A Bit Obscure, Building:Population Ratios for Cities

[Prince of Happiness]

I've been drawing up maps of little villages, manors, and hamlets for years, but what would be a rough estimate of numbers of buildings to population? I mean...I could spend a few days drawing a metric f***ton of little rectangles on a sheet of paper, but would be say...roughly the minimum amount of buildings you'd need for a city of 18,000 for a pseudo-medieval quasi-European culture?

 

[Whisper72]

Well, I am not a real expert, but here are some considerations:

- back in those days families were large, and all lived under the same roof.
- usually, three generations would live under one roof for the poorer sods.
- for the richer people, servants etc. would live in-house, often complete with their own families.

So... if you average about 10 ppl per building, would prolly not be too far off the mark???

 

[Prince of Happiness]

Well, I am not a real expert, but here are some considerations:

- back in those days families were large, and all lived under the same roof.
- usually, three generations would live under one roof for the poorer sods.
- for the richer people, servants etc. would live in-house, often complete with their own families.

So... if you average about 10 ppl per building, would prolly not be too far off the mark???

I was thinking about something roughly that size, though I was reaching around five to seven. Ten's a good metric number to work off of.

Thanks!

 

[d4]

i've got an old Chaosium sourcebook called, aptly enough, "CITIES." here's what it says about population densities.

We suggest 6-8 people per building, and including every building in the average. This creates a density similar to an uncrowded western or northern European settlement. A denser population or a culture of Middle Eastern flavor probably will be 8-10 people per building. A culture housing extended or multiple families in compounds, such as in the more populated parts of China, might give an even higher density of 10-15 or more people per building.

The actual density of pre-industrial cities varies between 100 and 400 people per hectare, depending on a lot of factors which the GM may wish to fudge together.

 

[Turanil]

I've been drawing up maps of little villages, manors, and hamlets for years, but what would be a rough estimate of numbers of buildings to population? I mean...I could spend a few days drawing a metric f***ton of little rectangles on a sheet of paper, but would be say...roughly the minimum amount of buildings you'd need for a city of 18,000 for a pseudo-medieval quasi-European culture?

I live in France where I have seen some real houses of the medieval times still standing. I must say they are rather small compared to modern buildings. So my idea would be 18 people in a three storey building, and even like that they would be cramped. Thus, I guess your 18,000 inhabitants would need approximately 1000 buildings. But that's by no way historically researched, only something that makes sense to me.