Constant Population Decrease and Increase

[PrincessDoge™]

My city has reached 39,000 population and since then it decreases down to 29,000 constantly and goes back up to 39,000.

My traffic is at 89%, many connecting roads, happiness is at 80%+, services are available to everyone, education and what not.

I keep checking what could be wrong, but nothing makes sense right now. What could I be missing out on?

[grapplehoeker]

It's perfectly normal. The city has a life cycle and you can look at the rise and fall of your population like a pulse. Also, if you look at your population overlay, you'll notice that the average amount of seniors for most cities is 24%. So, you can expect your population to fall at most by up to 24% as your seniors die off.
It's when you see more than a 24% drop that you ought to be concerned and the first thing to look at is your pollution overlay which will show you water pollution if there is any... this is fatal. Water must be 0% at all times for a healthy city.

[PrincessDoge™]

Originally posted by grapplehoeker:

It's perfectly normal. The city has a life cycle and you can look at the rise and fall of your population like a pulse. Also, if you look at your population overlay, you'll notice that the average amount of seniors for most cities is 24%. So, you can expect your population to fall at most by up to 24% as your seniors die off.
It's when you see more than a 24% drop that you ought to be concerned and the first thing to look at is your pollution overlay which will show you water pollution if there is any... this is fatal. Water must be 0% at all times for a healthy city.

The sewage and everything connected to it is at 0%, but twice the seniors were at 30%. When I zone residential it's done gradually.

[spielerinchen]

health boosting services would be probably helpful to reduce premature deaths, that is if you have Green Cities & Snowfall DLC

also helpful are two mods imo
Show It!
Citizen Lifecycle Rebalance v2.6

Show It!
gives you more detailed per household info about what is missing & where problems might lie

with Citizen Lifecycle Rebalance you don't need to care anymore for careful placement of zoning, new people are simply of different age & don't die at the same time in bunches anymore

[PrincessDoge™]

Originally posted by spielerinchen:

health boosting services would be probably helpful to reduce premature deaths, that is if you have Green Cities & Snowfall DLC

also helpful are two mods imo
Show It!
Citizen Lifecycle Rebalance v2.6

Show It!
gives you more detailed per household info about what is missing & where problems might lie

with Citizen Lifecycle Rebalance you don't need to care anymore for careful placement of zoning, new people are simply of different age & don't die at the same time in bunches anymore

I will subscribe to both, see what happens and make an update if it solves the issue.

[RabbitRidge]

It certainly looks like the Citizen Lifecycle Rebalance will make everything much easier for you. Low Influx as a result of insufficient entry level jobs (uneducated) is a classic likely cause. I don't use mods and have no problem countering Death Waves with sufficient entry level jobs to keep new citizens moving in as needed (Influx).

[AoD_lexandro]

Prune your city of old farts. If you have too many people of the same age ranges your going to get massive death waves. If you prune lots with seniors you can have "normal" death waves that wont affect the populace as much. Basically your reducing the percentage of old people to an acceptable level.

[RabbitRidge]

To mathematically maintain perfect population balance, a city would require 4 Cims per Household (2 adults with 2 children in each discounting much of the time in workforce overlap). Even in the best of circumstances you're doing well to keep the Household ratio above 3.7 (divide Current Population by Households currently occupied [not total Households available] according the City Information button popup).

Influx is always key and if all or most jobs have leveled up, it leaves no room for new Cims with no education to find a job and settle in.


Everything changes once you get the Eden Project and the Hadron Collider together, but that is a completely different story. :)

[spielerinchen]

the game changes constantly with city's growth, that's the whole point of C:S imo if you don't play with unlimited money, ploppable rico & for the city planning architecture
if you play along milestones, then you have constantly to readjust every corner
additionally even played by milestones, different players have a different experience, because they play differently, there is not one or best way to play C:S, every player has to find their own best way
there are many good mods available to help with that

[dorcasdk]

One thing to consider when expanding your city is that a large influx of citizens will ultimately result in a rather large death wave too. It's best to let the game continue running as you zone residential and do it in small steps. You can lay out your neighborhoods and then zone them a street at a time. When that zoned area is filled up, zone the next street and so on. The demand bars don't drop immediately after citizens move in because they have to find their jobs and that isn't as soon as they arrive. Unfortunately your city doesn't have recruiters who hire people into a job before they arrive.

The demand for people goes up as the cims get educated and want better jobs. So over time, the industries that need just uneducated or educated employees aren't getting jobs filled. You can help the the issue of your cims being too educated to take the low level industrial jobs by creating districts and setting the district policy for "School's Out" in some of them.

[grapplehoeker]

Originally posted by dorcasdk:

One thing to consider when expanding your city is that a large influx of citizens will ultimately result in a rather large death wave too.

No.
The proportion of the amount of seniors will remain relatively unchanged at around 24% and therefore the death rate will remain in proportion to that ratio.
I am sick and tired of this often used and misunderstood term "death wave". The rise and fall of a population is natural and failure to plan ahead in providing adequate deathcare for coping with a larger amount of seniors dying off as the population grows is where players fall down... not because of the life cycle itself.

The demand for people goes up as the cims get educated and want better jobs. So over time, the industries that need just uneducated or educated employees aren't getting jobs filled. You can help the the issue of your cims being too educated to take the low level industrial jobs by creating districts and setting the district policy for "School's Out" in some of them.

No.
Simply maintaining an unemployment rate of around 10% will ensure all vacancies are filled regardless of educational requirement. There is absolutely no need to restrict education or create 'schools out' districts.

[PrincessDoge™]

Originally posted by grapplehoeker:

Originally posted by dorcasdk:

One thing to consider when expanding your city is that a large influx of citizens will ultimately result in a rather large death wave too.

No.
The proportion of the amount of seniors will remain relatively unchanged at around 24% and therefore the death rate will remain in proportion to that ratio.
I am sick and tired of this often used and misunderstood term "death wave". The rise and fall of a population is natural and failure to plan ahead in providing adequate deathcare for coping with a larger amount of seniors dying off as the population grows is where players fall down... not because of the life cycle itself.

The demand for people goes up as the cims get educated and want better jobs. So over time, the industries that need just uneducated or educated employees aren't getting jobs filled. You can help the the issue of your cims being too educated to take the low level industrial jobs by creating districts and setting the district policy for "School's Out" in some of them.

No.
Simply maintaining an unemployment rate of around 10% will ensure all vacancies are filled regardless of educational requirement. There is absolutely no need to restrict education or create 'schools out' districts.

My Unemployment Rate is at 3-4% even when I try to keep it a little higher. The population keeps decreasing thought. I am now going to open up the game with the Citizen Lifecycle Rebalance v2.6 and see if there is an actual fix to it, since I am getting fed up.
Employers haven't complained about anything in my industries or office zones, therefore I don't see a connection there.

[grapplehoeker]

Originally posted by Sofia™:

My Unemployment Rate is at 3-4% even when I try to keep it a little higher. The population keeps decreasing thought. I am now going to open up the game with the Citizen Lifecycle Rebalance v2.6 and see if there is an actual fix to it, since I am getting fed up.
Employers haven't complained about anything in my industries or office zones, therefore I don't see a connection there.

3% unemployment is too low. It is indicative of an insufficient workforce. You don't have to see any complaints, but if you examine the businesses, you will find plenty of vacancies that could be filled if you increased your population and unemployment percentage.
Incidentally, the unemployment percentage will have very little effect on your population growth or decline. Whatever population decrease you observe will be attributable to something else, such as a natural life cycle as explained above.
Honestly, you have nothing to worry about. You stated that your population fluctuates between 29k and 39k. Well that's a rise and fall of 25% which is perfectly normal, because that is the proportion of seniors you have that are passing away and being replaced. As I said, you need only be concerned if it was a lot more than that.

[PrincessDoge™]

Originally posted by grapplehoeker:

Originally posted by Sofia™:

My Unemployment Rate is at 3-4% even when I try to keep it a little higher. The population keeps decreasing thought. I am now going to open up the game with the Citizen Lifecycle Rebalance v2.6 and see if there is an actual fix to it, since I am getting fed up.
Employers haven't complained about anything in my industries or office zones, therefore I don't see a connection there.

3% unemployment is too low. It is indicative of an insufficient workforce. You don't have to see any complaints, but if you examine the businesses, you will find plenty of vacancies that could be filled if you increased your population and unemployment percentage.
Incidentally, the unemployment percentage will have very little effect on your population growth or decline. Whatever population decrease you observe will be attributable to something else, such as a natural life cycle as explained above.
Honestly, you have nothing to worry about. You stated that your population fluctuates between 29k and 39k. Well that's a rise and fall of 25% which is perfectly normal, because that is the proportion of seniors you have that are passing away and being replaced. As I said, you need only be concerned if it was a lot more than that.

This is probably the case, that there is nothing to worry about. But it got even worse, now I am not even making money and almost on a constant -5K/10K. Maybe I messed up something on the way and now am too deep into it to notice.

[grapplehoeker]

Originally posted by Sofia™:

Originally posted by grapplehoeker:

3% unemployment is too low. It is indicative of an insufficient workforce. You don't have to see any complaints, but if you examine the businesses, you will find plenty of vacancies that could be filled if you increased your population and unemployment percentage.
Incidentally, the unemployment percentage will have very little effect on your population growth or decline. Whatever population decrease you observe will be attributable to something else, such as a natural life cycle as explained above.
Honestly, you have nothing to worry about. You stated that your population fluctuates between 29k and 39k. Well that's a rise and fall of 25% which is perfectly normal, because that is the proportion of seniors you have that are passing away and being replaced. As I said, you need only be concerned if it was a lot more than that.

This is probably the case, that there is nothing to worry about. But it got even worse, now I am not even making money and almost on a constant -5K/10K. Maybe I messed up something on the way and now am too deep into it to notice.

Zone more residential, nothing else and level it up.
Residential is your biggest source of revenue. Your 3-4% unemployment tells me your population isn't as big as it should be and that means neither is your income.
Also, look for unnecessary expenditure on services and reduce it. Health services for example can be cut back if you have already taken care to ensure you do not get sick Cims.
Use a critical eye on all of your emergency services. Do you have any crime complaints? If not, then you could try reducing your police force. Do you often have fires? If not, you may safely remove some fire services, or simply turn them off to save on upkeep costs and turn them on again when needed.
I wish you success ;)

[BucketBrain]

@ grapplehoeker
No.
The proportion of the amount of seniors will remain relatively unchanged at around 24% and therefore the death rate will remain in proportion to that ratio.

Greetings
Could you please explain what death rate - weekly average like shown in population overlay ? - you see for normal in Sofias city ?

l would call a periodically population swap of 25% an issue , nothing else

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1869332856
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1869325544

At Sofias city , this drop causes a little shortage of workforce like you stated above and if it would be a city of 200 000 loosing 50 000 pops it would cause more trouble on the screen and items would popup in time