Populating rhymes with:
manipulating, stipulating, accumulating, articulating, calculating, circulating, coagulating, deregulating, emulating, formulating, innoculating, manipulating, recalculating, regulating, simulating, speculating, stimulating, stipulating, tabulating
Populating sounds like:
paulding, pelting, piloting, plaiting, plateauing, plating, platinum's, platonic, platoons, plaything, playthings, pleading, pleadings, plodding, plotnick, plotting, plutonic, politeness, polluting, populations