http://www.io.com/~sjohn/demog.htm
I stumbled across this site whilst researching for my novel. It's got lots of info about population densities, city sizes, agriculture etc. in medieval times. Very helpful for realistic worldbuilding.
Update: There's also an automated version where you input some things and it tells you stuff like how many villages, towns, castles etc. Distances between these places, number of livestock, percentage of land cultivated etc. http://www.rpglibrary.org/utils/meddemog/
Great resource for medieval demographics
7 posts in this topic.
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Hippie wrote:http://www.io.com/~sjohn/demog.htm
I stumbled across this site whilst researching for my novel. It's got lots of info about population densities, city sizes, agriculture etc. in medieval times. Very helpful for realistic worldbuilding.
That page is amazing!
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It's good, but there is some issues with the numbers though I do agree it is a good baseline. Anyone who thinks that there is a shoemaker for every 150 people probably doesn't realize how often people got new shoes.
If you read it, you would realize it is for a city anyways. Which because of goods has a greater need for skilled laborers. -
"It's good, but there is some issues with the numbers though I do agree it is a good baseline. Anyone who thinks that there is a shoemaker for every 150 people probably doesn't realize how often people got new shoes."
Back then I think shoes wore out quicker. -
It was more then that, but I rather not get into the topic of period shoes and styles to further make the argument that fashion trumped necessity. Paris by the time had the most famous Basilica and was more then just some D&D town.
Give value to the meanings of society and times and you realize just how bad some of these figures really are.
"Law Enforcement: A well-kept medieval city will have 1 law officer (guardsman, watchman, etc.) for every 150 citizens. Slack cities will have half this number. A few rare cities will have more."
This does work for simple matters though. Detailed work will not come out sensibly. Like the law enforcement part. .6% of all people are in some form of law enforcement in a well-kept city? Half in a slack?
Strange how even modern peacetime armies stand at 1% for military and about 1% for civil law enforcement. Already we have a difference of 7x in a typical city for the period in poor communication/transportation, at peace, and technology? Seems more then a bit off for me. -
Initially I thought this was a great source as well, but then I got to thinking, and I have to agree that it's probably best suited as a frame of reference.
The trades for instance, does that include apprentices, or only journeymen and masters?
The guards confused me as well, but that could simply be sheriffs, constables etc. The majority of the city guard could conceptually be composed of the lord's retainers. Even this doesn't quite fit the ridiculously low numbers though.
King's Landing in A Song of Ice and Fire has a garrison of 2000 city guard (in addition to knights, men at arms etc) and gets bolstered to 6000 during war. I think this is probably a bit too far on the other end of the spectrum, but by this source, the population would be between 333, 333 and One Million, which is way, way too big for a fantasy set in a War of the Roses England period.
I think it's best to start with these numbers, but adjust heavily in favour of the specific cultures/economies you're developing. -
I've found an automated version. The link is in the original post.
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