Population Hub

## Hub Pages

Food

Population Growth Mechanics

Upper Class Population

(last updated: 2.52.06)

This page will briefly introduce the main concepts connected to development and population dynamics. For further information, please see the individual pages. Additionally, population ties in with every other system, so not every interaction falls under this Hub; wealth, disasters and looting are particularly relevant.

## Development Concept

In M&T 2.0, the EU4 development system has been completely overhauled with a population and wealth system that changes, adapts and even pressures the world around it. Even after many good DLCs and patches, vanilla EU4 takes place on an essentially static world. Copenhagen could become the capital of a fabulously wealthy global empire, with rich surrounding countrysides and peace for a hundred years, but it will still have the same development it had in 1444, conversely, Paris could be ravaged by a hundred years of looting, war, famines, plagues; all manner of disasters, yet it would remain the prosperous city is historically was. This is the central flaw this mod seeks to address.

With M&T 2.5, this system was further refined, detaching population from development in order to not upset the balance of hardcoded mechanics like coring cost and AI value estimation. The core of the new system is Population. The world's population has been divided into three large categories: those living in the countryside, those living in urban centers and the upper class of society. How many of each class live in a province can be seen by hovering over the "Population" province modifier.

## Development Types

Each province development composed of three types. These represent the economic output of Rural, Urban and Upper Class population. Each development unit represents ~1 ducat a year in output, or an estimated equivalent for manpower, trade power and other province values.

Development is recalculated every four months, according to the economic value generated in the province. Development at the starting date of 1356 is not representative of actual development, once setup calculations are

## How Populations Grow and Change

The basics of population growth and loss are rather intuitive: given ample food, peace and incoming wealth, populations will grow slowly over time until reaching their natural ideal level, or balance point. Conversely, overcrowding, lack of surplus food, looting, famine, plague and other 'bad things' will hinder growth or even large scale die offs.

### Food

Every 10,000 Urban population (1 Pop unit) requires one unit of food. Urban population will only grow if there is a surplus of food. Rural Pops produce 1 food modified up by the provincial Farming Efficiency, with the excess food going to feed Urban Pops. Food is mainly traded within regions, but provinces producing food staples such as wheat can export a portion of their food to the continental market for a profit. If a city grows to more than 50,000 urban population, it can begin to tap into the continental market to import food if the local region is not supplying enough.

### Ideal Population

See Growth System for more technical details

Rural and urban populations have a certain Ideal Population, or carrying capacity, that they will be drawn towards. The further below the ideal level, growth will occur faster, while conversely the further above, growth will occur slower.

What this means is that populations which suffer significant casualties due to disaster will not be permanently diminished. So long as the underlying fundamentals of the province are favorable, the province will be able to recover its population within a few generations. Conversely, if a province's population isn't damaged by plague or war or famine, it will continue to grow bigger and bigger, but the further the number gets from Ideal Population, the slower and slower that growth will be. In theory, if you take extra, extra care of your people, you can keep their population artificially above the Ideal Level of Population.

Urban populations' ideal value is Urban Gravity, representing how strongly a city could attract inhabitants based off its importance, opportunity etc. This is directly improved by Wealth, buildings, Centers of Trade and Production and a number of other factors. As with most factors tied to Urban Pops, Urban Gravity is more easily built up and lost compared to its rural counterpart.

For rural populations this ideal level is simply called Ideal Rural Population (shocker!). This represents the population supported by the arable land in the province. While this slowly ticks up with increases in technology and long periods of stability, it can be reduced by Trauma.