Citizens - Cities: Skylines Wiki (2024)

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Citizens going about their lives.

Your city would be nothing without the citizens who provide the workforce for industry, professionals for the different city services, and customers for the shops, among other things.

To keep your city growing, you need to take care of your citizens’ health, education and overall happiness. Healthy, educated, and content citizens are the key to running your city efficiently.

Your citizens can make multiple trips before arriving back home. For example, they can travel to school (if they are eligible; if not, they will go to work), and then have a leisure time, in which they will go to a park or a commercial building to spend some money. Not all citizens will have cars, and if they don't they will walk. Setting up a good public transportation system aids in making your citizens arrive to the desired destination more quickly.

Cities: Skylines tracks citizens individually. Each of the citizens has a number of different attributes that are used to measure their needs and how they can contribute to your city.

Contents

  • 1 Citizen information
  • 2 Education
  • 3 Age
  • 4 Health
    • 4.1 Childcare and Eldercare
  • 5 Happiness
  • 6 Residence
  • 7 Employment
  • 8 Pets
  • 9 References

Citizen information[edit | edit source]

Clicking on a citizen as they walk around your city will bring up the citizen information window with some basic information about them:

  • Name (which you can change)
  • Level of education
  • Life stage
  • Place of residence
  • Place of employment or education. Citizens not in work or education will be reported as "unemployed"
  • Current activity. This will report their destination if they're currently traveling.

A citizen's happiness will also be displayed as a type of face depending on their happiness.

The game also associates individual citizens with health and wealth values, although these are not viewable without mods. Similarly the game also associates citizens with cohabiting family units, relationships which are very hard to track without dedicated mods.

Education[edit | edit source]

Main article: Education

Education allows your citizens to work better jobs with higher educational requirements. Industry, commerce and office buildings will only be able to level up if they can employ sufficiently educated workers. The level of residential buildings are also partially dependent upon the smarts of their occupants. Education is provided to the city's youth via schools and universities.

Age[edit | edit source]

With age, citizens in the game progress through five life stages:

  • Children - will go to elementary schools if there is capacity for them.
  • Teens - will go to high schools if there is capacity for them.
  • Young Adults - will either attend universities or Campus Areas, or join the jobs market like adults. The 'Education Boost' policy will make them more likely to choose education and the 'Schools Out' policy will make them more likely to choose employment.
  • Adults - On becoming adults, citizens will move out of their parent's homes and find new ones. Adults will partner with other adults and have children. Adults will form the bulk of your city's workforce.
  • Seniors - On becoming seniors citizens will retire from their jobs. They will continue to shop and use your city's services.

As well as a classification on this hierarchical system, each citizen has a precise numerical age, although this is not discoverable in the unmodded game.

The age of a citizen affects its needs for various city services. Children need more healthcare and education than adults. Senior citizens also need more healthcare services, but also more police and fire safety services. Eventually your citizens will die of old age and need deathcare.

Citizens age very quickly in Cities: Skylines, with a typical lifespan of 6 in-game years; some Steam Workshop modifications can modify the maximum lifespan of citizens.

Health[edit | edit source]

Main article: Healthcare

The health of your citizens affects their life expectancy and work efficiency. Low health will put a strain on your healthcare services and negatively affect the well-being of your citizens.Having proper healthcare, garbage disposal services, and fresh water in your city contributes to the health of your citizens. On the other hand, noise pollution, pollution and contaminated water, will eventually make them ill and unable to work.

Childcare and Eldercare[edit | edit source]

The Child Health Center and Eldercare buildings have an effect on your city’s citizens. Within the range of a Child Health Center, the birth rate is increased. Citizens near an Eldercare Building will have a longer lifespan.

In addition to this, children and teens have a chance of going to a Child Health Center instead of a regular clinic or hospital to get medical care if one is nearby, and seniors have a chance to go to an Eldercare building to get treatment if there is one nearby as well.

Happiness[edit | edit source]

Main article: Happiness

Your citizens' happiness has an effect on how much money they spend, employment, and the crime rate. Severe lack of well-being means people leave the city because of the poor conditions. You can affect your citizens’ happiness by keeping them safe and offering them recreation and education. Police and fire services, parks and plazas, schools, and electricity, to name a few examples, increase the happiness of your citizens. Fires and low health have a negative effect on happiness.

Residence[edit | edit source]

Your citizen's place of residence is tracked individually. This information is displayed in the citizen's information window. The text naming the residence is a link that can be clicked to view the building.

Employment[edit | edit source]

Your citizen's workplace is tracked individually, and is displayed on each citizen's information window. Students will show the name of the school they are studying at.

Citizens working at user placed buildings (not zoned growables) can have job titles.[1] The job titles are moddable in the Asset Editor as well.

Pets[edit | edit source]

Dogs may be seen roaming the city alongside citizens, and in Patch 1.16.0-f3 two new dogs and three cats were added.[2]

The Pet Ban policy slightly reduces garbage accumulation, but results in slightly decreased citizen happiness.

References[edit | edit source]

  1. Forum: Campus Dev Diary #6: Free Update "Citizen employment details" - CO Emmi (Colossal Order) (2019-05-17)
  2. Forum: Financial Districts Dev Diary #2: Free Update & Patch Notes "We’ve added more color variations for our citizens and 5 new pet options for your citizens to adopt." - CO_AVANYA (Colossal Order Dev) (2022-12-12)
Citizens - Cities: Skylines Wiki (2024)

FAQs

What is the lifespan of a citizen in Cities: Skylines? ›

Eventually your citizens will die of old age and need deathcare. Citizens age very quickly in Cities: Skylines, with a typical lifespan of 6 in-game years; some Steam Workshop modifications can modify the maximum lifespan of citizens.

Why are so many citizens sick in Cities: Skylines? ›

If water pumps draw up brown, polluted water, or if water towers sit on polluted land, then the citizens who drink this water will start to get very sick very quickly. To avoid this, make sure that all sewage pipes and all water treatment plants are located downstream from every water pump.

Why are residents unhappy in Cities: Skylines? ›

Unemployment, low health, and lack of safety causes unhappiness in citizens. Happiness is primarily achieved by offering your citizens all the required services, and by developing an efficient and balanced city. Balance and efficiency are quite important. A low-level, low land value city can be quite a happy one.

Why are my citizens uneducated in Cities: Skylines? ›

When the first citizens move in to your fledgling city they will be uneducated and fit for only the most menial of jobs. Luckily a little investment in the education infrastructure of your city will produce you a populace of well-read intellectuals which has many benefits.

Why do I keep losing citizens in Cities: Skylines? ›

One of the most simple reasons is death.

If areas of your city are plagued with sewage, pollution, dead bodies, or sickness, then the population will begin to dwindle. This is similar to real life; large-scale sickness can wipe out communities. Garbage build-up can also cause your population to decline.

Is there a population limit in Cities: Skylines? ›

Cities: Skylines 2 has no cap on the number of people it can track, and it's basically the Matrix. The only real limit will be down to your hardware.

Why are dead people not being picked up city skylines? ›

If the number of cims dying is greater than the amount being collected, new deathcare facilities should solve the problem. A full cemetery will obviously not collect any dead. Check Deathcare in the info view panel. Excessive traffic may block hearses and delay pickup long enough for cims to complain and move out.

Why is traffic so bad in city skylines? ›

A big cause of traffic jams in Cities: Skylines is a series of intersections that come one after another.

Do trees reduce pollution in Cities: Skylines? ›

A high level of noise pollution reduces the land value and citizen happiness. Citizens exposed to the most severe noise pollution will get sick and eventually die if noise pollution persists in the area. Trees will reduce noise pollution, but must be used in large numbers to see a significant effect.

What happens if taxes are too high in Cities: Skylines? ›

Higher taxes increase the weekly income but have a negative effect on demand. Residents and businesses start to protest if taxes are raised above 13-14% for too long, but a short tax hike is a good way of earning some quick cash if you don't want to take out another loan.

Why are people abandoning buildings in Cities: Skylines? ›

Failing to meet the needs of citizens leads to general unhappiness and eventually, people will start abandoning their homes in search of greener pastures.

What is the problem with not enough customers in Cities: Skylines? ›

The 'Not Enough Customers' icon can appear on shops that are located far from residential zones, which means that citizens may not have a reason to travel that far from home. With the commercial zones far from housing, residents will demand more.

Why do I constantly have not enough workers in Cities: Skylines? ›

If players need more workers, they will need to increase their population. Players can increase their city's population by developing more residential areas. The worker percentage will also increase when more families move into the city.

How do you get city attractiveness in city skylines? ›

City attractiveness is affected by citizen happiness, land value, and unique buildings in the city. The average city attractiveness value is shown in the city info panel and the tourism info view. Land value can be increased by building parks and plazas, which also help zoned buildings in the city to level up.

Why is no one working in Cities: Skylines? ›

This is completely normal. Your city is brand new and everyone who has moved in are uneducated. They need time to get an education before they can work in high density commercial. It's best to start a city by building low density (at least commercial) while your city gets started and you get educated adults.

What is the life expectancy of a citizen? ›

The life expectancy for U.S. in 2022 was 79.05 years, a 0.08% increase from 2021.

How long is a year in city Skylines? ›

Time & Seasons

With both a day and night cycle and seasons at release, Cities: Skylines II handles time differently than its predecessor. One cycle through day and night equals one month and each season lasts about three months, with one year in the game taking twelve in-game days.

What is the citizen limit in Cities: Skylines? ›

'Citizen Instances': You can have 65.536 Citizen Instances in the game. Citizen Instances are the cims (and animals) you can see walking around your city going from A to B. These are the visible citizens so to speak.

What age group is Cities: Skylines for? ›

Age Groups

You will find children, teens, adults, and seniors in your cities, and families (i.e. households) can comprise multiple generations, from children to grandparents. As citizens get older their education options change and their Health varies.

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