As you progress your game, you will want to increase the population of your city so you can add more buildings to earn more income and fly more planes. One way to do that is to upgrade your town hall. But it's not always the best way to increase the population of your city.
At the top left of your screen, you will see a counter that looks like this. In the image below, the city has a maximum population of 821, but currently only has buildings that add up to 649 population. So there is room to add more buildings.
When you look at buildings in the store, there is information on the right side - both for residential and commercial buildings.
The eatery, has this information
Building the eatery in this city above would increase the first number by 8 - so would be 657/821.
But some buildings have a different icon that looks like this
These buildings don't add to the actual population of your city. They increase the total population (the second number).
The information for City Bench shows this and would increase maximum population in the city above to 826.
So now that you know the icons and how they affect actual and maximum populations, let's look at strategies.
Of course, you can increase population updating the town hall.
Town Hall | Population | How to Obtain |
---|---|---|
Town Hall 1 | 120 | Free when you start the game |
Town Hall 2 | 240 | 800
|
Town Hall 3 | 360 | 6 000
|
Town Hall 4 | 480 | 22 000
|
Town Hall 5 | 700 | 50 000
|
Town Hall 6 | 800 | 180 000
|
Town Hall 7 | 1000 | 540 000
|
Town Hall 8 | 1100 | 950 000
|
Town Hall 9 | 1200 | 1 350 000
|
Town Hall 10 | 1300 | 1 900 000
|
Town Hall 11 | 1500 | 3 500 000
|
So you can get your population to 1500 simply by upgrading the town hall. But many players go a very long time without upgrading to the top level town hall because many other buildings can increase your city population.
Let's take a look at some great ways to increase population without upgrading the town hall.
From the Store
| One easy way once you've been doing some space launches is to purchase a Grand Hotel for 300 silver tokens. This can be purchased from the store and increases maximum population by 300. These are a great way to add population quickly. One grand hotel increases population more than any one upgrade to your town hall. But a caution - while it might be tempting just to buy 6 of these, later in the game you will want silver tokens for other things. And, there are other really great buildings to increase population. In addition to increasing your population, Grand Hotels drop 520 gold coins every 3 days and can be sped up multiple times each day. |
| There is also an Omega Hotel in the store that increases your population by 500. Sounds great except that it costs 500 GOLD tokens which are much harder to come by. It may be best to save this until very late in the game when you have fully upgraded your reserve hangar and want to conserve space. Note: I don't recommend this early in the game. |
| There are buildings in the Store that you can purchase with greenies that add to the maximum population in your city but they also boost passenger production in nearby buildings. An example is the Old Oak that increases maximum population by 5 and also increases the output of nearby residential buildings by 10%. They don't increase population by a lot but they are valuable to help you get more from the passenger buildings you do have. |
| Mystery Super Buildings - all of these buildings increase your maximum population, some by more than others. Some of the better buildings - Rabbit Hole increases your population by 20 and only take up 1x1 space. - Volcano House increases population by 20 and also has a residential bonus that applies to buildings within 5 squares in any direction - Planetarium increases population by 20 and also drops items from space collections |
From Adventure Flights
| Some really great buildings to add are Adventure Buildings. Each one increases your city population by 50. While each one takes up the same space as a grand hotel (so they are less efficient to increase maximum population), each adventure building also drops items for standard collections every day. This is a great way to accumulate bonuses that can help with other areas of the game. I highly recommend flying for adventure buildings - especially Aztec Pyramids - quite early in the game. Here is a post on map runs that can help https://www.airportcitygame.com/threads/map-runs.38346/. |
From Events
Many of the buildings you earn from events add to your maximum population. Participating in the events is a great way to earn these buildings without spending anything.
Final Recommendations
- Upgrade your town hall to about level 8 then get population increases from other buildings until you have lots of coins to throw at something that doesn't really need to be done
- Participate in green space launches to earn silver tokens and buy a few Grand Hotels fairly early
- Buy excavation maps for Mesoamerica, Ancient Rome and Stonehenge from Duke Crocker's store early and fly those excavations to get maps for adventure destinations. Get adventure buildings in quickly to start getting collection drops
- Participate in events to earn buildings that will increase your population.
- DO NOT waste gold tokens on Omega Hotel early in the game
- You do NOT need to buy Super Mystery Buildings if you don't want to spend the greens. There are free ways to expand your city population.
You can also find information about any building in the Wiki. Simply scroll to the bottom of the building page to find the bonuses section that looks like this
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