Current Population of Mega City One...?

[TordelBack]

Aside from apologies for wandering aposrophes, I'd like to add:  and at only 1% of Justice Dept personnel, that seems about right.  A better question might be how many of Psi Div are also rated fro teh streets.  Seems like a good number of that 1000 are going to be sitting in a booth, plugged into something or floating in a pool somewhere.

[SamuelAWilkinson]

Point well made; assuming that the ratio of street-to-ancilliary is the same for Psi as normos, the figures do add up.

[Funt Solo]

::"Just realised that MC-1 must have a population mostly aged under 30."

Why?

[Dudley]

Loads of wars and plagues in the city itself would tend to kill off eldsters in disproportionate numbers.  Ditto high crime rate, radiation poisoning, high suicide rate.

Equally, there is an established correlation between unemployment and fecundity (you screw cos there's naff-all else to do).  With good social security and robots doing most of the work, meaning no economic factors impinging on birth control, families would probably swell in number to an average of, say, 4-5 children per couple.  Add the absence of religious factors to the general breakdown in morality in the post-apocalyptic population, and you are also likely to have a high number of single-parent families - in other words, lots of single men spreading seed in as wide an area as possible.

All of which suggests an extremely youthful population.  Real-life present day examples of similar situations include Iran and Brazil, both of which have populations mostly born after 1980.  

It also seems reasonable to posit that this young population is the reason fashions and fads spread so rapidly in Mega-City One.  

Speculation of the ways in which living in a youthful city might affect senior members of the judicial forces will have to remain just that, speculation.

[House of Usher]

re: speculation

You can assume high fecundity if you're also assuming 20th century birth control and no innovations in contraception over a 120-year period.

High suicide rate - well, at the moment it's highest among young single men. I presume you're speculating that in 2128 it'll be highest among the over 50s?

High crime rate - are we speculating that eldsters who never leave their homes are more at risk of crime than bored juveys involved in street gangs?

As for war, I didn't think thermonuclear warheads discriminate on the basis of age, so wouldn't change the city's demographics a great deal.

I seem to remember there used to be much made of the longevity of Mega-Citizens on the basis of advances in medicine, including therapies, prosthetics and devices.

I presume the extremely youthful populations of Iran and Brazil are not entirely down to good social security and robots doing most of the work?

"It also seems reasonable to posit that this young population is the reason fashions and fads spread so rapidly in Mega-City One."

No it isn't. Fads and fashions might just as easily spread rapidly in Mega-City One because of the large number of bored citizens needing something to do to inject novelty into their long, tedious life spans. Ugly spread among the megapolitan fashionable set before it caught on with juves. Tabitha Sparks weren't no juvey! Marlon Shalespeare's parents were middle aged hobbyists - a sitter and a bat glider.

[Funt Solo]

I thought his mum dirtied and washed dishes and his father headed eggs into pans.

[House of Usher]

"Just realised that MC-1 must have a population mostly aged under 30."

No, you're thinking of Logan's Run.

[worldshown]

Interesting points Dudley, however your examples would probably work better for a less developed state/city like Cuidad Barranquila or Andes Conurb say.

Won't disagree with your connection between unemployment and fecundity, however we know birth control exists in MC1 (no serious religious opposition) and I can't see benefits in MC1 being so generous as to make having loads of kids an option.

Half way down the link underneath are some population pyramids showing patterns of population change in countries of different development status (Warning: black text on a red background does not make for good reading). As the population of MC1 has been pretty static for about 20 years now, we can use the middle graph (Slow Growth) as our model. By coincidence, the example is for the US.

Using the model, we see that the percentage of under 30's in MC1 would be around 24% (less if we include that Anderson tale which would knock out a big chunk of the 15-24 demographic).

A less developed state's population pyramid is seen on the left. This would fit with Dudley's theory.

Starting to take this a bit too serious now. Bet Si's wishing he never started this thread ;)

Link: http://www.uni.edu/gai/India/India_Lesson_Plans/India_Population_Pyramids.htm" target="_blank">Population Pyramids

[House of Usher]

"I thought his mum dirtied and washed dishes and his father headed eggs into pans."

Oh yes! Can't remember who the sitter was, or if she was married to a bat glider. Anyway, the point is that in the Meg, fads have never been confined to the younger generation. Graffiti, yes, but that's a crime. Ugly, bat gliding, kneepads, simping, no.

[worldshown]

Marlon Shalespeare's parents were middle aged hobbyists - a sitter and a bat glider.

That was Citzen Snork's parents.

[worldshown]

Dammit! Only counted one side of the pyramid!

So we are looking at a percentage population under 30 of about 44-48%, whereas the other example for a less developed country/state/city is more like 70%.

[Funt Solo]

Italics off?

I suppose knowing Marlon's parents' hobbies is quite sad.  Oh well.

[Funt Solo]

Italicsoff?

[House of Usher]

They're off, at least from where I'm sitting.

[Funt Solo]

It's more difficult to switch them off in Firefox (and therefore probably Safari, Opera, Konq et al).  IE switches them off itself. It's to do with ... zzzzzz ... (sorry - forgot to leave work at work for a moment there).