Questions tagged [population]

For questions on population sizes, maximums and minimums, how they are affected by different events, etc.

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How to ensure stagnation of population figures without slaying inhabitants?

In my world, there rules a wise government that maintains an Utopia that was created centuries ago. This Utopia was founded by elders that left earth because they felt Earth decayed through wars, ...
Bruder Lustig's user avatar
11 votes
10 answers
3k views

How can a massive walled city be viable?

I'm working on a small story, and in it I'm wanting to include a city surrounded by multiple layers of walls. The walls themselves are colossal, but were created/held up by sorcery. I would go into ...
Atriol's user avatar
  • 353
11 votes
5 answers
2k views

How many people within a given population could reasonably be "noble" without inbreeding becoming an issue?

I have searched around the site and seen several population-related questions, but not one that is getting at what I'm specifically wondering (or that is at least explaining it in a way that my ...
taijhin's user avatar
  • 183
11 votes
6 answers
9k views

Size of a medieval/fantasy trading port

I am envisioning a trading port city/town, that occupies an island in a river mouth/estuary. Bridges link the island to the mainland. The island is a mostly submerged, extinct volcano; and the crater ...
Adeptus's user avatar
  • 737
11 votes
3 answers
810 views

What is the minimum distance needed between physically distinct races?

If there are several races with very distinct appearances (e.g. Nordic-pale vs. Arabic-tan skin, red vs. black hair, etc.), how much space / natural barriers do I need between their homelands to ...
Epiglottal Axolotl's user avatar
10 votes
20 answers
5k views

How Do I Keep the Population of an Ecumenopolis Reasonable?

In the galaxy I'm worldbuilding for my science-fantasy series, by far the most important planet in the galaxy is an ecumenopolis called Ishga. What I had in mind for this planet is something ...
The Weasel Sagas's user avatar
10 votes
9 answers
2k views

The biggest flaw with a Democratic Taxation system? [closed]

Imagine a country where once a year, the citizens file a sort of vote with their tax return, where each return decides how taxes will be spent. Each citizen controls an equal portion of the taxes, ...
azoundria's user avatar
  • 395
10 votes
18 answers
28k views

How can I kill every human on earth? [closed]

One day, "God" said to me: You need to eliminate the humans race! So, I was thinking at this problem: How can I kill every human on the planet (and then kill myself)? Some ideas: Nuclear Bomb - ...
Rodrigo's user avatar
  • 225
10 votes
8 answers
3k views

How long will it take for the off-World population to exceed Earth's population?

As I type these words in March 2021, there are numerous private companies developing engineering solutions for reliable, high-capacity and relatively cheap access to space. At this point in time, it ...
Serban Tanasa's user avatar
10 votes
8 answers
973 views

How can a planet full of zombies reproduce and maintain its population?

How can we have a world that is inhabited only by zombies and yet continues to be populated? For the purposes of this question, I envisage the type of zombie that has been infected by a virus, is ...
chasly - supports Monica's user avatar
10 votes
4 answers
193 views

How would dozens of humanoid species affect early migrations?

In our world, humans evolved and spread to pretty much every place in the world they could reach. Would that still be the case if there were, say, a dozen different humanoid species? Would they all ...
Merkava120's user avatar
9 votes
5 answers
2k views

Would a kingdom allow creation of new settlements?

The setting takes place in medieval age. A group of people want to create a new settlement on a remote and non-populated part of the kingdom. They would start building a town by building houses to ...
Gokhan Kurt's user avatar
9 votes
5 answers
2k views

How could a society of giants remain hidden?

How could a society of about 10 giants remain hidden from the world in this day and age? These giants are ~50 feet high, uneducated, and eat humans. They run very fast and are very strong. How could ...
yogazefish's user avatar
9 votes
7 answers
5k views

What is a reasonable amount of population growth for 900 years?

Starting with about 500 humans and allowing for 900 years to pass, about how many people would there be at the end? (Just asking for a rough estimate, maybe a range.) Assuming: People are generally ...
Alex MC's user avatar
  • 99
9 votes
6 answers
3k views

How to increase the population growth of the human race

In my world (that takes place on an infinite plane), there exists an empire (let's call it Usotuhr) that is hell-bent on establishing human hegemony, or at the very least a human foothold, in the ...
user avatar
9 votes
8 answers
441 views

What would determine the rate that a hereditary condition reveals itself after years of dormancy?

Long ago, an Eldritch deity was summoned to the city of Innsmouth within a ritual circle, where it was killed and consumed by the population. Devouring the flesh of the deity increased the mana supply ...
Incognito's user avatar
  • 38.5k
9 votes
3 answers
1k views

Reasons for pregnancy to be difficult in long-term space travel

I am looking for medically viable reasons why we might discover it to be more difficult than expected to bring pregnancies to term in space. This is for a society based approximately 75 years in the ...
Ksamby's user avatar
  • 99
9 votes
10 answers
2k views

How can humanity's economical, social and cultural viability be maintained in a naturally depopulating earth?

Let's say a new science-based cult takes over the world and convinces the vast majority of humans that 10 Billion is an unsustainable number of people for our planet. They want to reduce the number to ...
DraxDomax's user avatar
  • 755
9 votes
1 answer
2k views

What is the maximum size of a tribe living off of one whale per year?

A small village of ice miners has popped up in the Northern Territory. They are a mix of southern workers who integrated with the native tribes. The group subsists on the meat of a single humpback ...
Alex's user avatar
  • 2,078
9 votes
1 answer
697 views

What would be the an avarage and/or realistic population density be for an medieval based city?

I'm currently building a world for a medieval based D&D campaign (i know super original) and I'm trying to make my cities as realistic as i can. Right now I'm planning on making a city in the ...
Infern Niek's user avatar
8 votes
5 answers
2k views

What is the maximum population density in a settled land where farming and homesteading is impossible?

Let’s say that early middle ages humans discovered and expanded into a newly discovered land. Those humans made a concentrated effort to populate this new territory; they shipped several ships of ...
user avatar
8 votes
6 answers
3k views

Why might a vampiric race have low birthrates?

This pure-blood vampiric race is not immortal, but their lifespans are about five times that of mortals. This race has lived in a vast city beneath a small mountain range for thousands of years (the ...
MooNieu's user avatar
  • 679
8 votes
12 answers
1k views

How many votes should a solar system sized AI get in a galactic democracy? [closed]

In a setting where there is a multispecies Galactic Democracy with Proportional Representation that has expanded with the rule of giving one vote to any individual, how should they deal with a Machine ...
Alexander MacKenzie's user avatar
8 votes
3 answers
4k views

How many people can live on the oxygen provided by Earth?

I want to know the how many people can live on Earth's oxygen. Is there a point when humans would use up all the oxygen? What would be the limiting factors? Given we have charts to show the rate of ...
Xm7X's user avatar
  • 423
8 votes
3 answers
1k views

Land Requirement for Island City

What would be the land requirement (in acres) for both farming and housing to sustain a society in this scenario: Small city of 1000 humans living on an island Medieval setting Mostly self-sufficient ...
Graeme Rock's user avatar
8 votes
2 answers
1k views

What is the difference of population density between the population of a nomadic and a sendentary territory?

Let's say that I have two places with the same climate and the same geography and everything. The only difference is that one civilization is nomadic and the other has settled cities on the land and ...
Vincent's user avatar
  • 16.8k
8 votes
5 answers
1k views

Is a utopia a necessarily aged society?

Following the issues raised in the question How to limit population growth in a utopia? I'd like to ask a related question. In a stable utopia, would the population be old-aged, compared to less-than-...
Alexander's user avatar
  • 42.2k
8 votes
2 answers
2k views

How big is a big city?

According to two RPG (role-playing game) systems, Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder, a metropolis is the largest category for a medieval city. The population of a metropolis starts at 25,000 ...
Vincent's user avatar
  • 16.8k
7 votes
6 answers
2k views

Would the US government be able to hold control if all electronics were disabled for an indefinite amount of time? [closed]

In my story (modern fiction/ apocalyptic survival fiction) an enemy of the US sets up a EMP pulsing satellite over the continental US, and before we can respond all electronic systems are shut down. ...
Alex's user avatar
  • 2,078
7 votes
4 answers
920 views

How long would it take these two languages present in a common area over a LONG period of time to merge?

Note: Sorry if this post is needlessly detailed, I understand a lot of these details don't affect the question much. I thought I'd bring them up anyways since this is quite the unique situation for ...
Noble's user avatar
  • 1,242
7 votes
6 answers
2k views

Humanity loses the vast majority of its technology, information, and population in the year 2122. How long does it take to rebuild itself? [closed]

The year is 2122. An AI created in the year 2115 with complete, unfettered access to control of the entirety of Earth's electronic equipment has caused a mass extinction event of humanity after ...
Jaybee72's user avatar
  • 103
7 votes
5 answers
1k views

What would the average tech level be for the common folk in a space empire?

In Star Gate, the Ori are notorious for keeping the tech level of their planetary subjects at or under medieval tech levels. It has been said (still looking for the exact source) that if everyone ...
Jax's user avatar
  • 11.9k
7 votes
2 answers
2k views

How long would it take a parasite that transmits via parent to child to spread through a population?

So here is the basic setup. The parasite lives in the cells of it hosts and can only spread via reproduction, and will spread 100% of the time to a child regardless if the infected was the mother or ...
MrDracoSpirit's user avatar
7 votes
3 answers
4k views

How small can a population be with regard to genetic diversity?

I'm working on creating a species that favours small families for a number of reasons, and have no interest in 'breeding as much as possible'. As a consequence, their population size is small. But how ...
Century's user avatar
  • 911
7 votes
4 answers
2k views

How much life could our galaxy support?

Okay, so we are figuring out, that at least for how we are running things now, our Earth can fit about 10 billion people. We can probably raise if your economy distributed resources more efficiently, ...
Christopher King's user avatar
7 votes
5 answers
789 views

How many people can live on planet Earth?

How many people can live comfortably on planet Earth, assuming that humanity reaches Kardashev scale Type I level? This implies: Energy is cheap, and available in an almost unlimited quantity, ...
pintergabor's user avatar
7 votes
3 answers
312 views

Time duration for development of different physical attributes

On my fictional planet humanoid aliens have evolved on one continent, and have since spread around the entire planet, just like humans did on Earth. On Earth humans have since developed slightly ...
user avatar
7 votes
3 answers
412 views

Number of Gravediggers in a Fantasy City

I've got a large fantasy city of about 500,000. It's a trading hub and the capital of an empire. Period wise, I would say that it is close to 1500-1600 Europe. I've got a community of primarily ...
CoolCurry's user avatar
  • 2,468
7 votes
3 answers
224 views

How many human inhabitants could Earth host in a far future? [closed]

Assuming a technologically advanced civilization that has grown sustainably from the resources of its own planet (and maybe "a few" additional resources from its own solar system), what would be the ...
ascripter's user avatar
  • 171
7 votes
3 answers
339 views

How densely populated can a rural area be?

The state of Bihar, in India, has an estimated population density of 1,307 humans per square kilometer even though 89% of the population lives in rural areas. How much more people could inhabit a ...
Rhomaioi's user avatar
  • 1,264
7 votes
4 answers
790 views

How to determine GDP of a fictional a society in the past?

My goal is to try to make a population size algorithm. What I learned is that a simple equation can do that (I have to look it up to give you it) year by year. One of the variables in that equation is ...
Durakken's user avatar
  • 6,608
7 votes
3 answers
211 views

How would populations work out in a society with people of vastly different sizes?

Let's say we have a society with people (living creatures with human-like intelligence) of vastly different sizes, from mouse-sized to elephants. People have jobs like us humans do: some physically ...
ChocolateOverflow's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
212 views

What realistic data for a game based on management of polluting plants?

I am not a writer nor an artist but I am creating a video game and I am looking for a realistic imaginary world based on science. I am looking for realistic data to support the strategical framework ...
Revolucion for Monica's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
406 views

How would a repetitive life cycle impact civilization?

A mutation or virus (we do not know) has suddenly modified humanity by making people live indefinitely though cycles of aging (to 70 yo) and then rejuvenating (to 3 yo). This does not make people ...
WoJ's user avatar
  • 761
7 votes
3 answers
503 views

Maximum Earth population given biological shrinking

I want to create a world set on our Earth but with humans shrunk down as much as possible to allow a huge population. As the population increases they genetically modify their bodies to be as small ...
trichoplax is on Codidact now's user avatar
7 votes
3 answers
2k views

How to calculate a village's population size

I have the two largest towns of this smallish Kingdom's populations, but the first place the protags of my story are going to encounter is going to be village or hamlet sized. Most of the resources I ...
FangirlShadow's user avatar
6 votes
4 answers
6k views

I want a big city in the desert, what conditions make it possible?

Starting condition: I know how small cities form. It is mostly a trade center that requires an access to water and food. But some cities have more than 100 000+ people. Climate: It is in the desert, ...
Vincent's user avatar
  • 16.8k
6 votes
3 answers
466 views

How would an isolated world grow its population, then keep it stable?

The scenario In the scenario that I'm imagining, a small group of people (ideally 100 or less) travel to a parallel universe and begin a new society. The new planet that they land on has one land ...
JubaSuperman's user avatar
6 votes
3 answers
1k views

Everyday effects of telekinesis in a population

I'm working on a setting in which all humans have been genetically modified to have access to telekinesis ages ago, and it is now considered a normal thing. It works somewhat like a muscle in that the ...
Jonathan's user avatar
  • 1,653
6 votes
6 answers
1k views

How large could a population of supernatural beings be and still be plausibly hidden?

I am trying to figure out how large the population of supernatural beings can be in a stereotypical urban fantasy setting before their numbers stretch the suspension of disbelief. I.e., your standard ...
user2352714's user avatar
  • 13.9k