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The basic premise of this post is to try and get a handle on population numbers for each race or faction in the 40k Galaxy.

First off, I am not good at math (which possibly invalidates the thread even before we've begun ).
So any mistakes please feel free to point them out and I'll amend the OP.

Secondly, Im going to take both the low end and high end extremes here. By that very definition, things might get wacky so bear with me.

Thirdly, I have only sourced two races thusfar, Nids and IG as the other fluff is quite spread out (amongst books) so if anyone has solid some numbers for other races feel free to join in (quote sources if possible).

And lastly with Gws fluff writing so inconsistent not to mention vague a bit of salt is needed overall.

This is hopefully more for fun and to get some discussion going than hard math.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_and_short_scales
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orders_of_magnitude_%28numbers%29


So lets begin with the Nids.
In the BRB there is a passage on the Hive Fleets (sub box page 237) which states there have been 9 distinct Hive Fleets in the Galaxy thusfar with "millions" of ships comprised of "mililons" of creatures ready for invasion.

Taking the lowend numbes first that would give us:

9 x 2,000,000 (2 million) x 2,000,000 (2 million)

Im taking 2 million as the very lowest end as the word "millions" implies more than one.

Hence, that totals:

3.6 to the power of 13.
That equals 360 trillion (if my math is right?).

Next we take the extreme upper end. Since millions implies more than 1, the Nid fleets could reach a cap of 999,999,999 (or nine hundred and ninety nine million). So could the creatures onboard (as per the passge quoted).
There are 9 distinct fleets.
Hence

9 x 999,999,999, x 999,999,999

= 9 to the power of 18 which is called 9 quintillion afaik (9,000,000,000,000,000,000).

So thats the known Nids upper and ower ends. Obviously the other fleets int he Galactic Void and elsewhere could be even larger than this (or smaller too) but there is no hard evidence on them at all from what I can see.



Next is Humanity - I havent tried to do the Imperial Guard as the numbers are hard to pin down.
It is quoted in the BRB (page 170) that Humanity numbers around 1 million worlds. It also states this could be more or less due to the inherent inefficencies of tracking all the worlds so lets take the 1mil mark as a good base.
This is where things get less clear imo though.
Wiki quotes the IoM as having 32,380 Hive worlds. Each world can have 5-20 Hives with populations ranging fro 10 to 100 billion.
http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Planets

Personally Im unsure of where these numbers came from but lets try them out to see.

Lets start with the lower end for Hive worlds.

32,380 x 5 (hives) x 10,000,000,000 (10 billion)
= 1.6 to the power of 15 or 1.6,000,000,000,000,000)
or 1.6 quadrillion in short hand.

Things get difficult here however as there are no hard numbers for the other types of IoM worlds, civilised, fuedal, forge, death, agri, death etc.
Sticking with the low end figures fuedal worlds are stated to have a min population of about 10,000,000.

So taking 1,000,000,000 (total worlds) minus 32,380 (the Hives) leaves us with 967,620 worlds.

967,620 x 10,000,000 = 9.6 to the power of 12 or 9.6,000,000,000,000
or 9.6 trillion (note not even a patch on the Nid lowend numbers).

High end IoM then:
High end Hive
32,380 x 20 (hives per world) x 100,000,000,000 (100 billion)
= 6.5 to the power of 15 or 6.5,000,000,000,000,000
or 6.5 quadrillion

Taking the remaining 967,620 worlds and maxing all of them below a Hive worlds cap 99 billion (acknowledged this is wacky and dosent fit with feral, fuedal worlds) gives:
967,620 x 99,000,000,000
= 9.57 to the power of 16 or 950,000,000,000,000,000
or 950 quadrillion
+ Hives = 956 quadrillion.
Note still nowhere near the Nid upper levels.

Finally we can do an extreme IoM and say 1 millio worlds by the Hive cap of 100 billion
1 million x 100 billion=
1 to the power of 17
or 100,000,000,000,000,000
100 quadrillion.

About one tenth of the Nid population.

I need a beer, any analysis or comments are more than welcome

The BRB says the cap for a Hive World is actually 500 Billion. Sorry to screw up your math.

Counting the Nids is rather pointless as the Tyranids create new creatures based on what is needed. And the biomass to make a Carnifex could make several dozen gaunts. So saying there are X amount of nids doesn't tell you anything, is it X Carnifexes? X Termigants? X Rippers? X Hive Ships?... As such they don't have numbers, just a biomass value.


As to humanity. For reference, the Earth as it stands today would count as low end Civilized world or a high end Feudal world. So a feudal world could still have several billion people.

Also, not all human worlds are part of the Imperium. I would hazard the vast majority are not. There are still worlds that were cutoff during the Age of Strife and never reconnected. That could make humanity several times more numerous than the number you gave.

That's a good point. It's possible not even half of human worlds are Imperial.

Beyond Measure.

Lets just say "a lot" and leave it at that....

Some years back on The Conclave Helst used the aestimare (iirc) from the 3rd Ed. Rulebook to work out the given number of planet types (hive, death, civilised et cetera) as a percentage of the million worlds of the Imperium and the given averages of each world's population and came up with (again iirc) Forty Thousand Trillion humans in the Imperium or there about.

Forty thousand trillion? So 4,000,000,000,000,000?

The BRB says the cap for a Hive World is actually 500 Billion. Sorry to screw up your math.

Interesting, can you quote the page out of interest?

Putting that into the math so:

Factoring that into the super high end IoM is:
Finally we can do an extreme IoM and say 1 million worlds by the Hive cap of 500 billion
1 million x 500 billion= which is 5 to the power 19 or 50,000,000,000,000,000,000
or 50 quintillion

So about 6 times the total pop of known Nids

However this does assume each and every IoM world has a total pop of 500 billion (not supported by fluff afaik).

Forty thousand trillion? So 4,000,000,000,000,000?

KamikazeCanuck
Post Fri, 12/Jul/2013 11:16:39 PM Subject: Re:Attempting to get a handle on Galaxy populations
Forty thousand trillion? So 4,000,000,000,000,000?

Agreed on the math figure 40000 trillion is equal to 4,000,000,000,000,000, but a truely insignificant number VS even the lowend Nids.
Its an interesting premise Gog but am not sure of the math behind it. Got a link out of interest?

A billion times a billion Tyranids stand at the rim of the galaxy yet each one is no more than a single cell in the living body of the hive mind, the devourer of worlds. (2nd edition Tyranid Codex, p. 4)

That is 10^18 Tyranids on the edge of the galaxy (i.e. not yet entered), and this was as of the end of Kraken which was 2nd edition.

As for the Imperium, we do have some data that allows for estimation.

The Hive Worlds of the Imperium are classed as having upper limit population of 500 billion (3rd edition 40K rulebook, p. 114). The 5th edition rulebook on p. 115 estimates there to be 3.238 * 10^4 or 32,380 hive worlds in the Imperium. If all 1,000,000 worlds of the Imperium were hive worlds with 500 billion people that is 5 * 10^17. That is an UPPER limit for the Imperium's population because we know that not all worlds are maximum population hive worlds.

Minea from that page in the 5th edition rulebook is described as a typical example of a hive world, and it has 154 billion population, well under the 500 billion maximum. Assume we are still generous and give all hive worlds a population of 250 billion to account for less populated worlds elsewhere in the Imperium. 32,380 hive worlds of 250 billion population each is 8.095 * 10^15.

A billion times a billion Tyranids stand at the rim of the galaxy yet each one is no more than a single cell in the living body of the hive mind, the devourer of worlds. (2nd edition Tyranid Codex, p. 4)



That is 10^18 Tyranids on the edge of the galaxy (i.e. not yet entered), and this was as of the end of Kraken which was 2nd edition.

Nice Iracundus, missed that one!

Those numbers then give us:

1,000, 000,000,000 (1 billion) x 1,000,000,000,000 (1 billion) =

10^18 10,000,000,000,000,000,000 = 10 quintillion

Which is 1 quintillion more than exist right now with the Current Hive Fleets

The Hive Worlds of the Imperium are classed as having upper limit population of 500 billion (3rd edition 40K rulebook, p. 114). The 5th edition rulebook on p. 115 estimates there to be 3.238 * 10^4 or 32,380 hive worlds in the Imperium. If all 1,000,000 worlds of the Imperium were hive worlds with 500 billion people that is 5 * 10^17

5 * 10^17 =
5 to the 18 power which is
5,000,000,000,000,000,000
or....5 quintillion

So by my basic calcs:

5 QT for the IoM is still about half of the Nid upper limit that currently exists (with all known Hive Fleets) and about another half of what is outside the current known Galaxy?

Orks....you guys need to show or its NomNomNom time....

Mathhammer.

 Engine of War wrote:
Lets just say "a lot" and leave it at that....

GW fluff writers are all about the rule of cool, attempting to explain logically some of the numbers they give will drive you mad.

I mean 500 billion on an Earth sized world? No. Just no.

And there's always they easy out which is, 'they lied'. Yeah Governor So-and-so says his world has 500 billion but everyone knows he's full of it and just trying to sound more important.

Same with the number of nids or ork or whatever.

Orks are probably the most populous race in the galaxy, seconded closely by humans (due to the fact that humans build hive cities and thus have more density) and Tyranids after the Tyrannic wars caused them to grind to a halt and splinter off.

But that's just my rough guesstimation.

There's most likely only one planet with 500 Billion people: Terra.

Not sure I'd agree with that. There's probably numerous planets around that level aside from Holy Terra.

Yeah, there are Hive Worlds which have distinct hives. And then there are Hive Worlds where the entire planet is basically one big hive, like Terra.

Naturally they will be rarer than the worlds with only 3-6 hives, but they still exist. Even assuming only 5% of hive worlds have a similar population density thats still going to increase the number a lot.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:

 Engine of War wrote:
Lets just say "a lot" and leave it at that....

GW fluff writers are all about the rule of cool, attempting to explain logically some of the numbers they give will drive you mad.

I mean 500 billion on an Earth sized world? No. Just no.

And there's always they easy out which is, 'they lied'. Yeah Governor So-and-so says his world has 500 billion but everyone knows he's full of it and just trying to sound more important.

Same with the number of nids or ork or whatever.

Who said all of the Imperiums planets are Earth sized. Are you making an inference or is it quoted?
I always thought Humans just colonized whatever world was habitable .

How is 500 billion a bad number for an Earth sized planet?

Lets assume a population density equal to New York City. Which is 10,640/square kilometer.

Earth has a surface area of 510,072,000 square kilometers.

That gives us a population, assuming NYC pop density, of 5,427,170,000,000. Almost five and a half trillion.

And that's with a rather solid figure for pop density.


500 billion isn't anywhere near enough for an earth sized planet covered in nothing but city.

Did some net reading today to try and find some hard stats on Orks or at least a starting point.
Finding it very difficult, their fluff is very non specific.
A few passages I read stated that there are hundreds of thousands of Ork clans and factions ranging in number from a few hundred to millions.
However I cant see that being reasonable really - lets do an extreme end for the Orks

Hundreds of thousands maxs out at 999,999.
Millions maxs out at 999,999,999
Therefore 999,999 x 999,999,999
= 9 to the 14th power or 900,000,000,000,000
Equaling 900 trillion.

Now putting that up against the IoM lowend of 9.6 trillion seems reasonable - it would indicate the Orks outnumber Humanity by a factor of 100.

But VS high end IoM (956 quadrillion) its utterly insignificant.

Hmmmmm.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
But if we take it that there may be millions of Orks clans and factions and max them we then get:
999,999,999 x 999,999,999
= 1 quintillion which seems much more realistic compared to the IoMs pop.

Also Terra's original surface is now 10 miles below it's current one. It's basically a planet wide 10 mile deep hive city and it obviously has the political power to be able to requisition the entire galaxy for resources to sustain itself. I haven't really heard of another planet like that.

Most hive world are like Armageddon: about six hives which each have greater populations than IRL Earth. I agree with the aforementioned estimated hive world population being ~100 Billion.

 Ratius wrote:
A few passages I read stated that there are hundreds of thousands of Ork clans.

Actually...there's basically only six or so "clans"" of Orks.

The thing is, Ork population is measured in density-- percent/number of Ork controlled worlds within a subsector, I believe the map used.

Spoilered because it's a bit of a big image:

Reelvant part is in the upper right. Rather htan exact numbers, we basically have Non-Ork Controlled territory, Ork-controlled territory, and HOLY FETH THAT'S A LOT OF ORKS! territory.

@ Ratius

Sorry, I don't have a link. It was on the old GW Conclave forum which is gone and I don't know off-hand if it is out there somewhere.

As I say the number was calculated using the 3rd Ed. Rulebook which lists the types of worlds the Imperium consists of and, iirc, an 'aestimare' which is the number of those worlds per million. If you add up all the numbers on the page it makes 10,000 I believe so some maths is required. However, using those figures gives an indication of how many hiveworlds there are et cetera and also the average population so if anyone has the rulebook handy it would be easy to do the maths again and find the approximate Imperium population.

 Grey Templar wrote:
How is 500 billion a bad number for an Earth sized planet?

Lets assume a population density equal to New York City. Which is 10,640/square kilometer.

Earth has a surface area of 510,072,000 square kilometers.

That gives us a population, assuming NYC pop density, of 5,427,170,000,000. Almost five and a half trillion.

And that's with a rather solid figure for pop density.


500 billion isn't anywhere near enough for an earth sized planet covered in nothing but city.

The problem is generally speaking people enjoy such things as drinking water, eating food, breathing air, pooping poop, not to mention using energy.

And those things take space.

It can always be hand waved with "big machines" and "imports" but that would mean the Imperium's technology and spaceflight is much much more reliable than anything shown thusfar.

I'd believe Star Trek's United Federation of Planets could support a world with 100s of billions of people (though they wouldn't, they'd start relocating them to colonies) but not the creaky old Imperium.

As for planet sizes gravity is the big issue. Sure a world could be larger than Earth with a much lower density (maybe a hollow core) or if the colonies had the proverbial 'gravity machines' keeping things at or around 1g, but again, that's a more advanced Imperium than the one we usually see. It would be an interesting world thought, gravity is at 10gs, but ancient machines ill understood today keep the hive cities at a comfortable 1g. Step outside the city limits however...

As always it's just my opinion and conjecture.

The Imperium does have the technology to support people in those numbers. Albeit at barely survivable levels.

They do have the ability to recycle waste into food. As well as air and water scrubbers.


Technology simply isn't the focus. Its the game, and fighting. So we have little to go on for non-military technology.

And I gave a pop density of New York City. Given that Terra is covered in a city that is several miles thick, they must have a greater population density than 21st century New York.


Because Terra is covered in a city that is several miles thick(known fact) it must have a population density greater than New York. Ergo, it must also have a population of Trillions.

Which in turn means the Imperium MUST have the ability to keep those trillions fed, watered, and breathing. Even if the majority only just barely get by.

But not all of Terra has to be densely occupied.

Even with 'big machines' they have to take up some space somewhere. There can be hundreds of square miles of food vats, water tanks, power plants, warehouses and just abandoned zones.

But yeah, Terra is the outlier, if any place in the Imperium would have the technology and imports and resources to support that population it would be Terra.

But keep in mind places like NY, Mexico City, Nairobi, Tokyo, where ever rest on a bed of thousands of miles of farmland, reservoirs, garbage dumps and who knows what else. Pick up Manhattan, cut if off from the rest of the world, and you'd have a big graveyard in a few months.

The fluff does say that Terra, and indeed any hive world, requires imports of all basic necessities.

And even if you cut the density in half to allow room for machinery, you are still well over 2.5 trillion people.

An earth like planet has about 2 trillion tons of biomass, so assuming a billion earthlike planets in a galaxy, you could have 2 sextillion tons per each of the twelve galaxies eaten

A single void whale, being bigger than the earth by a good margin, would have a mass of about 6-10 sextillion tons, so let's go with eight.

Assuming about a million void whales per galaxy, that means 8 octillion tons times twelve meaning 96 octillion tons.

So assuming no void whales you have 24 sextillion tons of Tyranids, with void whales that leap frogs up many orders of magnitude.

500 Billion on an earth size planet is impossible anyway you slice it.

There would literally be no place to move

As I proved, that is completely false.

A planet with the same surface area as earth with a pop density equal to New York City would have almost 5.5 trillion people. New York may be crowded, but its still plenty of space for air scrubbers and food recyclers. Even more space if food is brought in from another planet.

Comparatively, 500 billion people would have plenty of room.

In fact, 500 billion people on an earth sized planet would have 10,979 square feet per person. That is plenty of space.