Vampiric Population Density
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There are about 6 billion living people on Earth. There are 57 million square miles of land on Earth. Therefore humans are all neatly spread out, each to their own 267,000 square feet, right? Of course not. And neither are vampires in the fictional World of Darkness spread evenly among mortals. This article briefly discusses vampiric population density and why a city can logically support more Kindred than the suggested number.
Kindred can exist anywhere. But they can't do it for long if their prey learns about them. They must maintain the Masquerade or be revealed. So how many Kindred can remain safely hidden in a city?
As a rule-of-thumb in the World of Darkness, the worldwide ratio of Kindred to kine is 1:100k. Using the rule-of-thumb though, it wouldn't be very interesting to play a chronicle in a city with fewer than 1.5 million inhabitants. How much intrigue can there be among 15 Kindred when 4 are already in a coterie?
Small cities don't have Kindred just because they have a population over 100k. Some areas have humans but no Kindred, like the Eskimos in the freezing Alaskan wilderness. Areas with many small towns can amount to a million people with no Kindred. The Midwest has millions of people in areas where there are no cities over 50k. There's no way a vampire could exist in such an area; rural people know their neighbors like family.
When applied to larger cities, it doesn't fit either. Chicago By Night, for example, has over 140 Kindred for about 7 million people in the Chicago metropolitan area. But almost 80% of the Chicago population lives in the suburbs, where Kindred rarely or never visit -- that's why they're called the Outlands.
So in truth, a smaller population of 1.5 million supports a Kindred population of 140, nowhere near 1:100k (closer to 1:10k actually). Why? Because vampires hide in areas of high population density, which are normally supported by large surrounding areas of suburbs.
Now, New Orleans and Charlotte have very similar populations, but New Orleans' population density is more than double Charlotte's. It would seem logical that New Orleans could sustain a much higher Kindred population. Based on the population densities of cities, here are some guidelines:
The practical maximum ratio for Kindred-to-kine is about 1:30k for a metropolitan area, including suburbs. A practical minimum is 1:250k, if we assume any city with a quarter of a million inhabitants could hide at least one Kindred.
Human Population: 5 million+
Kindred-kine ratios: 1:30k to 1:50k
Human Population: 3-5 million
Kindred-kine ratios: 1:30k to 1:60k
Human Population: 2-3 million
Kindred-kine ratios: 1:40k to 1:70k
Human Population: 1-2 million
Kindred-kine ratios: 1:40k to 1:80k
So for example, my fictional city of Gottwick has 1.8 million people and could support 25 to 45 Kindred. New York city, by comparison, with 18 million inhabitants could support 360 to 600 Kindred. Spread among the five boroughs (Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Bronx and Staten Island), that's not that many Kindred among so many mortals.
You can get population densities from demographics websites like www.demographia.com, but here are some top metropolitan areas.
| Urbanized Population Density |
| Urbanized Area Square Miles |
|
| Share of Metropolitan Population in Urbanized Core |
|
| Urbanized Area Population (Core Area) |
|
| Metro-politan Population |
|
| Rank |
Metropolitan Area |
|
| 1 |
Norfolk-Hampton |
1,396 |
1,323 |
94.8% |
664 |
1,992 |
| 2 |
Phoenix |
2,122 |
2,006 |
94.5% |
741 |
2,707 |
| 3 |
San Diego |
2,498 |
2,348 |
94.0% |
690 |
3,403 |
| 4 |
New York |
18,087 |
16,044 |
88.7% |
2,967 |
5,407 |
| 5 |
San Antonio |
1,302 |
1,129 |
86.7% |
438 |
2,578 |
| 6 |
Washington |
3,923 |
3,363 |
85.7% |
945 |
3,559 |
| 7 |
Minneapolis-St. Paul |
2,464 |
2,080 |
84.4% |
1,063 |
1,957 |
| 8 |
Chicago |
8,066 |
6,792 |
84.2% |
1,585 |
4,285 |
| 9 |
New Orleans |
1,239 |
1,040 |
83.9% |
270 |
3,852 |
| 10 |
Orlando |
1,073 |
887 |
82.7% |
395 |
2,246 |
| 11 |
Tampa |
2,068 |
1,709 |
82.6% |
650 |
2,629 |
| 12 |
Dallas-Ft. Worth |
3,885 |
3,198 |
82.3% |
1,443 |
2,216 |
| 13 |
Denver |
1,848 |
1,518 |
82.1% |
459 |
3,307 |
| 14 |
Memphis |
1,007 |
825 |
81.9% |
341 |
2,419 |
| 15 |
Kansas City |
1,566 |
1,275 |
81.4% |
762 |
1,673 |
| 16 |
Buffalo |
1,189 |
954 |
80.2% |
286 |
3,336 |
| 17 |
St. Louis |
2,444 |
1,947 |
79.7% |
728 |
2,674 |
| 18 |
Baltimore |
2,382 |
1,890 |
79.3% |
593 |
3,187 |
| 19 |
Portland |
1,478 |
1,172 |
79.3% |
388 |
3,021 |
| 20 |
Detroit |
4,665 |
3,697 |
79.2% |
1,119 |
3,304 |
| 21 |
Los Angeles |
14,532 |
11,402 |
78.5% |
1,966 |
5,800 |
| 22 |
Houston |
3,711 |
2,902 |
78.2% |
1,177 |
2,466 |
| 23 |
Milwaukee |
1,607 |
1,226 |
76.3% |
512 |
2,395 |
| 24 |
Atlanta |
2,834 |
2,157 |
76.1% |
1,137 |
1,897 |
| 25 |
Pittsburgh |
2,243 |
1,678 |
74.8% |
778 |
2,157 |
| 26 |
Providence |
1,142 |
846 |
74.1% |
299 |
2,829 |
| 27 |
Sacramento |
1,481 |
1,097 |
74.1% |
334 |
3,284 |
| 28 |
Indianapolis |
1,250 |
915 |
73.2% |
469 |
1,951 |
| 29 |
Salt Lake City |
1,072 |
769 |
71.7% |
254 |
3,028 |
| 30 |
Philadelphia |
5,899 |
4,222 |
71.6% |
1,164 |
3,627 |
| 31 |
Cincinnati |
1,744 |
1,212 |
69.5% |
512 |
2,367 |
| 32 |
Columbus |
1,377 |
945 |
68.6% |
345 |
2,739 |
| 33 |
Seattle |
2,559 |
1,744 |
68.2% |
588 |
2,966 |
| 34 |
Boston |
4,172 |
2,775 |
66.5% |
891 |
3,114 |
| 35 |
Rochester |
1,002 |
620 |
61.9% |
220 |
2,818 |
| 36 |
Cleveland |
2,760 |
1,677 |
60.8% |
636 |
2,637 |
| 37 |
Miami-Ft. Lauderdale |
3,193 |
1,915 |
60.0% |
353 |
2,592 |
| 38 |
San Francisco |
6,253 |
3,630 |
58.1% |
874 |
4,153 |
| 39 |
Hartford |
1,086 |
546 |
50.3% |
247 |
2,211 |
| 40 |
Charlotte |
1,162 |
455 |
39.2% |
242 |
1,880 |
| 41 |
Greensboro |
1,050 |
195 |
18.6% |
93 |
2,097 |
| Average |
74.6% |
 |
2,897 |
Population in thousands
Calculated from 1990 US Census Bureau data.
Core urbanized area is the urbanized area of the metropolitan area's principal city.
(c) 2000 www.demographia.com
Permission granted to use with attribution.
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