Population declining

My population is declining, but my death rate is about half of my birth rate, and way more are born than die in a year. What other reasons could cause population decline? I have no war damage either by the way. Thanks!!
Isaac

Increase your Health Index? wouldnt that help?

Increasing the health index can help but mainly in premium member countries.

Please read the "W3C - population" info on the forum.

population can also leave through migration if certain indexes are below minimal levels.

There is an old error in the death rate percentage as shown on the page and we will fix it ASAP.
it is only the computation of the percentages.
The numbers are correct.

Migration is currently not very significant.
I have promised here to look into it and increase the numbers.


On top of that, full members can see unlimited growth.
free members will remain limited.

While building up my health & education Index, my population seems to be falling.

jchristy,

Please provide the name of your Country AND the world it is on. This enables people (including the GMs) to help you.

If you are a free member, and your population level is above 20 million. Then you have exceeded the free player population cap. Your population will decline rapidly until you reach 20 million people.

If you are a premium member. And you have exceeded the population soft cap, (somewhere between 50M-80M, it's hard to say exactly, because of changes to birth rates recently) then your population will decline very slowly until it reaches the soft cap level.

Other possible causes.
1) Selling population for Gold Coins
2) Transferring population to another Country
3) A decline in your Health Index
4) People dying in War
5) People migrating out of your country (usually caused by product shortages)

I hope this helps you.

Yes I am a free member

The Grand State of Dolterra

Population was well above where it is now. I am now at 23,978,594.

Health Index 139 (increasing)
Education Index 124 (Increasing)

I have done some transfers but now enough to account for the change. I have not been involved in wars

jchristy,

Free members are hard capped at 20 million people. So long as you are a free member your population will decline until it reaches 20 million.

Signed President of DanNation on LU

Daniel, I understand what you are saying. I just don't understand why, if it is capped at 20 million, I was able to exceed a population of 20 million. If there is a cap? How was I able to get up to around 25 million or so?

jchristy,

The cap wasn't always there. It's relatively new. Your population got higher than 20 million before the cap was introduced. Now it's declining to match the cap level.

Signed President of DanNation on LU

Yes, I have been playing this game for a long time and I have never seen my population take a hit like it has lately.

I have thought about paying for membership but you have to pay to keep your country going once you start paying. I may be wrong if they have made any changes since I last check, please correct me if I am wrong.

I wish they did not cap because that will only allow me to have restrict economic development in my country.

Shermain,

Changes to population caps were introduced relatively recently. Free players are now hard capped at 20 million people. Premium members can grow much larger. It's one of the main incentives to go premium.

As far as I am aware, there is (currently) no way to go back to being a free player, after going premium. Hopefully they change that at some point. Because I think more people would go premium if they knew they could go back, and most would probably enjoy it and stay premium.

As for development, a nation can become highly developed and prosperous regardless of it's population size. However, a larger population, enables it to grow much "bigger", but not necessarily "better".

Signed President of DanNation on LU

I became a premium member a while back. My population is growing. Also, life expectancy is getting quite high. I am wondering if a high life expectancy is a bad thing?

jchristy2007,

Congratulations on going premium.

We are all experiencing high life expectancy at the moment. Because the GM's reduced the death rate.

As to it being good or bad. It's a balance, generally high life expectancy is a sign of a healthy population. However, if you let it get to high for to long. Then you'll end up having to support a lot of retirees.

Signed President of DanNation on LU

Population growth and decline is now on several discussions on the forum.

We have made recent improvements to prevent it.

Please read the game news published today (Aug. 29) about this issue.

What is the retirement age? And is there a way to adjust it?

Anything over 65 years old. There is no way to adjust it.

Indeed. 65

Life expectancy is a contentious issue.
the longer people live, the longer you pay their pensions and social security.

after next upgrade, life expectancy will start correcting itself and will end up much lower but to increase your population, you need good healthcare.
This will reduce the number of people dying in all age groups.

smaller numbers of workers will die early but larger numbers of retired people will live longer.

Is health & education tightly tied to migration. In the top right corner it currently says migration is at 0. Under "Migration Numbers" it shows 50. My population has been increasing a bit. Some of which I am sure has been my bids for population control. Also, my death rate says it is higher then my birth rate by quite a bit but my population does not seem to have a rapid decrease.... the population seems steady.

From the popup on Migration Index.
"The migration index depends on the welfare, employment and salary levels in the country."

The Welfare Index from the game docs.
The index can fluctuate between 90 (and in some cases even lower), and 140.
The Welfare Index is taking the lowest value of several other indexes:
The Health Index
The Education Index
The Transportation Index
The Supply Index + 41
The Employment Index + 37
The Social Security Index + 38
The Government Salary Index + 27
The Consumption Index contributes between 0 and 8 point to the welfare index. It needs to be at a level of about 300, to reach the max effect.
The game level will increase the welfare index by 1 point, for each game level higher than 10.

So yes the Migration is tightly tied to the other indices.

There was a GM post this week explaining the death rate change.