How To Increase Population In Victoria 3

In Victoria 3, the Population of the country serves as the main working force/ labor that a country has, which...

In Victoria 3, the Population of the country serves as the main working force/ labor that a country has, which keeps it on its feet or brings about its downfall.

Pops make money for their country and the country in turn provides better living standards and appreciable laws to the Pops. Each country has its own set of Pops (population) that differ in occupation, culture, religion, and many other similar factors from each other.

Managing this is not as simple as it seems though because pops differ from each other in cultural and religious aspects. You won’t be able to please all the pops, but you can gradually start manipulating the groups of Pops to gain their support.

In this guide, we’ll be learning all there is about Population and how it grows in Victoria 3.

How to increase Population Growth in Victoria 3

Naturally, as a country’s population begins to grow, it has more workers to provide services, and can hence make more money. However, the mechanism behind population growth is very, and I mean very, complicated.

Although simply put as a rule of thumb, population growth generally occurs with an increase in healthcare and technological reforms and the population’s wealth – which leads to a better Standard of Living.

However, that in itself has many variables. Each of these variables might increase the population growth by itself but might also have a relatively negative effect on the other, like in the case of Wealth (discussed later).

As the growth of the Population is tied to a lot of factors, and the only way we can actually increase it is by making modifications while looking at the Net Growth quantitatively, with concrete numbers.

Professions

The leading factor here is understanding the Pops’ occupations/professions. Each different occupation will naturally require a certain skill set, and hence a specific wage.

Due to this reason, the Pops will have different social standards, which leads to a difference in their standings on political power, or what political group they support (which would probably be the ones that aim to improve their standards).

It is in your hands to invest the desired amount in whichever industry you want. You can build your society this way by investing in the industries you want the Pop’s main profession to be.

Workforce and Dependents

Pops that keep the structures in the game operational are part of the Workforce, while those that are excluded are called Dependents, who must rely on opportunistic jobs etc. with which they earn little to no money.  

It’s always better to have more people in the Workforce than to have a lot of dependents. Initially in the game, you will have a lot of dependents but as you begin to expand and make reforms, more and more of the Dependents will start to enter the Workforce.

This can be done by taking steps like reforming the Rights of Women laws, that allow more women to work outside their homes. Moreover, reducing child labor will also affect this major.

Although at first, it might make people more dependent due to lesser income, they will get literate with time, eventually making for a more skilled workforce with better wages.

Standard of Living

The Standard of Living (SoL) is a basic measure of how well off your nation’s population is. This will mostly depend on whether their requirements and needs are being met, which then directly ties to their amount or wealth.

The wages that the population earns determine their amount of wealth, and they will then use it to purchase items of their needs. The higher their wages will get, the wealthier they will be.

Let’s say you have a poor Staple Farm family. The family will try to have more children to help around the farm, leading to a higher birth rate. Do note that if wealth falls too low, it can cause Turmoil as a consequence. 

However, an increase in wealth doesn’t reduce the population due to lower birth rates. That is because the mortality rate significantly drops due to better health care.

Culture and Religion

The grouping of pops, along with aspects of where they live and what profession they have, is also affected by their Culture, which is closely related to their Religion.

Religion acts as a uniting force between pops. Whereas pops with different religions will try to maintain their separate identity. Cultures work in a slightly different way than religions though. As opposed to religion, a culture might have a special trait and a descriptive trait. A Special trait can be their heritage whereas descriptive traits as much simpler like their language.

The laws will dictate the acceptance of culture at different stages. For example, National Supremacy and Racial Segregation laws require the whole nation to share a heritage (special trait) with a common culture. Whereas Multiculturalism will accept all cultures with no regard for their traits. Naturally, you’d want no discrimination against the Pop, so you would want to keep laws that widely accept them.

Immigration

Immigration and Emigration would be the simplest factor. Naturally, you would want to maintain your Standard of Living to a point where there’s maximum immigration (influx of pops) and minimal emigration (efflux of pops). Along with a better SoL, modifications in laws leading to more cultural acceptance and job opportunities will also reduce emigration and increase

Net Growth

The overall population growth is calculated as the Net Growth. The Net Growth of a Pop is the ratio of its birth/natality rate to its death/mortality rate.

Initially in the game, both of these factors will have high values. However, as you begin to increase the Standard of Living, both will start to decline, but the decline in Mortality rate will be more than the birth rate, leading to an overall Net Growth.

There are other factors that affect Net Growth too. An example of this is the Workplace Safety Laws, which will provide safety to workers and hence allow them to live longer. Additionally, other factors such as warfare, on the other hand, will significantly reduce your country’s population.

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