Games

Best Ways To Increase Population In Cities: Skylines 2

Published

4 weeks ago

October 30, 2024

Christoph Rediske

cities skylines 2 8 best ways to increase population

Key Takeaways

Patience is key; the game slows population growth intentionally to help players improve aspects of their city.
Listen to Chirper for hints on meeting citizens’ needs to boost population growth.
Improve access to the city for outsiders by managing traffic effectively and providing public transportation.

Cities: Skylines 2 is a city building game released in 2023. The premise of the game is simple; players can use the various tools and resources to create their own city with a happy and thriving population. While players can choose to create their own small city in sandbox mode, one of the best ways to play the game is to unlock or upgrade more resources to continue expanding the city. However, players will need to attract more citizens to their city to progress.

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A city’s entrance is one of the most important parts of its structure, and in Cities: Skylines 2, players will need to design their own city entrance.

Increasing the citywide population is one of the main tasks in Cities Skylines 2. Players can do this in the early game by simply placing some roads, houses, and workplaces. However, there are other ways to keep the population rising as the game goes on.

Updated on October 29, 2024, by Rhenn Taguiam: With the Region Packs giving players of Cities: Skylines 2 a more exciting way of breathing life into their settlements through country-themed architecture, fans of the city-builder may now be able to give their cities a more authentic look with the first of the Region Packs arriving for free in the coming months – such as the French Pack, the German Pack, and even the UK Pack. However, before fans enjoy looking at the new looks of their cities, they need to make sure that they’re populated enough to enjoy these new structures. Among the tips fans can utilize to increase their population include slowly building their city to unlock upgrades, listening to the in-game news app Chirper, and improving incoming citizens’ access to roads.

8 Patience Is A Virtue

Build Your City First

Map of City Happiness in Cities Skylines 2

At first glance, players might notice that population growth in Cities: Skylines 2 seems dramatically slower than usual, a trait that might make some worry whether their sessions are bugged or if they’re triggering some sort of slowing mechanism. As it turns out, the game seems to have deliberately slowed the pacing of population in the game.

Such a notion might seem impractical for some players who love Skylines 2 for the thrill of speedrunning city development. However, it seems that players can put this slower state of play to their advantage. At its core, players can use the game’s slower population growth as a benchmark of whether they have to recheck their stats if they have to grow the city in other aspects. More often than not, upgrading the right buildings or meeting the right satisfaction thresholds among citizens might be enough to trigger that much-needed growth spurt.

7 Listen To Chirper

It Says What Your City Needs

Thanks to Chirper, gamers now have a handy way of getting to know their citizens more intimately in Cities: Skylines 2. Their statuses and messages often give some inkling as to what they’re expecting players to do – some are achievable, other comments are comedic, and some are considered not “helpful” in terms of immediate impact. Interestingly enough, Chirper might hold the secrets to eventual population growth.

If there’s anything both newcomers and pros in Cities: Skylines 2 should do, it’s never ignore Chirper advice. Sometimes, meeting that particular requirement is all that players need to motivate new citizens into going to their city to boost their population. Following Chirper’s hints might not immediately help players in the short term, but meeting citizens’ needs that way can definitely boost the city’s overall growth and may even help players diagnose what’s wrong.

6 Improve Outsider Access

Give People A Way To Go In

As with its prequel title, Cities: Skylines 2 gameplay begins with a blank tile in the player’s chosen map that is often accompanied by one main road driving traffic into the city. This usually becomes the basis of the city’s main road and branches off into the player’s overall traffic network, and this oftentimes becomes the root of some of the city’s major transportation woes. Interestingly enough, it seems the main road also becomes the focal point of a player’s problems when it comes to citizens trying to come into the city.

At its core, players having problems trying to get people to go to their city might be able to solve their problems by providing them with an easier way to access residential areas. Such a solution could come in the form of ensuring that there is no congestion near the cities’ entrances and exits, as well as providing enough public transportation methods and even stations close to the city entrance for easy access.

5 Healthcare

Citizens Want To Live Somewhere With Good Medical Options

One of the many issues facing citizens in Cities: Skylines 2 is health. In the game, people will get sick, heal, age, and eventually die, just like in real life. Unfortunately, it is up to the player to ensure that all citizens have access to healthcare so that small maladies do not turn into anything more serious or fatal. This is easily done by placing enough hospitals and doctor’s surgeries in easy-to-reach areas.

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Healthcare is a big priority for citizens, so providing enough options for new people will encourage more of them to move into a new city. Players can also reduce the likelihood of citizens becoming ill by managing pollution levels and ensuring that there is an adequate waste disposal system in place.

4 Managing Traffic

Getting Around Quickly Is Essential

The only way for citizens to get to and from work reliably is by using a good network of roads. It is up to the player in Cities: Skylines 2 to build and manage these so that they work effectively. This involves plotting travel routes, installing traffic lights correctly, and creating highways with intersections and slip roads. It is a steep learning curve, but players will quickly learn how to build good roads in a city. Failing to do so will cause gridlocks or traffic accidents.

New citizens will only move to a city if the roads work effectively. As such, managing traffic flow is essential to increasing the population. Players can also achieve this by implementing the correct public transport links.

3 Managing Taxes Correctly

The City Needs Funding Somehow

Tax is a necessary evil in Cities: Skylines 2. It is the only way that players can get more funding to build more areas or public amenities in their city. As such, it can be tempting to raise taxes as high as they can go. Sadly, this is a poor strategy. It will negatively affect the people already living in a city and prevent new residents from moving in.

Managing the tax system in Cities: Skylines 2 is a careful balancing act. The best way to approach taxes is to start with low taxes all around and increase things by 1% every time a new population milestone is reached. This way, new citizens are tempted to move into the city, and the player then has enough funding to manage and care for these new residents.

2 Parks And Rec

Entertainment Is Important

It may not seem like it, but the parks and recreation side of Cities: Skylines 2 is very important. Firstly, building enough parks across the city is important for providing entertainment for citizens, so they remain happy. Players can also level up in parks and recreation to unlock more things to build.

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The original Cities: Skylines proved to be an excellent city-building game, but Cities: Skylines 2 features some major improvements.

One of the main things that players can unlock is a tourist district. Tourism is a great way to bring more money into a city, and it will increase the entertainment options for the current population. As such, more citizens will be more likely to move into this well-funded and happy city. Parks can also be used to reduce pollution levels.

1 Maintaining Happiness

Happiness Might Be The Most Important Aspect Of The Game

While increasing the citywide population is an important aspect when it comes to moving forward in Cities: Skylines 2, players will not be able to do this if they neglect the citizens that already live in their city. Every person living in a city has various wants and needs in Cities: Skylines 2, just like in the real world. While healthcare and entertainment options are vital components of a city, citizens will also need secure places to live and work, good sanitation, low pollution levels, and education services to remain happy.

A happy and healthy population will encourage more people to move into a city, and it is equally important to address these new citizens’ needs to make sure they are happy. Players can find out what is making their population happy and what is causing them distress by using the Chirper app at the side of the screen.