Rapture Population

* See also Rapture Society
* See also Rapture Immigration
* See also Crash ( critical mass required for certain game story ideas )
* See also The Vanishing
* See also Rapture_Economy
* See also Secrecy_For_Rapture
20000 People in Rapture - An Estimation by the Novel author John Shirley
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So Rapture Is Overloaded with "Elites" Which Caused It to Fail ? :
Is it ?
The city demographics ( social strata-wise ) are only vaguely detailed/defined for Rapture within the game story. Rapture is a small place, and any 'Elites' are more visible to the inhabitants. Reality is : Many People actually support other People in 'Tiers of' the economic/social 'food chain'. With the 'need' ( ex- Scientists have to Eat ) also comes 'leverage' for receiving sufficient wages -- A free 'Market Economy' works that way.
You need to consider : Rapture operated (in the given story) Successfully for about 10 years before the Kashmir Terrorist attack started after Atlas/Fontaine's overt actions bent on destabilize Rapture ( so that he could seize control ). Thus, in that stable period there WOULD be large numbers of 'workers' and businesses who have to support themselves -- Far more than just supporting some few 'Scientists' and 'Artists' and Business 'Moguls' existing at the top of the Society's pyramid ( most of that 'top tier' WOULD NOT be that rich anyway ). 
With Rapture being self-supporting, by the later 'year before game' date, most all of Rapture's sustenance would be locally generated (no imports), and thus having whatever prices ( and employee wages ) that Market required. The Price would have to be paid by all. 
Most of Rapture ran in Small Business mode. Most of Rapture's businesses would NOT be subject to Fontaine's extortion nor to forced absorption into his monopoly - nixing any resulting price manipulation. 
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Quantify Support Population For 'Elites' - The 'Pyramid' :
Scientists, Artists, Rich People, Businessmen ...
Remember that anyone who directly supports an 'Elite' through Products and Services, themselves have to be supported by someone else, who then has in turn to support themselves/be supported as well. Even with alot of clever automation and mechanisms, Rapture's environment has many complicating factors that detract from Surface World efficiencies. Some real-world mechanisms like mass production cannot often be viable within a population of 20000 - 40000 people -- There simply are not enough customers for it to be employed. It is likely/possible that fishing/farming related support activities would require upto a fifth of the population to keep Rapture consistently fed.
With the major disruptions caused by Atlas and his murderous army of Splicers, it might be more understandable how much effort Ryan had to expend to keep his City from dying during the 'civil war', and how difficult things might then have become after Ryan was gone. The remaining population (including Splicers) would likely spend a great deal of their time just finding enough to eat ( or trading with those who were good at it or had access ). Fortunately, being 'Spliced' is a matter of degree, and many of the more insane ones would soon die of starvation or eventually be killed in self-preservation by the more 'sane' residents ( Splicer and non-Splicer ).
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Labor/Workers : Not Quite The Same in Rapture :
FIRST : How many 'Construction Workers' really could be kicking about Rapture after their Work was Done ?
Even for the Foundations, it is largely mechanized digging, preconstruction (the rebar frames), and then pouring the concrete which is mostly automated machinery.
MOST of the Construction Work could/would (to be cost effective) be done on/very near the Ocean Surface (or on dry land), so ALL of those would not have to GO to Rapture to become inhabitants when that Construction was completed.
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NEXT : Many typical laborers seen in The Surface World would NOT be needed (or present) in Rapture, because it was newly built (completely) with modern WW2 era technology, with all the various improved and labor saving features and methodologies. Thus the City is lacking all kinds of the old obsolete systems, and the need to be backward compatible.
Odd jobs there would be aplenty, but hardly for the "assembly line" type worker with single/minimal skills. Consider that many real people have more than one career during their lifetime, and Ryan would not be welcoming 'layabouts' into his City. 
 Problem Minimization : With a great deal of City Construction being done back on land, and more at the Ocean's Surface, then large numbers of the potential (gamemaker contrived) 'Out-of-Work' construction workers would most likely NEVER even have existed for Rapture ( Did not exist in the implied numbers so to flood the city with so many Insistent Welfare Cases ).
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Population Size of Rapture : 
Lots of speculation over the years in the various BioShock Forums/Wikis -- Rapture's size varied from a few thousand ( too small for what we are shown ) to 200,000 ( biggg - How could that Rapture be built with Ryan's resources ?? ). One even suggested 7.5 million people ( totally ridiculousA Suggested 7.5 million people in Rapture : Probably from someone seeing some equivalency to Manhattan's/NYC's population - a huge city with a similar cityscape. ). 
The book/Novel says about 20000, which is far more reasonable - Sufficiently large to have more than a few elites, and a broad spectrum of people who would support them (and themselves). There also would be the required spectrum of know-how/skills for a proper city and viable Society (and Self-Sufficiency). 
Considering all the raw materials required to be 'self-sufficient', I might double that size to fill in additional population spread outside the City (itself) needed to support the 'urban' population. Similarly I would allow for Population Growth up through BS1 times (1946 - 1958). The 20000+ number is also reasonable when considering 'the Vanishing' story - The relatively secret immigration of so many, which might be possible to obscure in the Chaos across much of the Post-WW2 World.
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20000 People (Initially) Lived in Rapture, Each With Their Own Story. This was just one of them... :
From the old TV programme about NYC ... "The Naked Rapture"
The Novel mentions this population number, which ought to be 'Canon' enough - not too small for equating with the size of the 'city' we've been shown, but not too large to make the expense of building it too large ( for Ryan and cohorts to manage ), and for the 'Vanishing'/Disappearance of so many people not being too BIG to hide.
Additional population growth existing over the > 10 years before the 'civil war' 1946-52 (inflow) to BS1 1959
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Rapture's Population Was Expected to Expand :
1946-1959 Rapture already should have had some significant population growth ( beyond the immigrants themselves ).
Would Ryan have spent money to build space that would not be occupied for decades ? Did he have enough money even to do so ?? So likely, there at least would be expected some continuous Construction ( and as technologies advanced additional construction/improvements to get rid of the claustrophobic feeling some citizens complained about ).
The Suburban-ization Phase of the City was mentioned elsewhere ( and gives us more environmental variation for the game ).
Retirees ?? 13 years til Rapture's 'shit hit the fan' ( yet another social pattern/evolution ).
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How Big a Hit Did Rapture's Population Actually Take ?? :
Assumption - that virtually noone is left in Rapture ??? Yet we only saw a small fraction of the City in either game, and there seemed to be many people still alive where we did go. Many of those places we went were not places ordinary people would go in an emergency situation or to pursue survival. People also get very good at hiding when trouble walks their way.
How many people did Rapture actually lose during this 'civil war' ? Ryan ( wanting to preserve HIS City ) would have gone to MAJOR efforts to keep normal people alive for the many months that the 'civil war' dragged on.
How isolated was the fighting ? Ryan would try to isolate the enemy to prevent them from destroying the rest of Rapture. By the time of BS1 Atlas's minions were largely cut-off in Apollo Square, and others of the revolutionaries were removed from other parts of the City and were dumped there. This begs the question of why not simply kill them - Fontaine/Lamb would have. Ryan must've had a plan to get a 'Cure' developed and to forgive many who were being misled by 'Atlas' while under the influence of ADAM.
Crazy Splicers wandering the Streets and Halls (all over). BS1 Ryan calls for Jack to be intercepted and the more adventurous ( wanting that 'Bounty 1000 ADAM' ) came out of the woodwork.
Splicers ... How many people actually reached the unstable state ( there are all degrees of effect, and with a shortage many people who previously used it would no longer be under its influence ). It actually does NOT take that many troublemakers to disrupt Society or a City, and Fontaine/Atlas's minions may actually have only been very few hundreds.
Splicer insanity how many people killed directly
:Suicide
:Murder
:Fighting
Indirectly :
:Famine and starvation, poisonings
:Accidents in a deteriorating/disrupted environment
:Sickness, Medical care limits
Disruptions of normalcy, shift to subsistence economy and activities
:Back to the farm
:Avoiding the violence
:Self protection
:Continuance of critical resources vital
Outside areas were probably not touched, but if they had dependencies for needed resources the breakdown in order/transportation/supply would have severe impact. 
Population may have started hoarding necessities early
Refugees and groups assisting/protecting, might have been overwhelmed ( largely it was upto Ryan to keep things running ).
Isolationists - cutting themselves off from the craziness, if they could. Self-Sufficient required.
Congregation around sources of critical resources
: Food - farms/fisheries/stockpiles<
: Power air/water/heat/electricity still operating due to Hephaestus
Factions grabbing power in the vacuum left by Ryan's death, gangs taking advantage of disorder, before.
Resources became targets
Somewhat later - Depredation by Sofia Lamb ( She tried to steal children from areas outside of her control after 'using up' all the ones within easy reach first ). How many people did she 'do away with', who refused to be subject to her control ?? How many did she get to 'volunteer' for her 'First Utopian' project and any other before that.
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Ashes To Ashes, Dust To Dust :
People will die normally in Rapture, and part of Medical Pavilion was a Crematoria operation and an Undertaker. 
In Arcadia we saw a Graveyard and crypts ( Best have good air circulation for THAT ).
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