Population Size for a Village, Town, or City - What’s Believable?
Whether you're drawing a regional fantasy map or one of a city, it's a good idea to have an rough estimate of how large the cities & towns would be for the story you want to tell. But, what is reasonable for a pre-industrial setting like you would find in Medieval Europe, Ancient Egypt, or Classical Mesoamerica? Should a city have a couple million people? How about 500,000 or 20,000?
Let’s delve in and give you some simple guidelines as well as a cheat sheet you can easily reference as you are writing your story or drawing your map!
Not a Modern City
Our perceptions are often very distorted by our modern experiences when it comes to what is "normal". New York City currently has a population of almost 9 million people, Rio has 13 million, and Tokyo has some 37 million people! But, the very largest cities just a few centuries ago tended to max out at just 200,000 people.
I live in what would be considered a small town, and yet to the medieval world it would be seen as a city. In the grand scheme of human history, our modern experience is unusual to say the least.
What a Settlement Needs to Thrive
Remember that people need to eat, and the amount of arable land will play a huge role in the population an area can support. You also don't have modern transportation, so things needed to be within a reasonable walking distance. Most medieval cities took up less than 1 square mile (640 acres), which in our day is really not that big of an area.
Where to place cities on your map and delving more into some of these questions is a topic unto itself though, so if you want to learn more I’d encourage you to check out the blog I wrote:
Where to Place Cities on Your Fantasy Maps
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Population Cheat Sheet
If you do any searching on this topic you'll realize the numbers really vary quite a bit. However, here is a little cheat sheet I like to use to just give me a base population idea for one of my maps. Hopefully you'll find this helpful so you don't get overwhelmed!
These are just some rough estimates based on historical populations in our own world, particularly between the 10th and 15th centuries. But even then you should definitely assume a population of 200,000 was the exception rather than the rule. Paris for instance, around this time was only around 60,000 - 80,000 people. Surprisingly, perhaps the biggest city in the 16th century was Tenochtitlan in Mesoamerica with estimates of more than 200,000 people.
But…How Big is Minas Tirith?
What is the population of Minas Tirith? Yeah, I don't know either. Do some research on it though and you'll find people putting together all kinds of vague references and doing far too much math to hold my interest. The point is, Tolkien probably had an idea of how big the city was, but it didn't make up the backbone of his story so he didn't dwell on it in his writings. And you know what? It works because it’s realistic enough that it doesn’t take me out of the story.
Don’t Overthink It!
While it is wise to have an idea of the population sizes for the settlements in your map to make it feel believable, do not let the numbers get in the way of your story. As long as you don't do anything too glaringly unrealistic, you'll be just fine!
I hope you found this helpful and if you want to learn the 7 questions I ask myself when I’m deciding where to place cities on my maps, be sure to check out the blog I wrote by clicking the link below.
Where to Place Cities On Your Fantasy Maps
Happy Mapping!
- Josh
