Estimated Population of my world. Help needed. [Archive] - Wizards Community

Estimated Population of my world. Help needed. [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Drath'ri
03-20-08, 01:20 AM I have a setting, who's main continent is about the size of Eberron's Khorvhaire. The world had just left the darkest war, where demons invaded, and now nearly 75% of the continent is unclaimed/unpopulated but the demographs i'm attempting to count. 90% of the population that is in the established kingdoms, have moved to the cities to seek shelter, etc etc, so my average city size is kind of large. The continent is about the size of Eurasia, airships/trains have connected all of the major cities/kingdoms. Airships are a widely used form of transportation.

What about be a good population size for that kind of setting?

I was thinking somewhere along 30 million - 50 million.
yellowdingo
03-20-08, 02:26 AM Try reducing your city populations to an average of 1000 citizens for the majority of your largest communities. Thus vast tracts of towns are unpopulated or infested.

As to the countryside: Try "fifty percent forested" This was France going into the Plague Years. Fifty percent was wilderness. So anywhere between 3-200 families per fifty six square miles averaging 20 families per fifty six square miles in the active agricultural lands.

Then apply the firewood rule: everyone requires 1/2 acre of firewood per year (recovery rate 50 years) so reduce communities to a population equal to their sustainable firewood fuel availability. that means communities surrounded by firewood are more likely to have larger populations than those that are not.

example:

Port Uglylittlesmudge (pop. 20,0000)

With five hundred acres of forest (the remnants of Impaler's Wood) within a day's wagon haul, the pop. of our community should reduce to around 20.

PORT UGLYLITTLESMUDGE (pop. 20/previous capacity 20,000) that gives you an abandoned major port being scrounged over by a few surviviors. Eventually people will migrate there, Foreign Princes might invade and set up a new tradecenter.
taradusis
03-21-08, 12:17 PM I would count the number of cities and multiply by 20,000. I often postulate a 100 milllion limit to my worlds pop. for an estimate? So if there are 100 million humans and there's a rare race that equals about 4 % of the humans they would have a max pop of about 4 million. Works for me,looks cumbersome written out.
Chaosepoch
03-21-08, 12:30 PM I have a setting, who's main continent is about the size of Eberron's Khorvhaire. The world had just left the darkest war, where demons invaded, and now nearly 75% of the continent is unclaimed/unpopulated but the demographs i'm attempting to count. 90% of the population that is in the established kingdoms, have moved to the cities to seek shelter, etc etc, so my average city size is kind of large. The continent is about the size of Eurasia, airships/trains have connected all of the major cities/kingdoms. Airships are a widely used form of transportation.

What about be a good population size for that kind of setting?

I was thinking somewhere along 30 million - 50 million.

http://www.rpglibrary.org/utils/meddemog/
Shazzam! You'll probably want to break it down into regions anyway, since a single body would be unlikely to control the world with one man!

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Drath'ri 03-20-08, 01:20 AM	I have a setting, who's main continent is about the size of Eberron's Khorvhaire. The world had just left the darkest war, where demons invaded, and now nearly 75% of the continent is unclaimed/unpopulated but the demographs i'm attempting to count. 90% of the population that is in the established kingdoms, have moved to the cities to seek shelter, etc etc, so my average city size is kind of large. The continent is about the size of Eurasia, airships/trains have connected all of the major cities/kingdoms. Airships are a widely used form of transportation. What about be a good population size for that kind of setting? I was thinking somewhere along 30 million - 50 million.
yellowdingo 03-20-08, 02:26 AM	Try reducing your city populations to an average of 1000 citizens for the majority of your largest communities. Thus vast tracts of towns are unpopulated or infested. As to the countryside: Try "fifty percent forested" This was France going into the Plague Years. Fifty percent was wilderness. So anywhere between 3-200 families per fifty six square miles averaging 20 families per fifty six square miles in the active agricultural lands. Then apply the firewood rule: everyone requires 1/2 acre of firewood per year (recovery rate 50 years) so reduce communities to a population equal to their sustainable firewood fuel availability. that means communities surrounded by firewood are more likely to have larger populations than those that are not. example: Port Uglylittlesmudge (pop. 20,0000) With five hundred acres of forest (the remnants of Impaler's Wood) within a day's wagon haul, the pop. of our community should reduce to around 20. PORT UGLYLITTLESMUDGE (pop. 20/previous capacity 20,000) that gives you an abandoned major port being scrounged over by a few surviviors. Eventually people will migrate there, Foreign Princes might invade and set up a new tradecenter.
taradusis 03-21-08, 12:17 PM	I would count the number of cities and multiply by 20,000. I often postulate a 100 milllion limit to my worlds pop. for an estimate? So if there are 100 million humans and there's a rare race that equals about 4 % of the humans they would have a max pop of about 4 million. Works for me,looks cumbersome written out.
Chaosepoch 03-21-08, 12:30 PM	I have a setting, who's main continent is about the size of Eberron's Khorvhaire. The world had just left the darkest war, where demons invaded, and now nearly 75% of the continent is unclaimed/unpopulated but the demographs i'm attempting to count. 90% of the population that is in the established kingdoms, have moved to the cities to seek shelter, etc etc, so my average city size is kind of large. The continent is about the size of Eurasia, airships/trains have connected all of the major cities/kingdoms. Airships are a widely used form of transportation. What about be a good population size for that kind of setting? I was thinking somewhere along 30 million - 50 million. http://www.rpglibrary.org/utils/meddemog/ Shazzam! You'll probably want to break it down into regions anyway, since a single body would be unlikely to control the world with one man!