๐ฅ Population
Four stats, census growth, and what moves them
Each turn your nation updates four population stats (1 to 100), then births, deaths, and census. Stats feed into income, crime, sickness, and growth.
Your dashboard shows all four stats as meters and tracks census over time. Stats clamp to 1 through 100 each turn before income is calculated.
Public services below 6% of budget: +1/turn. At 30% or above: -1/turn until Freedom reaches 25 (heavy policing erodes liberties, but not to zero). Military enlisted over 20% of census: -1/turn. Average citizen tax at 90% or above: -1/turn. Below 5%: +1/turn. Tax hits freedom less than happiness. Authoritarian governments block those +1 turn gains; negative pressure still applies.
Requires Printing Press. +1/turn when education per citizen meets or exceeds average income, or when education budget is 25% or more of revenue. -1/turn when education per citizen is below 25% of income and education budget is below 10% of revenue. Otherwise no change.
Knowledge sites set the ceiling, like faith sites do for spirituality: 40 with none, then 60 / 80 / 100 as you add a ๐ Library, ๐ Academy, and ๐ฌ Laboratory (one of each counts; duplicates do not raise it further). Intelligence cannot exceed the ceiling.
Citizen taxes (average of three classes): above 85% -3/turn; above 50% (up to 85%) -2/turn; below 5% +2/turn; below 10% (5% to 10%) +1/turn. Business tax above 50% -2/turn, above 25% (up to 50%) -1/turn. Colony tax never affects happiness at home: tax above 15% instead builds unrest in the colony over time (the higher the rate, the faster). Escalation goes Disgruntled, Protesting, Ungovernable, then a formal tax appeal you can approve or deny. Approve cuts Colony tax to 15%; deny or ignore the deadline and the colony secedes. A new or rebuilt colony always starts Colony tax at 0%.
Crime under 10% of census: +1/turn. Crime at 30% or more: -1/turn. Density above 4x the comfort threshold: -1/turn. Low-tax bonuses require Writing. Above 85, contentment drift pulls happiness down each turn (stronger the higher you are). While that drift is active, low-tax and low-crime bonuses do not apply, so peak happiness cannot stay pinned at 100. A ๐ Stadium delays drift until above 95, letting crowds linger near the peak without locking it permanently.
Cultural sites set the ceiling, like knowledge sites do for intelligence: 70 with none, then 80 / 90 / 100 as you add a ๐ญ Theatre, ๐ผ Museum, and ๐ Park (one of each counts; duplicates do not raise it further). Happiness cannot exceed the ceiling.
Ceiling starts at 15 with no faith sites (atheist/secular). Each of the first three faith sites (shrine, temple, synagogue, church, or mosque, any mix) raises the ceiling to 45 / 75 / 100. Extra faith buildings past three do not raise it further. Lived spirituality moves each turn and cannot exceed the ceiling. Higher spirituality modestly increases birth rates. +1 when happiness is 60+ with at least one faith site.
-1 from war, happiness below 30, sick above 15% of census, radiation 25 or higher, intelligence above 85, or intelligence above 70 with no religious buildings. Happy nations (60+) with religious buildings skip the intelligence penalties.
Faith sites are free to maintain, permanent, and not war targets. You may build up to five faith sites total across all types. The first three set your spirituality ceiling to 45, 75, then 100. Nation Religion identity (leading faith, Pluralist, Atheist, Stone Age traditions) is covered in the Religion guide. Shrines unlock with farming; temples with writing; synagogues, churches, and mosques with the plow.
Births scale with census as a percentage each turn. Higher intelligence slows growth; higher happiness, spirituality, and food reserves modestly boost it. New nations start with low intelligence (about 5โ10), so early growth runs hot until knowledge sites and education raise it. Researching farming accelerates growth (the agricultural revolution). Your people also eat food each interactive turn (about 1 ๐ฅฉ per 10,000 citizens, never more than a full farm build at your age can cover); keep farms harvesting so the pantry stays full. A shortage costs a little happiness, not deaths, and births slow if stores run dry without farms. Overcrowding past the comfort threshold gradually tapers births, softer while you still have unspent expansion budget to settle.
Deaths: 1% of criminals plus 2% of untreated sick each turn. Census change each turn equals births minus deaths. Classes: about 79% lower, 20% middle, 1% upper. Colonies add 5% colony class. Skyscrapers add 5% commercial class.
Actual density equals census divided by land (people per kmยฒ). The comfort threshold is how dense your people can comfortably live. ๐ Cities and ๐ skyscrapers raise it (grow up instead of out).
Density above the comfort threshold raises sickness; below it, only a small baseline share of citizens falls ill. When density exceeds 4x the comfort threshold, happiness loses 1 per turn; near the threshold, birth rates taper. Crowded, growing nations also spill outward: each turn over the threshold banks new land, faster with a funded logistics network.
Crime rises when happiness, intelligence, or freedom are low. Base rate is half the average of those deficits, then public services spending arrests criminals: each arrest costs a fraction of average income, and freedom makes enforcement more effective.
A small share of citizens (about 2%) falls ill each turn; overcrowding past the comfort threshold adds more. Healthcare spending treats patients: each treatment costs a multiple of average income, and intelligence makes care more efficient. Radiation from nuclear strikes and outbreaks from biological strikes both add to sickness until they fade over economic turns. Outbreaks hit harder but clear faster than fallout.
See the โ๏ธ War guide for radiation and outbreak details.
Average income comes from lower, middle, and upper class incomes. Class incomes rise with all four stats and trade buildings (ports, cities, banks, factories, skyscrapers, and more).
Stats clamp to 1 through 100 before income is calculated. Class incomes cannot go below zero. Income and GDP are monthly. The nation report shows yearly household income for familiarity, while GDP matches the dashboard monthly figure. BitNations dollars are game units, not real-world purchasing power.