About 3 minutes
Settlement symbols and population sizes
Settlement markers change as population grows. Their shape gives you a quick estimate of a place's population before you open its details.
Applies to game version 0.1.13The complete symbol key
There are nine population tiers. The boundary values belong to the larger tier: a settlement with exactly 50,000 people, for example, uses the Tier 4 symbol.
How to read the markers
The first three tiers share a compact footprint for villages and towns. From Tier 4 onward, the marker becomes larger and gains stronger internal detail as the settlement crosses major population milestones.
The marker represents population size only. It does not tell you whether the settlement is a national capital, a provincial capital, wealthy, well connected or growing quickly. Capital status is shown through the map label styling, not by replacing the population symbol.
When does a symbol change?
The game assigns the tier from the settlement's current population and refreshes it as the simulation updates. Crossing a boundary in either direction changes the marker to the corresponding tier.
Marker sizes also respond to map zoom, so the symbol may look larger on screen without the settlement changing tier. Use the internal pattern—not the apparent pixel size alone—to identify it.