Computed population of cataclysmic variables at the current epoch in the T_eff /P_orb plane (left panel) and the luminosity‐P_orb plane (right panel) for our standard model (see Table 1). We show both the stellar luminosity (top curve) and the core nuclear luminosity (lower distributions). The color represents the logarithm of the number of systems in a particular L‐P_orb or T_eff‐P_orb cell, of which there are 100 per decade in L, 100 per 500 K in T_eff, and 100 per hour interval in P_orb. The color scale for both plots is given on the right‐hand side of the figure.