Population Age problem

[Glandrex 3]

Does anyone else have their majority of their city population age at 51-60 and the 2nd highest is 61-70? I honestly don't find this normal and its not only in 1 city.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Sounds rather unbalanced. Have you been striving for high-wealth only? It is a pitfall.

[Glandrex 3]

Most of my cites only have 15% of their population as high wealth. Even most medium wealth sims are at 51 age and above.

[Moskva 75]

I've had the same problem with my cities until now, luckly Lenin'sk managed to recover, now it's balanced and economy has not decreased, like i expected... However, the suburbia has still the problem... It's not much related to high wealth, must be something else weird, no idea of what.

[Cob92 360]

SC4 seems to simulate Western societal trends, where as education and medical care have improved, the birthrate has fallen and the average age of the population has risen. I find this extremely annoying, however, because it turns all of my cities into retirement communities full of old, non-working Sims. It's like young people only move into new housing in this game, which is extremely unrealistic.

[Glandrex 3]

Is there no way to fix this? It bugs me that i am playing a city full of old people.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

The only thing that I can think of is to demolish some of the older properties, and let them rebuild with younger Sims. You need something to attract them like parks and playgrounds.

[Hellken 1,658]

The problem (thankfully) is not as bad as SC3K where the entire city abandons after nearly everyone in the city dies of old age.

If you dont want to demolish property especially if its a big skyscraper you can always lower health funding and it will kill off the older population.

(This is just a game! In real life you would be in jail forever. If you feel guilty about this, go hug your grandparents after.)

  Edited May 2, 2012 by Hellken  

[AlbertanFireFly 1]

Ive got this problem too, but my old people never die! My population by age graph shows pretty much 90% of my people between 50-70. I have 1 child in elementary school! lol At first I figured it was just a natural cycle and within 25-50 years the old would die and I would have new young people. But not so. Over 150 years has gone past and city is still totally full of old people!

[Prophet42 1,501]

That is one issue with the game.  If you have good coverage with your health system  and it is well funded, your city will eventually senesce.  I believe part of the problem is that when a Sim dies he/she is replaced by another Sim that has a 'birth' age dependent upon the Health Quotient of the deceased.  This means that the descendant doesn't start off life at age '0' but at some higher age.  The healthier (and longer lived) the deceased was the older the descendant will be.  For example, if a Sim dies at 90 and was healthy, the descendant may start life at age 20.  In the same way, if a Sim dies at age 60 and was unhealthy, the descendant by start life at age 10. (Please note, that the numbers used are just examples and may not reflect actual game numbers).

 

This is why once you have a stable, healthy population you will never see a large percentage in the 'young' category unless there is a disaster and a lot of buildings need rebuilt or you lower healthcare so your Sims die young and unhealthy.

 

You may ask how I came to this conclusion.  Basically in 3 ways:

 

1) Reading through the Prima's official strategy guide for SimCity4 Deluxe Edition it is implied that each Sim has a birth age dependent on Health Quotient.

2) Placing a My Sim in a city and observing their lifespan.  A My Sim will obtain a certain HQ (health Quotient) dependent on the neighborhood averages.  When the My Sim dies they pass on 80% of their HQ to their descendant and a 'birth age', as stated in the Prima guide.  I have noticed that when a My Sim dies of old age with a high HQ, the descendant is usually around age 20 when they appear.  The My Sim is the visible appearance of the inner workings of the simulation when it comes to the actual population.

3) Observations during the game and how the population ages.  Older cities that have high HQ's will have the majority of the population as senior citizens with very few children, while cities with a lot of new growth will have a younger population.

[mayorgreener 37]

wow OP, your country might be very peaceful. I love those calm and peaceful places.