Population

People are the heart of a province. They work your mills, pay your tax and fill your army. Almost every decision in Hinterkeep is a decision about where your people go.

Growth

Every hour a province gains 50 people, plus 1 for every 3,000 it already has. A small town grows at a steady pace, and a big one grows faster.

Three things change that number:

• Happiness. Every point above 100 adds +1% growth. See Happiness.
• Medicine. Each level of this research adds +3% growth.
• Farms. Past farm capacity, growth slows down. See below.

Below 50 happiness, the town shrinks instead. It loses 0.5% of its people every hour until happiness recovers.

Houses

Houses set how many people the province can hold. When housing is full, growth stops. Level 1 holds 11,400 and level 20 holds 178,957. Each level adds a little more room than the one before.

Level	Cost	Time	Holds
1	700 60 700	4m	11,400
2	945 81 945	5m 12s	14,244
3	1,276 109 1,276	6m 46s	18,119
4	1,722 148 1,722	8m 47s	22,865
5	2,325 199 2,325	11m 25s	28,386
6	3,139 269 3,139	14m 51s	34,613
7	4,237 363 4,237	19m 18s	41,498
8	5,721 490 5,721	25m 6s	49,001
9	7,723 662 7,723	32m 38s	57,089
10	10,426 894 10,426	42m 25s	65,735

Before Architecture, at world speed ×1.Show all 30 levels

Farms

Farms set how many people the province can feed. Level 1 feeds 12,500 and level 20 feeds 192,025, a little ahead of houses at every level.

Going past farm capacity slows growth down, the further the slower. A town with twice as many people as its farms can feed grows at half speed. Growth never drops below 10% of normal, even with no farm at all.

Terrain changes farm capacity: +20% on plains, +10% in forests and -20% in the mountains. Hills make no difference.

Level	Cost	Time	Feeds
1	700 40 400	4m	12,500
2	945 54 540	5m 12s	15,547
3	1,276 73 729	6m 46s	19,699
4	1,722 98 984	8m 47s	24,784
5	2,325 133 1,329	11m 25s	30,699
6	3,139 179 1,794	14m 51s	37,371
7	4,237 242 2,421	19m 18s	44,748
8	5,721 327 3,269	25m 6s	52,786
9	7,723 441 4,413	32m 38s	61,452
10	10,426 596 5,957	42m 25s	70,716

Before Architecture, at world speed ×1.Show all 30 levels

Where your people go

Every person in a province is one of three things:

• Workers staff your lumbermill, iron mine and stone quarry. They produce resources and pay tax.
• Idle people have no job. They produce nothing and pay no tax.
• Soldiers have left the population to train. They pay no tax either.

Moving workers is instant and free. Hire or release them whenever you like.

Recruiting

Training a soldier takes a person from the province the moment you queue the order. Cancelling the order gives the people back.

Recruiting also lowers the happiness target by 1 point for every 1% of the province you take, for 1 day. Cancelling gives the people back and keeps that happiness loss.

Disbanding soldiers returns them to the population, along with 75% of what they cost.