Population numbers

[Subjugator]

Does anyone have a rough idea of how many human beings there are on Rifts Earth? Round it to say...the nearest million.

/Sub

[Nightmaster]

I would say 80 million... a bit more or a bit less.

[RainOfSteel]

Does anyone have a rough idea of how many human beings there are on Rifts Earth? Round it to say...the nearest million.

/Sub

An exact idea? None.

I suppose I should have tried to assemble all the numbers at some point in the past.

The primary trouble is good demographics are hard to come by.

The population numbers change for NA, one thing in the RMB, one thing in SB1, other things implied by CWC and SoT.

Triax doesn't even list a population for the NGR that I could locate (I'm hoping its there, but 15 minutes of scanning didn't locate it).

[LDMcFear™]

As far as Triax and the NGR I believe the book states that 80% of the regional population of the Greater German area survived the cataclysm. So let me see after doing some math the Population of Gemany around the time of the coming of the Rifts Germany should have had a population of around 58 Million +- 5 million that would give Germany in the time of the Rifts about 45 Million Human residents and thats just in the NGR!

Edit: Also lets think about this Japan supposedly almost completely survived the transistion of the Rifts having been fast farwarded 300 years if I recall the book reading correctly. as of Today Japan has a population of 127+ Million people add another 90 years of breeding...

So just between both Nations Rifts Earth has over or about 200+ million Humans. But thats just Germans and Japanese numbers.

[Pepsi Jedi]

Quoting mostly from a previous thread.

When the change came it pretty much whiped out nearly everyone. By 2098 or so I think the world population would be upwards of 7 billion(( US and Brittish Billions. I.E. 7,000,000,000))

, so if 1% lived that'd be about 70,000,000 world round. Concidering the US as of now has about 300,000,000, that sounds about right.

So 1% human survivors world round.

Add in the years of chaos afterwards, the monsters, the rifts, the title waves, earth quakes, volcanos, bad spam and what not, that'd probably wittle the population down another 20 percent or so. So say 50,000,000.

Then you add in what would be called "Secondary deaths" Which would be higher in industrialized nations like the US and France. Lower in 3rd world nations. (( This is where people die from drinking bad water, eating poisionous berrys, trying to hook up a generator and electrocuting yourself.. ect ect ect)) I'd say that'd take out another 10% world wide (( Higher in the industralized, lower in third world, for a 10% adverage)

That'd get you to about 45,000,000


Add in +300 years and... yeah population up to about, 100,000,000 world round. Which sounds a bit high actually. but when talking world population that's still pretty small. A world population of about one THIRD the current US population *Tilts head* But... about where I'd put it.


This would indicate slow growth due to adverdisary and the obsticles they have to overcome. In the first 100 years the population would hover or even dip lower.. with a very slow bell curve heading up, till the steepest point in the last 20 years IC.

It's implied that the big citys and natons are growing at a rate of 10 to 25% per year these days...

Personally I think they should plateu right about where we're at or it's going to get silly. But still at 100,000,000 world round, you still have less than A THIRD of the current population of the US, but spread over the entire PLANET.

[dmart11]

wow pepsi, you've done your home work, even though you said it's from a pervious thread.

[Pepsi Jedi]

The thread I'd replied to is just down the page a bit.

viewtopic.php?t=66454&start=0

I just expanded on my thoughts a bit to explain a little more where my (( Very gross estimates)) came from.

Some people are starting to point out, for a post apocolyptical game setting, there's BUNCHES of surviving towns/big kingdoms popping up.

I just got the Merc town book today and it's got a population of about 35,000. Running sewers, a phone system, street lights, the works. But still. that's not a big city by today's standards.

Northern gun is said to have over a half a million people. (( I live where Northern Gun is located in Rifts earth. We don't have a half a million people up here NOW! lol ))

What I am noticing is they're playing down the difficulty of travel in the later books. In the first books traveling out side of the CS states was seen as almost an assured death sentance. Now they're pointing out how Merctown is in the center of the conflict reigon with transit to the most far reaching points only taking about a week.

If that were so... wouldn't somone have taken two or three weeks to go peek on the other side of the new Rockies by now to see what happened to the pacific rim states? lol.

Eh... stupid logic!

In my games (( and I can only speak for my own games)) If you're not in one of the 'big' cities, you're in the WILD and it's SCARY and DEADLY out there... A bug might have flown though a rift, bite you and two days later big spider legs shoot out of your eyeballs and they run off into the woods.

So if anything I dumb down the book populations or really play up the fact that "Those that ___HAVE___ survived, have REaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaly bunched up for self preservation.

only a third of NA is even concidered the "Realm of Man" and upwards of 70% of that is "Claimed but not really DOMINATED"

I like my Rifts wild and bushy. Dangerous and Deadly. people get too cushy and they're playing a different game. I think that's part of the reason I hated Phase world. Too cushy, too Star Trekky.

[RainOfSteel]

I found the following post:

Well since China still has a high population and is still in Asia, I'm going to have to go with Asia.

Would it be safe to say that North America has the greatest D-Bee population on the planet?

Unlikely. The total percentage of the population that is D-Bee is roughly 35% (RUE, page 277).

A quick overview of the rough continental populations figures*:
NA 35 million+-
SA 36 million+-
Oceans 17 million+-
Atlantis 90 million+-
Europe 96 million+-
Asia 189 million +-
Africa 130 million+-
Australia 6 million +-

Given that Asia, Africa, and Atlantis are the most populated continents, it's unlikely that North America would have the greatest D-Bee population on the planet (particularly when the majority of North America's population is made up by the CS & FQ, who we know are predominantely human).

*These are quick additions of the areas we're actually given population stats for, which I tracked down a while back for another project, and are all likely much lower than the real population figures (for instance, Asia's populations figures only represent China, Japan and Korea).

[Josh Sinsapaugh]

As far as Triax and the NGR I believe the book states that 80% of the regional population of the Greater German area survived the cataclysm. So let me see after doing some math the Population of Gemany around the time of the coming of the Rifts Germany should have had a population of around 58 Million +- 5 million that would give Germany in the time of the Rifts about 45 Million Human residents and thats just in the NGR!

Edit: Also lets think about this Japan supposedly almost completely survived the transistion of the Rifts having been fast farwarded 300 years if I recall the book reading correctly. as of Today Japan has a population of 127+ Million people add another 90 years of breeding...

So just between both Nations Rifts Earth has over or about 200+ million Humans. But thats just Germans and Japanese numbers.

I don't know where you are getting that Japan "almost completely survived the transition."

Only three Japanese cities got Rifted, not the entire country.

And the New Empire that grew out of Cataclysm Survivors doesn't have an overtly enormous population, IIRC.

~ Josh

[Subjugator]

Now - how about the same numbers, but including all DBs (even the MD ones)?

/Sub

[Josh Sinsapaugh]

That would be around the population of humans on Earth today.....

Not necessarily.

Keep in mind what the definition of a D-Bee is (humanoid race, not supernatural, not creature of magic).

So even with D-Bees included, the population likely wouldn't be near 6 Billion.

Though, then again, with all the intelligent life living under the oceans and in other places that humans did not traditionally live, it likely could be near that.

~ Josh

[Pepsi Jedi]

Hard to say when you factor in the D-Bees. I wouldn't say the numbers would jump all that much.

Perhaps double the number you decide on for humans, and even that's being very generous. You don't hear of nearly as many DBee kingdoms as you do the human ones "With dee bees"


I'd say add half again how many humans you decide on. That's the DB numbers. but that's just me.

[Kryzbyn]

There's over 2 billion in China alone...

[RainOfSteel]

I thought the population today is between 3-3.2 billion? Are you sure it is 6 billion?

<blink, blink />

Pretty sure.

[Josh Sinsapaugh]

No... that's 1.3 billion. Wherever did you get that number?

Perhaps he was thinking of India, which has something lke 2.1 billion by itself?

That is, IIRC.

~ Josh

[Josh Sinsapaugh]

Nope. India currently has 1.1 billion people.

Heh. I guess I typed "IIRC" for good reason.



Thanks for the correction.

~ Josh

[Pepsi Jedi]

Yep. China has the most people, followed by India, he's right there and yeah China has more than a billion.

The total world population is over 6 billion.

My figures when I started for this had the planet plateuing at about 7billion, past that and you start loosing people due to famine and population inforced wars. (( Which is what you can chalk up MOST wars to if you dig deep enough))

If we go at the current rate of expansion though with no checks, the population of 2098 would be more like 50 to 100 billion. Which just seems absurd.

In OUR life times we've seen more than a billion people added to the planet. That's gotta top out soon or we're going to have SERIOUS problems.

[RainOfSteel]

My figures when I started for this had the planet plateuing at about 7billion, past that and you start loosing people due to famine and population inforced wars.

There are many authoritative hypotheses on what will happen to the world's population.

The US does not fully grow all the food it can, and if effort were thrown into it, a lot more food could be made. (The real trouble is in distributing it.)

Advances in technology could ramp up food production considerably, as well.

Which is what you can chalk up MOST wars to if you dig deep enough

Population pressure. Yes, it's the chief cause of warfare in history.

[LDMcFear™]

As far as Triax and the NGR I believe the book states that 80% of the regional population of the Greater German area survived the cataclysm. So let me see after doing some math the Population of Gemany around the time of the coming of the Rifts Germany should have had a population of around 58 Million +- 5 million that would give Germany in the time of the Rifts about 45 Million Human residents and thats just in the NGR!

Edit: Also lets think about this Japan supposedly almost completely survived the transistion of the Rifts having been fast farwarded 300 years if I recall the book reading correctly. as of Today Japan has a population of 127+ Million people add another 90 years of breeding...

So just between both Nations Rifts Earth has over or about 200+ million Humans. But thats just Germans and Japanese numbers.

I don't know where you are getting that Japan "almost completely survived the transition."

Only three Japanese cities got Rifted, not the entire country.

And the New Empire that grew out of Cataclysm Survivors doesn't have an overtly enormous population, IIRC.

~ Josh

Soory bout that, sold my book a bit ago and couldn't remember if it was just a few cities or the whole island, my bad. But i'm pretty sure the NGR info is almsot spot on. please correctly if i'm wrong.

[LDMcFear™]

Current World poplulation as of Nov 11th 2006 is 6.6 Billion

Edit: wow in my lifetime I have seen 2.5 Billion people added to the world, thats crazy. Well I havn't personaly seen every single one, but you get the idea.

[Aramanthus]

And for the most part most studies on population growth are generally underestimates. I've read a few of those population growth estimates studies. Some of them are very frightening!

[londonbaz]

My impression, following the China and Russia books, is that world wide human population is probably 200+ million with 2 or 3 times as many D-Bees. I may be wrong, and certainly there has been a population creep alongside the power creep in the books. Compare the tiny human population in Rifts England, which is proportionately far smaller than the human population spoken about in the Russia books.

[londonbaz]

Been chewing over the figures and ideas since I first read this post and I think you are on the right track Max... but personally I would say maybe 20% humans, not 12...

[Guest]

A quick overview of the rough continental populations figures*:
NA 35 million+-
SA 36 million+-
Oceans 17 million+-
Atlantis 90 million+-
Europe 96 million+-
Asia 189 million +-
Africa 130 million+-
Australia 6 million +-
Total Population roughly 599 million (let's just round that to 600 million and go with that)

*These are quick additions of the areas we're actually given population stats for, which I tracked down a while back for another project, and are all likely much lower than the real population figures (for instance, Asia's populations figures only represent China, Japan and Korea).

Of that, roughly 35% are D-Bees (RUE, page 277).

[londonbaz]

Are you counting Russia as Asia or Europe?

[Pepsi Jedi]

It's been 300 years, and entire continents dropped on earth and what not. lol

That's still WAY HIGH by my estimates.... but not totally unbeliveably high.

I think it takes alot of the fun out if you've got that many.

[Pepsi Jedi]

Really? It didn't fall from space? *GASPS*

*chuckels* Figure of speach man. I think we're all aware that atlantis wasn't flying around space and came in for a landing in the ocean.

It's all good.

[Rayven]

We also have to take into account that a lot of the world still has not been statted out by Palladium. We (so far) only have NA, SA, Australia, Japan, China, Russia, Germany, Africa, and Brittain. That means that a LOT of Asia and Europe is unaccounted for so far in any cannonical literature for Rifts. Let's figure that there are 100,000 people per country in the uncharted parts of Europe...that's a few million people there, plus India, the Middle East, and Indian Oceanic Islands.