Pops

Every variation of profession, culture, religion, and workplace in the world gets its own unique pop.

Pops, short for population, are the country's engine. Every variation of profession, culture, religion, and workplace in each state in the the world gets its own unique pop. The number of individuals in each pop varies from a handful of individuals to millions of people. At any given time, there are many tens of thousands of pops in the world working, migrating, procreating, and agitating.

Defining characteristics

Pops are defined by five characteristics: culture, religion, state of residence, profession, and workplace. Each pop represents all the people who have the same characteristics, and the size of the pop, how many actual people are represented. Thus, even if a country's pops are all the same culture and religion in a single state, there are at least as many pops as there are professions per workplace.

Culture

Main article: Culture

The culture of a pop decides in part, along with its religion, whether it is accepted or discriminated against, based on the country's Citizenship law and the culture's relationship to the country's primary cultures. Each nation has one or more primary cultures which are never discriminated. Certain cultures start with obsessions for a good, and all cultures may gain or lose obsessions during the game.

Assimilation

Pops which are culturally accepted and not living in a state considered a homeland of their culture may assimilate to the country's primary cultures. For assimilation to take place, it requires at least one primary culture pop living in the state. The base rate of assimilation is 0.2% per month. The  Promote National Values decree increases this by +100% to 0.4% monthly and having the educational law  Public Schools enacted multiplies this by +10% in incorporated states per level of the Education institution. Each time assimilation occurs, a minimum of 10 individuals in a pop assimilate.

Pops always assimilate to a primary culture. When a country has more than one primary culture, assimilation has three possible outcomes:

1. In states which are a cultural homeland to only one of the primary cultures, the pops assimilate to that primary culture
2. In states which are a cultural homeland to more than one of the primary cultures, the pop assimilates to the most populous primary culture with a homeland in the state.
3. In states which are a cultural homeland to none of the primary cultures, the pop assimilates to the most populous primary culture in the state.

For example, a Czech pop in a unified Germany would not assimilate in Bohemia, would assimilate into North German in Silesia, into South German in Bavaria, and into either South German or North German in Transylvania (whichever is more populous in that state).

Religion

Main article: Religion

The religion of a pop decides in part, along with its culture, whether it is accepted or discriminated against, based on the country's Church and State law and the religion's relationship to the country's state religion. Similar to cultures, each country has a primary, state religion which is always accepted.

Certain religions start with taboos against certain goods. They work opposite to obsessions; pops are much less likely to buy said good. Taboos do not change during the game. For example, Sunni Islam has a taboo against liquor and wine.

Conversion

Pops which are religiously discriminated against may convert to an accepted religion. The base rate of conversion is 0.2% per month. The  Promote National Values decree increases this by +100% to 0.4% monthly, and having the educational law  Religious Schools enacted multiplies this by +20% in incorporated states per level of the Education institution. Each time conversion occurs, a minimum of 10 individuals in a pop convert.

Pops convert to the most populous accepted religion in their state when they convert; thus with the law  State Religion, this is always the state religion, while with the law  Freedom of Conscience, this is the most populous religion that shares a trait with the state religion. If no pop in the state has an accepted religion, conversion does not occur.

For example, if a unified Germany has enacted Freedom of Conscience, a non-Christian pop would convert to Catholic in Bavaria, even though the state religion in Germany is Protestant, as there are more Catholics in that state than Protestants. If Germany enacted State Religion instead, any non-Protestant pop would convert to Protestant.

Profession

Main article: Profession

Professions reflect the types of jobs that pops carry out in the buildings where they work. A pop's profession determines its social stratum and affects its base wage, what other professions it might qualify for, and particularly which political interest groups it's prone to supporting. Investing in industries that provide job opportunities for the professions the player wants to encourage in their country is key to the "society building" gameplay of Victoria 3.

Workplace

A pop's workplace is simply the building which employs it, or if unemployed, the state where the pop lives.

Other characteristics

A pop's other characteristics are determined by each pop grouping; if individuals in a pop change to another pop, for example by assimilation or change in profession, they take a proportion of these characteristics with them from their old pop to the new one.

Standard of Living

Main article: Standard of living

A pop's standard of living reflects how wealthy it is. Wealthier pops have greater – and more expensive – needs, meaning that they consume more and higher-quality goods. A rise to a higher standard of living also makes a pop less radical and more loyal. Conversely, drops in the pop's standard of living are a quick route to increased radicalism. Additionally, pops expect a certain standard of living, and become more radical over time while they are below that expectation. The expected standard of living increases based on literacy and certain society technologies increase this effect.

Political Strength

Each pop has a political strength value, based on multiple factors, primarily their wealth level, but also discrimination and whether they live in an incorporated or unincorporated state and their profession depending on laws. Pops which are not politically inactive add their political strength to their chosen interest group, increasing its clout.

Literacy

See also: Literacy

Each pop has a literacy score, representing approximately how many individuals in that pop are literate. This is increased by certain professions, higher standards of living, and the Education institution. Literacy is a major factor for qualifications, thereby affecting for which professions a pop can become.

Workforce and dependents

The individuals that make up a pop are distinguished into workforce and dependents. Members of the workforce keep the buildings in the game operational and collect a wage from them in return. Those who cannot or are not permitted to be officially employed are considered dependents. Dependents include, among others, children, elderly, people with handicaps, and women before emancipation. They collect only a small income from odd jobs and government programs.

By default, 25% of each pop are members of the workforce and the remaining 75% are dependents. This ratio is modified by certain professions and laws, particularly the Rights of Women laws. Events and other circumstances, such as battle casualties, can also change the ratio, which then drifts back to the set ratio over time.

Dependents consume 50% of the goods which a working pop needs, so the higher the number of working adults the more a pop needs to consume.

Influencing pops

Pops cannot be interacted with directly. Instead other actions affect pops in a variety of ways. Pops are accepted or discriminated against based on a country's laws. Their profession depends on available jobs and the pops qualifications, which depend on the pops literacy and other factors. Often, an action that benefits one set of pops negatively impacts another set of pops, even if only by reducing their share of power in the country.

Thus, unhappy, radical pops cannot be easily and quickly sated, and any trouble must be headed off well in advance.

Population growth

See also: Standard of living#Birth and death rate, #Migration

Pops grow by two means, natural growth and migration.

Natural growth is the pop's birth rate minus its mortality rate. The base birth and mortality rates are based primarily on a pop's standard of living, with both rates decreasing at higher standards of living, and base mortality decreasing at a faster rate; thus – without other impacting factors – pops grow faster at higher standards of living. Other common factors contributing to birth or death rate are the Rights of Women laws, events, and  devastation in the state.

Migration comes in two forms, intra-market migration and mass migration. In either case, the Migration laws determine which pops can migrate to or from a country. Each state has a migration attraction score, based primarily on the state's average standard of living, and pops tend to migrate intra-market accordingly. For mass migrations, there is a migration target instead, which attracts pops of that culture.

Eventually, population growth may reach overpopulation. If a state has more than 100,000 population per arable land, it gains the scaling modifier Overpopulated giving −25% birth rate. Conversely, a state with less than 5000 population per arable land gains the scaling modifier Sparsely Populated giving +50% birth rate.