What do the numbers in my cities mean?

[StarWorms]

I assumed they were the population but I don't think it can be.

I added all mine up and it came to 230. Rival civs had 213, 170, 117, 39 and 22. Now checking the demographics my population is 24794000 and the highest rival civ population is 50915000. So if the numbers in the city aren't the population, what are they?

Furthermore, I am actually ranked 3rd in population so obviously someone else also has a higher population.

 

[Ben E Gas]

yay, I've been tricked by starworms signature!

Don't bother clicking to find his so called '32 civ map'

He asks a valid question though, I wonder if anyone will answer him?

 

[Bushface]

Population points are related to actual population: a 1-point city is considered to have 1000 inhabitants, a 2-point city 6000. For cities of N points (N=3 and above), the formula
N[(N+1)(N+2)/2 -3] can be used, though in some cases this gives results which differ by a few thousand from the values which can be established via World Builder.
I am indebted to another poster for this: I copied the formula but neglected to note the user-name. My apologies.

 

[StarWorms]

Well I can't see how someone with less "population points" than me can have over double my population. Fair enough, I understand that it should vary a bit.

Are you sure that formula is right? 25 in a city using that formula gives 8700 population which is far too low. Or did you mean to put "1000n[(n+1)(n+2)/2 -3]"?

 

[Bushface]

Oops! Yes, it's "thousands". Though a 25-point city actually has a pop. of 8,207,000 rather than the 8,700,000 of the formula, which is a touch over 6% high. I only have comparison figures for a few other city-sizes, listed below.
20 point: formula 4,560,000, WB 4,394,000. Formula gives 3.8% high.
15 point: formula 1,995,000, WB 1,963,000. Formula 1.6% high.
9 point: Formula 468.000, WB 469,000. Formula 0.2% low.

 

[Snakehead]

Well I can't see how someone with less "population points" than me can have over double my population. Fair enough, I understand that it should vary a bit.

If you had 25 size 1 cities, your population would be 25*1000 = 25,000.
If you had 1 size 25 city, you would have over 8 million citizens.

Perhaps through a rapid land grab you have more small cities than your opponents.

 

[synthboy]

This amazed me as I thought there was a linear relationship between city size and population. It amazed me so much that I made up a Excel file to show the populations of cities from size 1 through to 30 which should be below (if I can manage it).

What got me was that one city going from size 6 to size 7 adds as much population to your civilization as 4 size 3 cities. Pays to build Granaries.

View attachment CivPop.zip

 

[Thedrin]

This amazed me as I thought there was a linear relationship between city size and population. It amazed me so much that I made up a Excel file to show the populations of cities from size 1 through to 30 which should be below (if I can manage it).

While not as well known as the new maintenance system, it's another improvement over CivIII for killing ICS - one city with great land is usually better than dividing that land between multiple cities.

 

[StarWorms]

Ok well now I understand how population actually works. However, checking the victories section it says I have 35.45% of the world population and I'm still ranked 3rd. I'm certain that Mehmed is top and Monty is second. On the victories screen it says Mehmed has 31.00% of the world population. Now I'm certain he's the civ with 50 million in population so I don't see how he can have less than me. I've wiped the floor with Stalin and Hannibal and Monty wiped the floor with Shaka. My only 2 rivals left are Mehmed and Monty. Stalin is my vassal. However he only has 3 citiesn and certainly won't add the 30 million or so needed to overtake Mehmed. So why does it say I have 35% of the world population when I clearly don't?

I'm not at 30677000, in 3rd with the highest pop being 59802000. Let's now assume Stalin, Shaka and Hannibal don't exist. Even without them Monty must have a population greater than mine so let's assume he has the same. This gives a total world population of 121156000. So my percentage would be 25.32%. Even if Stalin's cities count (7, 3 and 3) it only adds 258000 which makes practically no difference. What's going on here then?