Golarion Populations by Race and Settlement Size


Lost Omens Campaign Setting General Discussion


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Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

On Reddit, someone asked a question about whether or not Paizo had a global breakdown of how many of what races lived where. The general consensus was "No. Well, a couple cities, but not enough to be statistically useful." Then over the next few days, I thought to myself, "Well, how much information is there, and could it say anything?"

So I put together this, a full and comprehensive look at all of the population and race demographic information Paizo has ever published that I can find:

Golarion Populations by Race and Settlement Size

There are two Reddit threads on this where I have posted a number of points on this data. First for V1. Then the following week, for V2.1. The latest version now being V2.2. A changelog tab can be found on the sheet.

Here are a few of the points pulled out of the Reddit threads:


  • Some of the numbers seem odd at first, like apparently there are only 13 halflings in all of Tian Xia. That's not what it means to say. That only says that that's all the data Paizo has published for halfling demographics in specific settlements. There are no doubt more, there just isn't good data on them.
  • Mostly as a consequence of cases like that, for the uncommon and featured races, take any number, no matter how small, as an indication that that race has a significant presence in that area. Enough that they made it worth mentioning in at least one settlement demographics.
  • Don't see your favorite player race on there? That's just because they never made it on to one of the published demographics. Not that they don't exist. Goblins are a great example. There are a bunch randomly in the wilderness, just not on settlement demographics.
  • Continuing off of that: Yes this data is massively skewed towards larger settlements. You can even see how bad this is on the "Settlement Size Results" tab.
  • Sometimes, I came across settlements that didn't have specific race demographic numbers, but did have enough written lore about them that I felt comfortable inferring some data. For these, I generally erred on the conservative side for these guesses to minimize the chances of being wrong while also still being able to get those populations some better representation. For example, the cities in Nagajor in Tian Xia: I have total population numbers for most of the cities, and the lore is that they are majority Nagaji with a ruling class of Naga that visitors to the countries basically never see and are seen as gods to the Nagaji. Therefore, I said that the city was 55% Nagaji, 1% Naga (ended up being a couple hundred. Seems plausible given the lore.), and the other 44% unknown, since I don't know where within that unknown the actual population split is, plus maybe there's another 1-5% of the population that are others that just aren't mentioned. Even being this conservative, we did get a lot better numbers for multiple races, including Elves, Nagaji, Samsarans, Tengus, Drows, and Dwarves compared to the previous version of this sheet.
  • The city of Xiwu in Tian Xia is almost single-handedly responsible for humans "only" being 58% of the population. With a population greater than the three smallest continents combined, and almost on par with the entire Darklands, it is home to the world's largest army. Period. And almost that entire army are Terracotta soldiers. This anomaly makes me sad for the total.
  • I posted all of my source data not only for transparency but also anyone can feel free to do other things with that data if they want. I would just appreciate the credit of initially gathering it all.

And finally, a few other things I discovered during this:

Dear Paizo,


  • For the town of Nesting Swallow: 79 + 3 + 1 does not equal 84.
  • For the town of Oregent: 17,993 + 2,043 + 1,135 + 681 + 400 + 254 + 200 + 54 does not equal 22,700. It's 22,760. This almost drove me mad from re-checking the math multiple times. "You just checked it again, didn't you?" NO.....maybe.
  • For the town of Hagegraf: 77% + 12% + 5% + 3% + 2% does not equal 100%. It's 99%. I just went ahead and chose to assume that last 2% is actually 3% and kept going.
  • For the Deepmar Penal Colony: With a population of 48, it is not a Thorp, but a Hamlet.
  • For the town of Railford: With a population of 46, it is not a Thorp, but a Hamlet.
  • For the town of Morast: With a population of 62, it is not a Hamlet, but a Village.
  • For the town of Satravah: With a population of 68, it is not a Hamlet, but a Village.
  • Or it'd be great to know if there are updated rules on the population cut-offs for those settlement size categories. Always happy to know if I'm wrong and why.
  • You published such awesome books on areas like Taldor, Qadira, and The Shackles. Why almost no race demographics for any of those settlements? D:


Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

Did an audit of the last few Adventure Paths and came up with a few more settlements, and added a new column for Aquatic Elves that we have one settlement that lists them. So on to version 2.3!

Also, fresh off of Part 1 of Ironfang Invasion, a new "Dear Paizo" entry:

Dear Paizo,

  • For the town of Phaendar, 305 + 32 + 21 + 17 + 28 does not equal 398. It's 403. I've re-read those numbers like four times, please tell me if I'm just crazy and you're right somehow, like if my brain refuses to read a number correctly or something.


I pulled this from The Shackles area. You have some in the Non-Race Data tab, but you don't have all of them.

With Pop data:
Population Name
1255 Alendruan Harbor
1190 Arena
120 Banukmaud
1140 Beachcomber
915 Blackblood Cay
995 Bogsbridge
895 Chalk Harbor
1230 Cho-Tzu
425 Colvaas Gibbet
420 Downpour
1070 Dragonsthrall
9690 Drenchport
525 Drowning Rock
975 Falchion Point
60 Fort Benbem
97 Fort Holiday
215 Ganagsau
1318 Genzei
1390 Ghrinitshahara
470 Goatshead
995 Haigui Wan
710 Halabad
9230 Hell Harbor
1110 Heslandaena
900 Kora
780 Lilywhite
1365 Little Oppara
875 Maidenspool
1010 Mezdrubal
780 Myscurial
5230 Neruma
695 Ngozu
7340 Ollo
1110 Oyster Cay
1225 Parley Point
835 Pex
1130 Plumetown
43270 Port Peril
1115 Queen Bes
12560 Quent
1275 Raketooth
1340 Rapier Bay
690 Robu
795 Rumbutter
1400 Slipcove
690 Tyvas-Devas
585 Vezhnu
470 Vilelock
245 Yelligo Wharf
785 Zeibo

Without Pop data:
Population Name
isle Bag Island
isle Benbog Isle
isle Besmara’s Throne
isle Bhudrek Atoll
isle Blacksand Beach
ruin Blood Fountain
town Bloodcove
isle Bonewrack Isle
site Broken Hook
site Camp of the Merry Pranksters
site Camp of the Penitents
isle Cannibal Isles
isle Cauldron’s Rock
site Cauldrons of Calm & Calamity
site Cayden’s Arm
site Cecaelia Swirl
ruin City of Bleeding Stones
isle Culp’s Menagerie
isle Dagon’s Jaws
isle Dahak’s Fang
isle Dahak’s Horn
isle Dahak’s Tooth
isle Darguro Plate
isle Devil’s Arches
site Dragon’s Gullet
isle East Fang
ruin Eel’s Skull
isle Fernlat’s Islet
site Field of Bones and Black Glass
isle Firegrass Isle
isle Garnet Island
site Ghost Lake
isle Glengarnie Chain
site Glittering Lake
isle Haekin’s Redoubt
site Haunted Crater Lakes
site Heavywater Perch
town Heggapnod
site Heskott Bay
isle Hesmene’s Grotto
site Houcam’s Bay
isle Island of Empty Eyes
isle Island of the Black Tower
isle Isle of Consummations
isle Kepre Dua
town Kukgukmol
site Lake of Dead Dreams
site Lake of Scales
site Lake Vene
site Leatherwing Bay
site Lurching Mountain
isle Mancatcher Cove
site Methoth Lake
isle Mgange Cove
town Moak Harbor
isle Moluune Parapet
isle Motaku Isle
isle Nalt’s Island
ruin Norboro Ashes
site Obelisk of Wonders
site Ongongte Overlook
isle Paeterpade Isle
isle Pangalley Atoll
site Peshaka Naeu
site Pit of Raugsmauda
site Queen’s Processional
isle Raingale Isle
isle Rampore Isles
isle Raptor Island
isle Raugsmauda’s Reach
site Redbow Island
town Rickety’s Squibs
isle Sai Riang’s Refuge
isle Sarenvent
isle Shark Island
isle Shenchu Bay
isle Skinny Whale Isle
site Steirwood
ruin Stone of Tears
site Sweet Tooth Lake
isle Taldas Isle
isle Taypan’s Rock
isle Tempest Cay
ruin Temple of the Ravenous Moon
site The Halfling Coast
site The Holy Isle
isle The Smoker
isle Tidewater Rock
isle Ungoro Tedar
isle Ushinawa Isles
isle Vaelyn & Kel
ruin Vhunsaub
site Wailing Cave
isle West Fang
site Whirlpool Rush
isle Whyrlis Rock
isle Widowmaker Isle
isle Yoha’s Graveyard
town Zhenbarghua
site Zhukuo Tegeg

/cevah


Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

Meh! So many settlements in The Shackles, lol. That's awesome and I'll definitely have to add all those over the next few days as I have time. Thanks!


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Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

Holy snot! Has it really been 2 years since I started this? Good lord, I'm a giant nerd, lol.

Well, I'm visiting this thread again because I've spent some time in the past couple weeks completely updating this project as much as possible. With 2E coming out, I thought it would be really cool to completely finish this and be able to say, this is the world that Paizo built in 1E.

So here we are, with my sanity barely intact: Version 3.2 of the Golarion Race Populations, and a new total tracked population on Golarion of nearly 8.4 million.

There were a lot of things that I thought about that may not be immediately clear when looking at this, so rather than making a very large post about it, I made a quick write-up of my random thoughts on the project.

The changelog is also included as the last tab, but putting it here for the lazy:

V3.2
Checking the "Where on Golarion?" sections for all the other races in "Inner Sea Races".
Adding inferred data based on "Blood of Beasts", "Blood of the Coven", "Blood of the Elements", "Blood of Fiends", and "Blood of Angels".

V3.1
Continuing my much more liberal inference of data through the continents of Garund and the Crown of the World.
Adding as much info as I can find on the ocean and sea settlements.
Double checking the preferred regions for the races in Inner Sea World Guide.
Double checking the "Where on Golarion?" sections for the core races in "Inner Sea Races".

V3.0
Adding a ton of settlements from Tian Xia that I didn’t have before that have basically a single mention in Dragon Empires Gazetteer.
In general being much more liberal with inferring data from the information that the Gazetteer gives at least which races are more prevalant at the country level.
Adding initial data on Locathahs.
Adding data for Strix.
Inferred WAY more of the data on populated settlements in Avistan.

V2.6
Adding data from "Cradle of Night", "Seers of the Drowned City"
Added data from all adventure paths from Ironfang Invasion Part 4 onwards. Including the new "continent" of the Arcadian Ocean.
Ignoring demographics presented in Planar Adventures, since none of those are on in Golarion.

V2.5
Adding data from "Nidal, Land of Shadows"

V2.4
Adding vague Catfolk, Grippli, Kitsune, Ratfolk, and Tengu information from Blood of Beasts.
Adding some vague tribe information in the Mwangi Expanse and Valashmai Jungle.

V2.3
Adding more settlements from Giantslayer, Hell's Rebels, and Parts 1, 2, and 3 of Ironfang Invasion
Includes: Shinnerman's Fortune, Acisazi, Cypress Point, Phaendar, Misthome, and Longshadow
New race from Acisazi: Aquatic Elves


I know this isn't really what the point of the thread is, but I feel like some cities in Golarion are surprisingly small. I mean, the world's smallest city has 300,000 or so people. Contrast that with Earth--in 900, Baghdad was said to have a million people and was the largest city at the time (not to mention Rome allegedly had around 800K at its height). Even if that was exaggerated it's probably still a lot more than 300K, and that's on a planet without lots of magic, a presumably lower population density and size, and no small ancestries that take up less space and require less food...


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Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Romans didn't have owlbears eating people living outside of dense population centers.


Hmm, good point. I feel like it can go either way though depending on how you interpret things.

Shadow Lodge

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Darth Game Master wrote:
I mean, the world's smallest city has 300,000 or so people.

Did you mean "largest" there?

Anyway, if anything, agricultural settlement ought to be less of a big deal generally on Golarion, considering 1) the far more dangerous conditions of Golarion's countryside as compared to Earth's and 2) the ability to conjure food cheaply in cities without having to rely on agricultural production at all. That is to say, Golarion ought to be a Tippy-world.

Perhaps it is and the population of the whole world is just very low?


Yes, I meant to say largest.


zimmerwald1915 wrote:
Darth Game Master wrote:
I mean, the world's smallest city has 300,000 or so people.

Did you mean "largest" there?

Anyway, if anything, agricultural settlement ought to be less of a big deal generally on Golarion, considering 1) the far more dangerous conditions of Golarion's countryside as compared to Earth's and 2) the ability to conjure food cheaply in cities without having to rely on agricultural production at all. That is to say, Golarion ought to be a Tippy-world.

Perhaps it is and the population of the whole world is just very low?

Yeah, lets not go into Tippy discussions.

It's pretty clear there's plenty of farming going on and lots of small villages. We see them all over in adventures, with no sign they're out of the ordinary. There's little reason to think that Golarion is that much more dangerous on a day to day basis than our world was.

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