members of the Federation, and not to members and their holdings (like colonies and large moons and barren resource worlds) all of which add up to 150. If that were the case, then the Federation's total number of political members would be much smaller than 150.

Just because a planet is withing the boarders of the Federation, it doesn't mean that world is a UFP member.

Up until recently, Europe did not have a political external border, only a geographical one, because Europe contained a number of different states. The Federation might not so much have a political "border" as a perimeter that they observe/claim, that happens to enclose other non-Federation political states. Parts of the Federation could be outside this perimeter, like the parts of Spain (islands) that are geographically part of Africa .

I always figure that there are fewer than 150 species in TNG but 150 administrative units

This is what I believe as well. 150 political states, that come together in some fashion to form a Federation. While some of the members are former colonies, I think the majority would be basically species homeworlds.

 

[Albertese]

^^^
I'm with you, T'Girl!

--Alex

 

[T'Girl]

There are other pretty widely ranging numbers in various Star Trek reference material on my shelves. One of my favorites, Starfleet Dynamics, make it 1,500 member worlds as of 2293! (Seems a tad high to me...)

It would be an interesting idea if the number of Federation members in Picard's time hadn't so much risen to 150, but instead had fallen to that number from a much larger historical figure.

Another possibility, that the term "worlds" might not refer to planetary-celestial bodies or government bodies, but instead just as we have first, second and third worlds on Earth or refer to the "Western" world and the "Latin" world to indicate a certain type of culture, in Picard's vernacular "world" could refer to (one example) all Humanity through-out the galaxy, regardless if they resided upon a planet in the United Earth's realm, in a Vulcan space station or live aboard a starship. Because it would be about people or culture or ideology, not a physical body or location.

It would not surprise me if fully engaged worlds that hold a seat on the Federation Council are still rare in the TOS era. Maybe only a few dozen at most. I would expect that membership in that elite "club"

The Federation government in Kirk's time with a general assembly like chamber and then a separate inner group composing the Federation council. The assembly is basically thousand(s) of everyone, the council is the heavy players.