How do I deal with overpopulation?

[dragonprobably]

It always seems to be a problem for me when I play the game. How do I deal with it?

 

[Lord Emsworth]

Overpopulation? I can't just get enough people fast enough. So, I am not entirely sure that you really have a problem.

 

[dragonprobably]

You don't understand, most of my cities shut down. Whenever I do an unhappiness report it says it's too crowded.

 

[Immortal7777]

It's easy, All you have to do is build a settler or a worker and the number will go down. Also if you build things like an aquaduct then you will be able to hold more people so just start building settlers and workers.

 

[Fiddlin Nero]

The message 'Its too crowded' is the first of many causes of unhappiness. You can deal with it in many ways, the happiness slider, entertainers, city improvements, luxuries, where do you want to start?

 

[Theov]

"it's too crowded" is the default message to say you've reached the happiness limit.
Depending on difficulty, the first few people in a city will be content. All the people who are born after that will be born unhappy.
It's 4 people in Chieftain, 3 in Warlord and 2 in Regent and Monarch and 1 on the rest...
You can make them happy with buildings, luxuries, money (luxury slider) entertainers (not recommended for a long term solution) and ehm... some other things.

So your problem is not overpopulation, but a lack of things that make people happy/content.
And yes, at the start of the game, building settlers and workers is a good way to keep the population down so you don't have to deal with it. But after that you can't get enough people. People work the tiles, worked tiles means production and money. Production and money means a military, science and progress.

Also note that your city will only 'shut down' when there's more unhappy people than happy people. So having 4 happy, 4 content and 4 unhappy in a size 12 city is good enough.

 

[vorlon_mi]

You don't understand, most of my cities shut down. Whenever I do an unhappiness report it says it's too crowded.

As others have written, this symptom is really a lack of happiness.
Be sure that your workers have built roads to any luxury resources in the area (sometimes known as "hooking up luxuries") and that all your cities are connected by roads. For the larger cities (size 6 or more), you should consider building a marketplace. This building can multiply the happiness effect of any luxuries which you have. Later in the game, as you build port cities with harbors and you extend your road network, you may be able to trade for additional luxuries with the AI.

I agree that building workers and settlers are good options, also.

 

[splunge the 2nd]

Each luxury connected to a city (not duplicates, ie connecting 3 furs will only make 1 person happy in each city) will make a citzen happy. Building a marketplace "increases the efficiency of luxuries". In other words having4 luxes connected without a market makes 4 citizens happy. With a market the 2nd 2 luxes make 2 citizens happy (if I remember correctly), the next 2 make 3 happy etc. So a marketplace with 4 luxes makes a wopping 6 citizens happy as well as increasing income.

Specialists (tax men, scientists, entertainers, police and civil engineers) do not work tiles like regular citizens, but do not count a population inconsidering unhappiness. Also, what they produce is not affected by waste/corruption. A very corrupt city that has good foodproduction can afford to make several of their citizens , say, scientists resulting in happy citizens and research gold that would otherwise be lsoit to corruption/waste.

 

[Elite]

you can also: Crack the whip and tell your people "GET BACK TO WORK MAGGOTS!" not like I do that though, I'm too compassionate about my own people, though it doesn't mean I won't mercilessly whip other nations peoples.

 

[Richie0]

how far apart are your cities?

if they are 4-5 spaces apart, then you are going to have problems with population later on, and also pollution caused by over population

no point having a size 30 city if it's not working most of the tiles for most of the game, and those that it does work aren't improved

i build my cities 3 tiles from each other, usually don't get more than 13-17 population, max, with about 9-11 worked tiles

some may stay stuck at 8-10 because of tiles, coastal tundra cities probably won't get above 6

if you have 13 workable tiles, and you have 18 people, then that is 5 scientists/taxmen/civil engineers etc

make your excess population specialists, that is the answer basically