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I know GW is unlikely to have ever given out many hard numbers, but approximately what kind of numbers and proportion of worlds controlled by each of the IoM, Necrons, Tau, Orks, Chaos, Eldar, and minor races are fitting? Later dates preferred, but any would be useful. Educated guesses and common sense extrapolations which give vaguely sane results would be great!

I've been doing some research and have not turned up much.

The IoM may have something in the order of a million planets according to some wikis (not counting non-IoM human planets) - ~1000000
Orks probably have a lot more than IoM - not sure if that means 3x or >50x
Tau are pretty tiny - ~100 worlds? ~30 named?
Eldar don't have that many actual planets? But not confident of the plausible range - perhaps 1000-100000?
Necrons.. very little information found, could be super high but mostly dormant - >100000 dormant, 1000-10000 active?
Chaos.. also not found much and hard to guess. Some daemonworlds, some just under the sway of Chaos?
Misc minor sentient races.. not sure how large their combined size is relative to the others.
Dark Eldar and Tyranids don't seem to control planets in the traditional sense, so zero?

All of these seem kinda small numbers compared to the number of available planets in a galaxy, especially considering DAoT terraforming, Necrons not needing hospitable planets, Orks surviving basically anywhere, etc.. but I guess millennia of all out war involving exterminus level weapons would reduce the number of live planets quite a bit.

I'd also be interested in approximations of no. of craftworlds, tombworlds, non-IoM human worlds, and basically any other large scale statistics about the state of major factions.

I'm not expecting anything precise or authoritative, but it would be really handy for a game I'm planning on running to know some plausible ranges of figures.

The IoM has millions of worlds, how many is entirely up to you to decide due to 40k's "all interpretations are valid" canon. They are the primary superpower, other factions are either smaller (most of them), disunited (orks/necrons), or not all here yet (Necrons/Tyranids).

The Orks I'd say outnumber humanity by a large margin, ten to fifty Ork worlds for every human world.

Tau: 1000-10,000 systems is my general interpretation.

Eldar don't really settle on worlds, but I prefer an interpretation of thousands of craftworlds of varying size, with the big ones hosting teeming billions of people. How many exodite worlds there are is unknown but I'd say in the thousands. There's a fair number of corsair fleets flying around, and the Dark Eldar number in the trillions upon trillions and are most definitely not dying out. The Harlequins are a riddle wrapped in a mystery nested in an enigma.

The Necrons likely outnumber mankind and are only surpassed by the Orks and Tyranids in numbers. Millions of tomb worlds with quadrillions to quintillions of Necrons who are all combatants in some form or another in wait. If they all awakened at once; the Imperium of Man would be beyond screwed.

Chaos: A tenth of the Imperium's worlds or less is my general estimate, the mortal forces of Chaos do not have the numbers behind them that the Imperium does. They rely on subversion, daemonology, and treachery to match the Imperium. If the warp storms like the Maelstrom and Eye of Terror were to close right now, they'd be pretty screwed. They're still very powerful though, and due to the Imperium's distraction can make Barbarossa like gains, though overall their situation is much like Nazi Germany and friends vs the World in WW2 in my personal interpretation.

The other sapients likely make up the majority of the remaining worlds.

The Kroot, unlike the Tau; can operate full warp drives so I wouldn't be surprised if they have their own far reaching set of colonies they're not telling the Tau about.

I doubt Eldar have many seeing as only the Exodites rule planets and that number only goes down.

Dark Eldar have one massive city which is apparently bigger than a planet.

A suppose you could count how many worlds the Tyranids have eaten, so quite a few there.

Who knows how many are in the Eye, enough to keep the CSM and renegades happy with room to spare.

Orks are everywhere, even on planets which are not controlled by orks. Some Ork empires could contain thousands of worlds.

Eldar probably have a few hundred craftworlds. But there are a lot of Exodite worlds near the Eye.

Mars could be a Necron Tomb World for all we know.

Commorragh is the size of a solar system I believe.

 Kain wrote:
Commorragh is the size of a solar system I believe.

Sod invading that

 MrBlackledge wrote:

 Kain wrote:
Commorragh is the size of a solar system I believe.

Sod invading that

You could give everyone in the galaxy and then some a palace the size of a city with room to spare.

It's really hard to estimate Cormarragh's size because it's all not physically in the same place. It is actually hundreds of thousands of sub realms, each nestled somewhere in the webway, all connected via Webway Tech that means you could step from one side of the galaxy to the other by passing through a door. But yeah, the Dark Eldar city is truly massive. It is stated that it is ''to a hive world as a hive world is to a mountain'' using this someone done some math which i find amusing.
'Commaragh to a hive world would be to compare a mountain to a termite mound'

Ok so an average terminte mound is say 4x2x2 meters = 16 m^3
The average mountain according to ask.com is 300 m high 1200 m base so 130000 m^3

Hive worlds have around 5-20 hives per planet each hive housing 10-100 billion people.
So the bottom end of that; 5 hives, 10 billion per hive gives 50 billion people and that is the termite mound.

So the population of Commorragh on the low end using my assumptions is around 542 trillion minimum.
At the high end 100 billion per hive 20 hives per planet 21666 trillion maximum.

 ALEXisAWESOME wrote:
It's really hard to estimate Cormarragh's size because it's all not physically in the same place. It is actually hundreds of thousands of sub realms, each nestled somewhere in the webway, all connected via Webway Tech that means you could step from one side of the galaxy to the other by passing through a door. But yeah, the Dark Eldar city is truly massive. It is stated that it is ''to a hive world as a hive world is to a mountain'' using this someone done some math which i find amusing.
'Commaragh to a hive world would be to compare a mountain to a termite mound'

Ok so an average terminte mound is say 4x2x2 meters = 16 m^3
The average mountain according to ask.com is 300 m high 1200 m base so 130000 m^3

Hive worlds have around 5-20 hives per planet each hive housing 10-100 billion people.
So the bottom end of that; 5 hives, 10 billion per hive gives 50 billion people and that is the termite mound.

So the population of Commorragh on the low end using my assumptions is around 542 trillion minimum.
At the high end 100 billion per hive 20 hives per planet 21666 trillion maximum.

The Dark Eldar aren't just not at all dying out, they're thriving.

pm713 wrote:
I doubt Eldar have many seeing as only the Exodites rule planets and that number only goes down.

Eldar used to have "Craftworld Colonies" as well as ther space born primary worldships- not sure if thats still true

 Mr Morden wrote:

pm713 wrote:
I doubt Eldar have many seeing as only the Exodites rule planets and that number only goes down.

Eldar used to have "Craftworld Colonies" as well as ther space born primary worldships- not sure if thats still true

I think there's still some mention of it, it's just that the authors have a hard time remembering they exist.

 Mr Morden wrote:

pm713 wrote:
I doubt Eldar have many seeing as only the Exodites rule planets and that number only goes down.

Eldar used to have "Craftworld Colonies" as well as ther space born primary worldships- not sure if thats still true

This is the first I've ever heard of those.

pm713 wrote:

 Mr Morden wrote:

pm713 wrote:
I doubt Eldar have many seeing as only the Exodites rule planets and that number only goes down.

Eldar used to have "Craftworld Colonies" as well as ther space born primary worldships- not sure if thats still true

This is the first I've ever heard of those.

First mention I recall was in the White Dwarf that first examined the Eldar background -132 (?) the Craftworld the fluff focussed on had colonies on a number of worlds. I have seen them mentioned now and again since.

 Mr Morden wrote:

pm713 wrote:

 Mr Morden wrote:

pm713 wrote:
I doubt Eldar have many seeing as only the Exodites rule planets and that number only goes down.

Eldar used to have "Craftworld Colonies" as well as ther space born primary worldships- not sure if thats still true

This is the first I've ever heard of those.

First mention I recall was in the White Dwarf that first examined the Eldar background -132 (?) the Craftworld the fluff focussed on had colonies on a number of worlds. I have seen them mentioned now and again since.

Sounds like something Biel-Tan would do...

I think orks probably have the largest number of worlds under their control, but the average ork world only has a tiny fraction of the population that a human world would have. Ork logistics could never sustain tens of billions of them on one world.

One figure of note is that the imperium is divided into sectors and the space between sectors is generally larger than the size of a sector. That means that over 90% of the volume of space inside the borders of the imperium is actually not controlled by them. Even within a sector, there are going to be significant gaps in imperial control.

So, I'd say something like...

Orks: tens of millions of worlds.
Humans (mostly Imperium): millions of worlds.
Everyone else: thousands of worlds.

The Necrons are specifically mentioned as having millions of tombworlds, though only thousands are likely active at the moment.

 Kain wrote:

Chaos: A tenth of the Imperium's worlds or less is my general estimate, the mortal forces of Chaos do not have the numbers behind them that the Imperium does. They rely on subversion, daemonology, and treachery to match the Imperium. If the warp storms like the Maelstrom and Eye of Terror were to close right now, they'd be pretty screwed. They're still very powerful though, and due to the Imperium's distraction can make Barbarossa like gains, though overall their situation is much like Nazi Germany and friends vs the World in WW2 in my personal interpretation.

Which stage of WW2? Somewhat powerful --> Dominating --> Stagnating --> Retreating --> Dead as fk.

 Selym wrote:

 Kain wrote:

Chaos: A tenth of the Imperium's worlds or less is my general estimate, the mortal forces of Chaos do not have the numbers behind them that the Imperium does. They rely on subversion, daemonology, and treachery to match the Imperium. If the warp storms like the Maelstrom and Eye of Terror were to close right now, they'd be pretty screwed. They're still very powerful though, and due to the Imperium's distraction can make Barbarossa like gains, though overall their situation is much like Nazi Germany and friends vs the World in WW2 in my personal interpretation.

Which stage of WW2? Somewhat powerful --> Dominating --> Stagnating --> Retreating --> Dead as fk.

All of them of course! It is the only way to be truly chaotic

 Selym wrote:

 Kain wrote:

Chaos: A tenth of the Imperium's worlds or less is my general estimate, the mortal forces of Chaos do not have the numbers behind them that the Imperium does. They rely on subversion, daemonology, and treachery to match the Imperium. If the warp storms like the Maelstrom and Eye of Terror were to close right now, they'd be pretty screwed. They're still very powerful though, and due to the Imperium's distraction can make Barbarossa like gains, though overall their situation is much like Nazi Germany and friends vs the World in WW2 in my personal interpretation.

Which stage of WW2? Somewhat powerful --> Dominating --> Stagnating --> Retreating --> Dead as fk.

The 13th Black Crusade is in my eyes, like Operation Barbarossa.

It has the potential to win through surprise, force concentration, and gunning for a decapitation strike, but it will start to overstretch sooner than later and if it fails to take Terra, it's going to be rolled back all the way to the eye in a manner that effectively breaks the Black Legion's back, not without a monumental fight however.

But it may just be the fight that ultimately dooms humanity as a species by burning out the forces of Abaddon and the Imperium as they headbutt each other into oblivion.

in other words, they need to win quickly and decisivly or the Imperium once it gets rolling will crush them simply by weight of numbers and logistics

The Imperium has about a million worlds.
The Necrons have many millions of tomb worlds.

 Perfect Organism wrote:
I think orks probably have the largest number of worlds under their control, but the average ork world only has a tiny fraction of the population that a human world would have. Ork logistics could never sustain tens of billions of them on one world.

One figure of note is that the imperium is divided into sectors and the space between sectors is generally larger than the size of a sector. That means that over 90% of the volume of space inside the borders of the imperium is actually not controlled by them. Even within a sector, there are going to be significant gaps in imperial control.

So, I'd say something like...

Orks: tens of millions of worlds.
Humans (mostly Imperium): millions of worlds.
Everyone else: thousands of worlds.

I'd honestly say the Orks probably control fewer worlds than the Imperium.

The Imperium's freaking huge, even with all that 'open space'. The rest of the system is probably just as sporadically populated when you get right down to it.

And so far as Orks go, I'd say they control fewer worlds, but they're most certainly on more worlds. This is due to the fact that once Orks get onto a planet, they won't get sent packing short of exterminatus. Shere are tons of Imperium, Tau, and even Exodite Eldar worlds which the Orks aren't even near to controlling, but they always have a presence on due to spores nesting every time their forces are wiped out.

Heck, there are probably even plenty of Chaos controlled worlds and Necron Tomb Worlds which have a constant orkish pest upon their surface.

The Tau only controls a few dozen worlds according to their own Codex. Their whole empire with pretty much every system they control is shown on page 21.

Don't eldar also have their maiden worlds as well?

 Psienesis wrote:

It's a grot!
It's the milky way!
No, it's ORKS!

... there are a *lot* of Ork Worlds.

Fifty Ork worlds per 100 LY in some areas?

...Does GW understand how much that is?

...Or wait a moment, do they mean square or cubic lightyears?

 Ashiraya wrote:
Fifty Ork worlds per 100 LY in some areas?

...Does GW understand how much that is?

...Or wait a moment, do they mean square or cubic lightyears?

Probably or some fictional distance. Even if they didn't, let's be honest, GW is terrible with numbers

 Ashiraya wrote:
Fifty Ork worlds per 100 LY in some areas?

...Does GW understand how much that is?

...Or wait a moment, do they mean square or cubic lightyears?

Yes. They've also stated that Orks are the most-populous race in the galaxy (by which I assume they mean native, so the Nids don't count).

Remember, the Orks have been here since the beginning. They fought the Necrons in the War In Heaven and, unlike the Necrons, they didn't go for a Big Sleep, just kept right on krumpin'. They had more opportunities to expand and consolidate than any other race in the galaxy. We will never know how many Xeno empires fell under the might of the WAAAGH!s of the years prior to Humanity discovering fire.