Azadgal, for example, has an area of 10,000 sq. miles and a population in CoM of 50,000, in PWA3 of 45,000. If we assume that the badlands and swampland are entirely uninhabited, then this still leaves 6,500 sq. miles of productive land. The population figures, then, imply that there are fewer than ten people per sq. mile in this fertile stretch of the Asanda valley!
PWA3 makes this even more difficult to believe, mentioning "a number of mines in the badlands" and listing Sandapur's population as 9,000. This would put the farming population at roughly five per sq. mile, which forces us to assume that most of Azadgal lies fallow. Similar computations work for most other mumylkets as well.
The each mumylket, on average, is a little larger in area than The Five Shires (Azadgal is the only one slightly smaller), but The Shires have two and a half times the population of even the largest mumylket (Sindrastan).
Even if we are to assume that this is because Sind is so wasteful and exports a great deal of its food product, it is fairly clear that, as outlined, Sind does not even have the workforce to keep its borders secure, much less maintain export agriculture. When comparing the population of Sind to that of its neighbors to the east (except for the low-density Clans--here, it makes sense), the differences in density are start--Sind is severely underpopulated, as written up, and it seems like immigrants should be headed there in droves if these figures are accurate.
I've come up with two possible explanations/solutions, and I wanted to get others' feedback.
1) When the Sindhi population figures were described, someone made the mistake of assuming that the hex map of Sind was at the 8-mile per hex scale. Rural populations should be nine times greater than they are (I would argue that urban populations should be increased as well, but this is harder to justify). Increasing the rural population ninefold yields a rural population of about 3.6 million, with an additional 150,000 still in the cities. This is probably a bit too high, as it significantly surpasses the populations of Darokin or mainland Thyatis, but I don't think it is unreasonable: Sind is, after all, an empire made of eleven kingdoms.
2) Population figures are inherently tied to the caste system. Census information is accurate only for the cities (if even there), and these tallies do not, as a rule, include the Kuliya. While the rural census provides an accurate count of Himaya, Rishiya, and Jadugerya castes, many Prajaya and almost all Kuliya are left out of the counts. To make these numbers more accurate, then, rural populations should be tripled (due to the high numbers of Prajaya farmers in rural areas), while 50% should be added to the urban populations. This would give Sind a population of roughly 1.45 million--slightly larger than Darokin, and more than twice the population of Glantri.
Let me know your thoughts
I ran into the problem primarily as I was/have been/willan on haven be working on maps of the region (at 8 mi/hex) and trying to populate the larger regions thus produced.
PWA3 makes this even more difficult to believe, mentioning "a number of mines in the badlands" and listing Sandapur's population as 9,000. This would put the farming population at roughly five per sq. mile, which forces us to assume that most of Azadgal lies fallow. Similar computations work for most other mumylkets as well.
What makes things even more complicated is that, if you assume the urban population figures listed in the entries in CoM are included in the region population figures (and not in addition to), then almost all of the mumlykets have only those cities/towns as population centers, no more- otherwise, you've got a food surplus problem, as the 80/20 ratio figures (80 rural to 20 urban, as a base) are going to be way off.
The each mumylket, on average, is a little larger in area than The Five Shires (Azadgal is the only one slightly smaller), but The Shires have two and a half times the population of even the largest mumylket (Sindrastan).
1) When the Sindhi population figures were described, someone made the mistake of assuming that the hex map of Sind was at the 8-mile per hex scale. Rural populations should be nine times greater than they are (I would argue that urban populations should be increased as well, but this is harder to justify). Increasing the rural population ninefold yields a rural population of about 3.6 million, with an additional 150,000 still in the cities. This is probably a bit too high, as it significantly surpasses the populations of Darokin or mainland Thyatis, but I don't think it is unreasonable: Sind is, after all, an empire made of eleven kingdoms.
I think this is possible, though its just as likely they didn't put a lot of thought into the population figures- as others have pointed out before, many/most WotC/TSR fantasy settings have ridiculously low population levels.
I believe it was James Mishler who made this suggestion the last time I brought Sind up, and I'm inclined to believe him, that we should probably just refigure Sind's population from scratch, using Bruce Heard's guidelines to get us started.
2) Population figures are inherently tied to the caste system. Census information is accurate only for the cities (if even there), and these tallies do not, as a rule, include the Kuliya. While the rural census provides an accurate count of Himaya, Rishiya, and Jadugerya castes, many Prajaya and almost all Kuliya are left out of the counts. To make these numbers more accurate, then, rural populations should be tripled (due to the high numbers of Prajaya farmers in rural areas), while 50% should be added to the urban populations. This would give Sind a population of roughly 1.45 million--slightly larger than Darokin, and more than twice the population of Glantri.
That's a really good explanation for it, and I hope you don't mind if I steal it from you. ;)
To take that further, I'd imagine, given the nature of Sind as having so many semi-autonomous kingdoms, that it would be difficult to get an accurate census anyway. Certain things- such as the Gunjabi private army- wouldn't be included, plus really, who's going to trek through all those mountain valleys to try and get a headcount? Also some of the more secretive rajahs (such as maharajah Rudraksha of Kadesh) might not be all that forthcoming about what's really going on in his territory.
I was looking over the population figures for Sind given in CoM and the Almanacs, and they look just plain wrong to me. I have always had the impression of Sind's fertile areas as being teeming with life, and I am willing to concede that this may be in error, but even so the figures just do not make sense.
You're quite right. Note that the same sort of problem arises for several mystaran countries - more often outside the Known World. Take a look at the population figures you find in PWAs for the countries described in DotE (Isle of Dawn, Bellissaria, Alatians, etc.): they're simply wrong; for example, they'd make the whole plain and subtropical island-continent of Bellissaria a huge wilderness land...
In the Italian MMB also we're talking about population figures and we've started a revision of the numbers found in the canon, beginning with the Known World countries.
Maybe in the future I'll post some of the results here. ;)
Dawn of the Emperor's certainly has some of the least tenable population figures around. I remember suggestions in the past that all Alphatian population figures include only spellcasters. While some populations are unbalanced by this transition (Trikelios would be awfully large, for instance), I think this is a fairly workable general solution. Some other areas with seemingly inaccurate populations include the Pearl Islands, Ochalea, and probably Hule. I had just either never before noticed Sind's absurdly low population or had simply forgotten.
I play in Karameikos, where I've revised the population figures significantly. I've pegged the population at around two million, while lowering the populations of cities, towns and villages (40,000 for Specularum, 12,000 for Kelvin, 8,000 for Fort Doom, all figures 1000 AC). The figure of two million may sound huge, but it was about comparable to the population of the entire British Isles in the middle ages (a country that had the lowest population density in europe, due to rocky terrain, something that I felt was appropriate given the vast tracts of wilderness in Karameikos).
That's my solution, anyway. Use whatever you like, yourselves.
Clearly, the population figures that exist leave something to be desired. We could, of course, assume that generations of do-gooding adventurers have managed to keep the population down either a) by forgetting to search for traps and thus removing themselves from the gene pool or b) by extolling the virtues of family planning to all the peasants who will listen. A frontier setting in which the limiting factor is the number of people rather than the availability and quality of land certainly has its virtues for a campaign setting, as the alternate is that the land is the limiting factor and, when the population starts crossing critical thresholds, people die. This can be a bit of sobering setting against which to have gallant adventures.
Lord Murgatroyd: What is it now?
The Seneschal: The peasants, m'lord, they are dying!
Lord Murgatroyd: What? How dare they!