Re: [HoE] Populations [Kind of long]

[Darrin Bright <darrin@neobright.net>]

Machine-gun Kelly wrote:

> All the brushfire wars, not to mention wars like those in Europe
> and occasional skirmishes between the North and South [and other wars
> over Ghost Rock] would probably keep the population down. 

Actually, wars DON'T keep population down. Population is more directly
linked to food availability. 

I'd suggest a good rule of thumb of around 10% (since 90% of our
population likes to live in big cities). If the party goes to a town
that used to have 50,000 people there before the bombs fell, figure
about 5,000 are there now. This figure will obviously change with regard
to how close they were to a city buster. Figure that a major city
suffered maybe 99% to 100% losses, and any survivors outside the blast
radius would move away from the major cities as the food ran out and
move towards agricultural and food production areas. The population in
any area will be directly linked to how much food they can produce.