any theories on how so many people survived the bombs?

[sharkbyte1500]

now you would expect that there would only be a handful of people after several dozen/hundred nukes detonate across the earths surface not only wiping out any in the blast but also rendering any land un farmable and also killing off any wildlife right?

not only that but we know for a fact the overwhelming majority of vaults in the fallout universe weren't meant to keep people safe but were social experiments conducted by vault tech. the majority of which ended up going horribly wrong and killing all if not most of everyone in a lot of vaults

so how have so many people survived?

society in the fallout universe seems to be doing semi ok with hundreds possibly thousands of towns and cities being established some with their own forms of government.

hell we know the NCR alone has 700,00 people in its faction that just spans the west coast now weather or not this is ONLY military/recruits in the NCR or if this number also includes citizens and towns under NCR leadership i cant remember but either way thats ALOT of people and this is just 1 of the dozens of factions on the west coast


now heres my theory the bombs dropped in 2077 and its estimated by then the world population will have reached 10.6 billion

since there's no reason to believe fallout's population growth wouldn't line up with real life that means even if 80% of the entire world died there would still be roughly a little over 2 billion people left.

we also know radiation works differently in the fallout universe instead of killing you it has a chance to mutate you leading to the various ghouls and mutants we see throughout the franchise meaning fallouts nukes are technically less deadly then real life nukes but are still nothing to scoff at eithier


any theories as to why so many people survived?

[[RvB] RedArmyGrif]

That's just it, radiation works differently in Fallout than in real life. The radiation cleared much faster than it would in real life, some places got bombed way less than others (compare Vegas which got no direct hit with a place like DC that got carpetbombed)

Sometimes you really can't use real life to explain how a thing works in a video game.

[Tribe Reimanen]

USA is a big country, plenty of areas would be left untouched by the bombs. For instance as said in the game, Vegas (which is a pretty largely populated area IRL with about 600.000 people) was completely untouched. The bombs were detonated in 2077, people in safer areas probbably left the vaults only a couple years later and had insane amounts of sex to repopulate. FNV takes place 200 years after the bombs which is a lot of time and a lot of people can be born in that time.

Within more "Civilized" / big factions the leaders must also realise repopulation is important and it would not surprise me if for instance the NCR has some ethical breeding program set up back in California.

Yes the vaults were experiments BUT the vaults were only overseen by an independent overseer and a handfull of security personnel. They too are merely humans trying to survive and the majority of the vaults would have just opened up when the people in them realised they would have ran out of food and water.

[Thermal Lance]

This guy founded the church of Atom.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3edi2Wkr5YI

[Corona Varus]

Here's a complete playlist of all the lore and theories discussed by a Youtuber:

"Middle mouse click"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyUI0vSNr2A&list=PLX3Sax_xs4WRLK0X5D6uUcSWv6z44F-nN

There are a ton of "Nuke/Bomb Survival Theories" on Youtube. Just look it up, they have the same theory as yours: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNTCRBArJ38

The videos are more professionally accurate and have more research, and are high quality with healthy and good arguments.

Fallout Bible - Game Devs and story makers for the Fallout Universe explain the Fallout Universe and Debunk theories: https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Fallout_Bible

Edit: Fallout Iceberg - a theory that goes deeper about Fallout on Youtube exists. Enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mW-2j6QGZo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8C_UH8aviw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jBW2JqkyiA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yl9RG4M48JU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSMh36wbQMc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5APBsRHw9Ok

These videos provide us with comprehensive and well-supported Fallout theories, addressing a range of topics supported by robust evidence, including valuable insights from the Fallout Bible and drawing from reputable sources, which are widely recognized and incorporated into their content.

The Fallout Bible: https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Fallout_Bible
Read all the volumes, those are claimed to be true by the developers, you can ask the Devs for Fallout New Vegas confirming these are true.

[Vex Hilarius]

California has a population of like 30 million at the moment in the real world, and thats the most populous US state. By realistic population growth we could see 40 million by 2077. The fact that only 700,000 people live in it by 2242, which isnt just california also parts of oregon, nevada, and even mexico, means that not many survived the initial bombing. 200 years later and california and some surrounding areas still only have like 1-2% of pre-war population. And the NCR is the most populous nation in the series as far as we know. The only other nation that comes close is the Legion but due to its nature and the fact it's a relatively newer nation, it might only reach half of the NCR population.

I think having only 1-2% of the worlds pre-war population 200 years later isn't that far off in realism. 200 years is a lot longer than you might think. We only reached a billion population by 1800 now we are almost at 8 billion. I would say that less than .5% of the population of the US survived the initial bombings, just based off of Fallout 2's NCR population.

[Salamand3r-]

Originally posted by Vex Hilarius:

I think having only 1-2% of the worlds pre-war population 200 years later isn't that far off in realism. 200 years is a lot longer than you might think. We only reached a billion population by 1800 now we are almost at 8 billion. I would say that less than .5% of the population of the US survived the initial bombings, just based off of Fallout 2's NCR population.

This. People forget that Fallout - especially 1/2/NV - aren't post apocalyptic games. They are post-post-apocalyptic games, about the rebuilding that occurs after the initial post-apocalyptic stage.

They also forget that people tend to breed like rabbits, and population growth is more exponential than linear.

I'd say that the wasteland is still underpopulated for the timeframe we see in New Vegas, if anything.

[sharkbyte1500]

Originally posted by Vex Hilarius:

California has a population of like 30 million at the moment in the real world, and thats the most populous US state. By realistic population growth we could see 40 million by 2077. The fact that only 700,000 people live in it by 2242, which isnt just california also parts of oregon, nevada, and even mexico, means that not many survived the initial bombing. 200 years later and california and some surrounding areas still only have like 1-2% of pre-war population. And the NCR is the most populous nation in the series as far as we know. The only other nation that comes close is the Legion but due to its nature and the fact it's a relatively newer nation, it might only reach half of the NCR population.

I think having only 1-2% of the worlds pre-war population 200 years later isn't that far off in realism. 200 years is a lot longer than you might think. We only reached a billion population by 1800 now we are almost at 8 billion. I would say that less than .5% of the population of the US survived the initial bombings, just based off of Fallout 2's NCR population.

well keep in ind there aren't ONLY 700,000 people in california
thats only the amount of peopple that are in the NCR id say the real number is given people in various other factions as well as the fact theres group that choose to just be by themselves such as good springs id say the real number is anywhere from 2 -3.5 times the NCRs number

[Vex Hilarius]

Originally posted by sharkbyte1500:

Originally posted by Vex Hilarius:

California has a population of like 30 million at the moment in the real world, and thats the most populous US state. By realistic population growth we could see 40 million by 2077. The fact that only 700,000 people live in it by 2242, which isnt just california also parts of oregon, nevada, and even mexico, means that not many survived the initial bombing. 200 years later and california and some surrounding areas still only have like 1-2% of pre-war population. And the NCR is the most populous nation in the series as far as we know. The only other nation that comes close is the Legion but due to its nature and the fact it's a relatively newer nation, it might only reach half of the NCR population.

I think having only 1-2% of the worlds pre-war population 200 years later isn't that far off in realism. 200 years is a lot longer than you might think. We only reached a billion population by 1800 now we are almost at 8 billion. I would say that less than .5% of the population of the US survived the initial bombings, just based off of Fallout 2's NCR population.

well keep in ind there aren't ONLY 700,000 people in california
thats only the amount of peopple that are in the NCR id say the real number is given people in various other factions as well as the fact theres group that choose to just be by themselves such as good springs id say the real number is anywhere from 2 -3.5 times the NCRs number

I dont think you understand how massive the NCR is by New Vegas timeline. Its boundaries stretch the entirety of California as well as a major chunk into Nevada, Oregon, and Northern Mexico. While there's still raiders and such, everything in that area is techincally part of the NCR, and as such anyone there is a citizen of the NCR. I think the only independent city is still San Francisco but it's kinda left vague.

Goodsprings is independent. But that's a town with less than 20 people. 90% of Fallout New Vegas takes place in an area that is sandwiched between the NCR and Legion. If you compared Fallout 1/2 map, the NCR capital isn't that far away from Jacobstown.