Dominion, Belief, Believers, and Dominion Spread

[tinkthank]

What is dominion? A reflection of the belief in your godhood.

Yet what is belief exactly? Does it exist as some form of platonic idea?
No, belief is produced by.... Believers. Who believes in gods? People do. (Or: sapient entities do, if that is somehow more PC.)

So why is it that dominion functions, spreads and retains its strength just as easily in provinces with 30,000 people as it does in provinces with 900?
In other words: Province Q with 30k people has a dominion strength of 7, and Province Y with 1k people has a dominion strength of 7 -- how is that?
Well, one answer could be: People in Y are just more zealous.
This seems bizarre, but acceptable. Small provinces are always populated by somewhat less critical, or more zealous people than large provinces.
But this answer becomes increasingly insufficient when the population approaches 0, as it does in provinces under an Ashen dominion, for example.
A province with no inhabitants -- believes in something? Who is doing the believing there?
I suppose you could answer: Undead do.
But at some point, it just seems like it is your own troops or your own summons that is doing the believing.
Well I suppose the game simply wouldnt work by having dominion somehow coupled to population, but it just seems so bizarre to me.
Well I suppose this is a worthless thought, but it had been nagging at a very small corner of my mind.