Demographics: Lifespan

[thelebk]

I have never quite figured out how the Lifespan works in this game. You can be number one in everything, have the best medicine, technology, and wonders, a thriving econmy, etc. and still be dead last in the Lifespan catagory in the demographics window. What is the formula that determines this?

 

[DRJ]

Good Question! I am always last in lifespan, although doing quite well in population, land, tech etc, as you allready said. If you play one-city-challenge with enough health bonusses, it might work, I guess...

 

[Solomwi]

It has to do with both health and unhealth, so the higher population you most likely have compared to the AI civs brings with it a lowered lifespan, since it brings that much more unhealth. In other words, it's not necessarily good to be high in lifespan, since it just indicates a lot of unused health.

 

[say1988]

Same goes for approval rating, except with regards to health, I believe.

 

[Polobo]

I forget the exact formulas (they are out there somewhere) but basically the approval (happy) and life expectancy (health) demographics indicate how far, on average, you are below your caps. Unfortunately, while the summary screen show the highs and lows there is no graph and thus no way to know whether your opponent is especially weak against one, the other, or both and thus would be susceptible to a espionage campaign against their cities.

 

[helemaalnicks]

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=163098

in this thread you can find the formula.

Not so weird that you're last btw. Life expectancy in america, china or Russia isn't that great irl either.

 

[thelebk]

Great comments all, and the thread was very informative.

 

[Supr49er]

I assume the more wars you fight, and the more soldiers die, your entire civ's lifespan would go down pretty far.

 

[Bob-san]

If by that you mean that your war opposition grows, yes. I'm usually last because I uber-develop all cities possible. It doesn't matter to me if the city has a -10 health rating because I have more than enough food to grow through that. Happiness > Health.

 

[Bushface]

I assume the more wars you fight, and the more soldiers die, your entire civ's lifespan would go down pretty far.

This has no effect. It's just (total healthpoints) divided by (total healthpoints plus total unhealthpoints), which is always less than 1, then multiplied by 100. Pretty well meaningless really, as big cities will inevitably have more unhealth than small ones, so as your civ grows the lifespan decreases.

 

[OTAKUjbski]

Basically, Approval Rating and Life Expectancy both measure the excess and you have in your cities.

If you're dead last in one and #1 on the other, then it means most (if not all) of your cities are at their or cap (whichever one you're last in).

If you're dead last in both, then it means your & caps are roughly the same value and that your cities are all at or above their cap.

If you're #1 in both, then it means your empire is smaller than it should (could) be and that you need to grow your cities to reach their and/or cap (whichever comes first).

OR, if you're #1 in both, then you're most likely at the end of the game with ridiculous amounts of (maybe you kept all your forests or are running Environmentalism) and have your Culture slider at 100% for super happiness.

Whatever the case, you'll learn a LOT more from the city screens than trying to decipher what these might mean to you.

 

[GIO888]

I always seem to have a cr@p lifespan rating and lately have built ruckloads of Hospitals and Cathedrals etc late game where previously I didn't used to, trying to change that - it doesn't seem to make much difference.

Snaps to you guys for answering the question though, I think I'll stick to having a lot of cities and no pensions salesmen......

 

[say1988]

That is good GID. You want to keep your lifespan and approval rating as close to the baseline as possible (50% for approval rating, I don't know about lifespan, though), else you are wasting potential population slots. Obviously you want some extra in growing cities, and small cities may have extra from civ wide bonuses, and buildings with other benefits. And some large cities may well be over the health limit.

 

[thelebk]

Hmmm More good info...

 

[helemaalnicks]

That is good GID. You want to keep your lifespan and approval rating as close to the baseline as possible (50% for approval rating

My approval rating was 100 in one game, one city challenge + globe theater .