I dropped off Strong at Red Rocket, where Piper and two others were residing, and the population count is staying at 3. Does he not count since he's not human?

So far, Strong has never counted towards the population of any settlement that I send him to. He cannot be assigned to tasks, nor will he perform them on his own.

I believe that Dogmeat functions this way, as well. Codsworth and Curie seem to have their own rules about when they do or don't count as settlers, but after

Curie seems to function as a normal settler.

But he does agree to be a supply line runner. That's what I've got him doing between Sanctuary and Kingsport. And regarding the original question, no, I do not believe he counts toward the settlement population. Maybe indeed because he's a super mutant. Go figure.

Dogmeat and MacCready counted toward Red Rocket population. I think it's a glitch.

That's good to know. He just stands at the back corner of Red Rocket, for some reason, muttering to himself. I imagine he'd help out if the settlement got attacked though, right? That seems to be what gets him off.

I have Strong at Starlight Drive-In and he doesn't add to my count. I made a bed for him but seems unable to assign him to it. The last time I fast traveled there, three giant rad scorpions spawned (or burrowed) in the middle of the settlement and he did indeed help out greatly. The rest of the time he walks around the perimeter of the settlement.

It would be a nice touch if we could make him a super mutant type bed out of the old tires but I haven't found anything like that in the game.

That's cool - he's a good fighter, so it's good to know it doesn't just stand in the corner talking to himself during a battle.

How weird and unexpected. I wonder if they intended that? He certainly would be good at carrying things.

He's always helped out when the settlement has been attacked so far.

What does Strong eat ?

I know he won't settle for tatos and corn. Hope he doesn't begin to eat my settlers one day. Cause 'ghoul flash tastes bad'.

Maybe he eats the victims of any foolish settlement attacks?

in one game i accidently managed to send him to starlight drive in somehow

i had nobody there and it was undeveloped so there was no food nor water, the happiness dropped form 50% down to 28% before i noticed

so he definitely requires food and water

he also counted towards population both at both zimonja where he was and starlight where he ended up

in my current game i sent him to the hippy commune with a couple ghouls and he counts there

codsworth and curie are weird, in all my games i eventually set up outpost zimonja and send all my companions there. In my first game codsworth most definitely did not count as a settler in sanctuary but at some point he did count as after i sent him to zimonja sanc dropped 1x population.

at outpost zimonja both codsworth and curie counted towards population

in my current game neither codsworth nor curie are counting towards population at zimonja and at no point did codsworth count at sanctuary either

dogmeat has never counted towards in any of my games

also weirdly in my current game once preston started on about the castle he no longer counted towards population anywhere. I was using him from the start to work on his perk and i got the castle speech whilst still a companion and when i swapped him after getting the perk he never counted towards (sanctuary) population.