POPs

From VickyWiki

“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.”

-Karl Marx

What is a POP anyway? POPs are the basic population units in Victoria. They are in every country and every populated province. They are the basis for your entire economy. In fact, they are your economy. POPs come in various sizes, from 1 to 100,000.

Contents 1 POP types 1.1 Aristocrats 1.2 Officers 1.3 Clergymen 1.4 Capitalists 1.5 Clerks 1.6 Craftsmen 1.7 Farmers 1.8 Labourers 1.9 Soldiers 1.10 Slaves 2 Culture matters! 3 Income strata 4 POP "activites" 4.1 Merging 4.2 Splitting 4.3 Degredation (devolvement) 4.4 Production 4.5 Migration 5 POPs' concerns and needs

POP types

POPs come in ten flavors: Officers, Aristocrats, Capitalists, Clergymen, Clerks, Craftsmen, Farmers, Laborers, Soldiers, and Slaves. Each contributes in different ways to your economy. Most POPs are convertible by you, the player, assuming they are at the right level already and you have the resources to promote them to the next.

What do the different POPs do?

	Aristocrats These are the wealthy landowners in your country. They basically sit at home all day and consume things. They provide an efficiency bonus to farming RGO in the province they are in and research a little, but besides that, they’re useful for little more than being taxed. You cannot promote them but all officers in conquered provinces automatically become aristocrats. Aristocrats are the rich strata and their natural ideology is conservatism. They need at least landed voting rights to vote.
Officers These are the more experienced and highly trained solders in your army. The number of Officers you have contributes directly to the number of leadership points you develop. The more Officers you have, the more leadership points you gain each month. Non-national culture POPs do not provide any monthly increase. Converting a non-national culture POP will only give you a one time boost in leadership points. Officers are middle strata and their natural ideology is conservatism. They need at least landed voting rights to vote.
	Clergymen These are the religious figures in your country. They work to your benefit by reducing the Consciousness of some of your POPs - Farmers, Workers and Soldiers (see section “The Big Three”), making them good citizens for autocratic governments, but not so good for democratic ones. They also, by extension, reduce the Militancy of some strata of your population, making them less likely to revolt against your rule. They do, however, raise consciousness for Aristocrats, Capitalists, and Officers. Clergymen also add to your research considerably until the discovery of Darwinism, which makes them less useful. The religion and culture of clergymen will not affect their performance but only national culture Clergymen add to research. The consciousness effect applies to the whole state. Clergymen are middle strata and their base ideology depends on your national value (conservatism for order, liberalism for liberty and socialism for equity). They need at least landed voting rights to vote.
Capitalists These are the entrepreneurs of your economy. They boost the output of all factories in the state they are in, help a little with research and are also very good for taxing. Non-national culture capitalists still improve factory efficiency. Capitalists are rich strata and their natural ideology is liberalism. They need at least wealth voting rights to vote.
	Clerks These are the educated working class of your population. They work in factories alongside Craftsmen (see below) and they improve the efficiency of the factory itself. Importantly, state culture Clerks add to your research, so the more state culture Clerks you have, the more research points you acquire. The size of a Clerk POP does have a direct effect on your research output. An 80,000 person Clerk POP does produce more research points than a 1,200 person Clerk POP, so a common tactic is to convert the largest POPs in an industrialized state to Clerks, because you can only have a limited number of Clerk POPs compared to Craftsmen POPs in a factory. Clerks are middle strata and their natural ideology is liberalism. They need at least wealth voting rights to vote.
Craftsmen These represent the lower-educated skilled workers. They work in factories, but they do not add to the efficiency of the factory the way Clerks do, nor do they yield research points the way Clerks do. Craftsmen are poor strata and their natural ideology is liberalism, which can change to socialism later. They need universal suffrage voting rights to vote.
	Farmers These are the agricultural workers in your country. They work the land and produce goods. Farmers work in RGOs (Resource Gathering Operations), of which every province has one. But they will only work in RGOs that produce grain, fish, cattle, fruit or wool. Farmers are poor strata and their natural ideology is conservatism. They need universal suffrage voting rights to vote.
Labourers These do the hard physical work for your economy. These are the coal miners, the lumberjacks, the hard-working men who develop the raw resources that drive your industry. They, like Farmers, also work in RGOs, but they do not share space with Farmers. Instead, they fill the ranks in the other RGOs, such as iron, coal, sulfur, timber, etc. Labourers are poor strata and their natural ideology is conservatism, which can change to socialism later. They need universal suffrage voting rights to vote.
	Soldiers These are the basic fighting unit of your country. The number of soldiers you have adds directly to your manpower pool. The more soldiers you have, the higher the manpower. Be aware that soldier population will be killed during war1. It is best to use non-national culture population as soldiers, since unlike many other pops, non-state culture soldiers still give their monthly bonus to manpower. You still need some national culture soldiers if you wish to raise national culture divisions. If you suffer enough casualties in a war, it is possible that some of your Soldier POPs will disappear entirely. Soldiers are poor strata and their natural ideology is conservatism, which can change to socialism later. They need universal suffrage voting rights to vote. 1Note: This is only true at higher difficulty level
Slaves These are at the very bottom rung of the economic ladder. Not actually considered citizens, they have no rights, they don't earn any money and therefore cannot be taxed, nor can they can be converted to any other kind of POP. Slaves work, like Farmers and Laborers, in RGOs. Only a few countries in Victoria have Slaves, and these include the United States, Denmark, Texas, and eventually the Confederacy as well. Many of these countries have events that allow their slaves to be emancipated at some point and converted into Farmers/Labourers.

Culture matters!

Note that most POPs that give certain bonuses (ie. Clerks granting research points) must be of one your National Cultures (see “National Cultures”) for you to receive that bonus.

Income strata

Aristocrats and Capitalists are considered “Rich”; Officers, Clergymen, and Clerks are considered “Middle Class”; and Craftsmen, Farmers, Laborers, and Soldiers are considered “Poor”. This is important to keep in mind when deciding how much to tax each class of your citizenry. Slaves, as mentioned earlier, are not taxable.

POP "activites"

Merging

POP merging is one of the more controversial concepts of the POP system. Merging takes place between POPs which are less than 10,000 in size and essentially prevents a situation that there are dozens of small, hundred or thousand person POPs, in a province. An under-10,000 POP can merge with a larger POP as long as the resulting POP is not larger than 100,000. When any two compatible POPs (that share the same culture, religion, and type - i.e. Clerk, Craftsman, Farmer) are located in one province, they may merge and form a single, larger POP, as long as at least one of them is less than 10,000 in size. In other words, if both POPs are bigger than 10,000 they will never merge (although one of them can merge with another, small one). Merging will lower POPs combined production output so it's best to avoid it if you can.

The direct effect of POP merging is that industrialization is easier in multi-ethnic empires, as the small POPs of different cultural groups will not merge, thus creating more available POPs to place in factories. Since a 500 person POP is just as efficient in the factory as a 19,999 person POP, this kind of multi-ethnic industrialization can make a big difference in production.

Splitting

POPs not only merge but split as well. When a POP grows to be 100,000 in size, it will split into one 25,000 person POP and one 75,000 person POP, each of which will continue to grow as separate entities, eventually splitting themselves once they reach 100,000 again. This is how the game simulates population growth.

Degredation (devolvement)

POPs can also degrade (devolve). If a specific POP is taxed too high (above 55% of its income) AND some other conditions are met (notably satisfying POP's needs) it will devolve into a "lesser" POP. In other words when you tax POPs below 55% they will never devolve, no matter what. When you observe middle and/or rich strata POPs decrease in size by a small amount every few days while your poor strata POP in the same province increases in size by the same amout you may be sure it's devolvement. Thus it is wise to never overtax your upper and especially your middle class unless you know what you are doing.

Production

How do POPs produce? POPs add to your production output by working directly in either factories or in RGOs. Neither will produce goods without POPs to work them. When choosing which POPs to assign to a particular factory, you must keep in mind the POP’s size. Different sizes of POPs produce more than others (see section “Industrialization”). Every factory or RGO can accommodate only five POPs per level, regardless of their size.

Another factor to keep in mind is that you are limited in the number of clerk POPs compared to the number of craftsmen POPs in a factory. Clerks are more beneficial to you, so if possible you should always try to aim for the maximum allowed number of clerks (both in number of POPs and POP size).

Migration

POPs will not remain forever in one province. If they are unemployed, they will eventually seek work elsewhere. All POPs migrating are programmed to seek jobs within your country first, then in your country’s colonies, and lastly in other countries (this is called emigration). This way, if you have open factory slots in one state and unemployed Clerks and Craftsmen in another, they may migrate to the open jobs. Keep in mind that this process, as in real life, is not perfect and many POPs will not always go where you want them to. When you see an unemployed POP that decreases in size every month and some other compatible POP (the same culture, religion and type) in a different province increases in size by the same amount you are observing an (internal) migration. When such POP disappears from one of your provinces and doesn't show up in any of your provinces you are propably observing emigration, your people found a better place to live in another country. Ledger, page 17, contains migration overview in the last 30 days.

POP migration is also affected by the life ratings of your provinces (the little thermometers), which show how good they are for human habitation. The better the life rating of the province, the more people will want to move there.

POPs' concerns and needs

All individual POPs come with individual thoughts and issues. Each POP will tell you what their specific issues of concern are, what chance they have to revolt, and how politically conscious they are of themselves. Each POP type also comes with its own demands for specific goods. These are in three groups: life needs, everyday needs, and luxuries. The more of each they get, the less likely they are to revolt and the more you tax them, the less they can buy. The specific goods that fall into each class can vary by POP type. For example, Farmers, unlike all other POP types, have fertilizer set as a luxury good.