Growth and move-ins
From The City Wiki · Reference page · 4 entries · game data version 1.10.11
Growth and move-ins: How people move in, what keeps them away, and when denser buildings arrive.
People move to a city with free homes, work and a decent mood. This page covers how fast they come, what keeps them away, and when bigger buildings are allowed.
How people move in
Every 27 game minutes or so a group of households arrives and moves into homes that have room. Each household is one to three people. While the city has fewer than 30 residents, five households come each time. After that it depends on how happy the city is: about two households at 40% happiness or less, rising steadily to about ten at 80%, give or take one.
Homes that are for sale, condemned or not joined to a road out of the city take nobody new.
In Easy mode people come faster and in bigger groups as homes free up, and an airport speeds it up further.
When nobody moves in
- No road reaches the edge of the map, so nobody can get here at all.
- More than 15% of working-age residents are out of work and there are not enough open jobs for them. Newcomers stay away until unemployment falls back under 10%.
- Average happiness drops below 38%. Word gets round, and people only start coming again once it is back over 42%.
- After a deadly disaster people wait a while before moving in.
- The treasury has been below $0 for 60 days and the state has taken over the books (see Debt).
The jobs and happiness checks only start once the city has 30 residents. While newcomers are staying away, the demand bar for homes stays empty, and the Housing page in City Hall says why.
Medium and high density
Medium and high density homes and office towers wait until the city is big and happy enough. Towers also need land worth 40 or more.
| Density | Standard rules | Easy mode |
|---|---|---|
| Low | Always | Always |
| Medium | 2,000 residents, over 50% happy | 1,000 residents, over 44% happy |
| High | 20,000 residents, over 58% happy | 1,500 residents, over 55% happy |
A lot zoned for more than the city can have yet shows what it is waiting for when you click it.
Business taxes and demand
Taxing shops, offices or industry above the usual rate means fewer businesses want to open. Every 10 points of tax above 100% takes about 3.5% off that zone's demand, so at 150% demand is a little over four fifths of what it would be. Businesses from Special, Businesses (banks, groceries, gyms, restaurants and so on) count towards commercial demand by the people they employ, and they call for homes just as shops do.
Easy mode has no demand cut for business taxes.
See also
- Difficulty and Easy mode – The standard rules, and what Easy mode changes.
- Health, illness and death – How illness spreads, hospitals and beds, outbreaks, flu shots, old age, every cause of death, hearses and cemeteries.
- All reference categories
- How the City Works
The reference pages are made from the game's own data, version 1.10.11. Numbers can change between versions.