Struggling to swell your city’s ranks in Anno 117: Pax Romana? Master the mechanics that turn modest settlements into thriving metropolises.
How to grow your population in Anno 117: Pax Romana
Build houses to draw in new residents, then supply food like sardines or porridge for a +1 boost per residence across the island. Place markets and other public services nearby to cover homes with area effects that add further population through proximity. Upgrade residences by meeting fashion and service needs, unlocking higher tiers with greater capacity from diverse goods, while specialists and Ceres worship provide extra gains.
The first thing you need to grow your population in Anno 117 is residential buildings. If you build more houses, new citizens will flock to your island. However, the number of residents per house depends on island-wide “need” fulfillment and area effects. If you don’t produce any goods with a population buff, your population will remain stuck at zero, no matter how many houses you build.
If you click on a residence, you will see food, public service, and fashion needs. To fulfill the food needs, for example, you can produce sardines or eels. Both food types offer 1 population, which means that every residential building with access to sardines or eels gains 1 population. So, if you have 30 residences and a thriving sardine fishery, you gain 30 population.
Most end products have an island-wide effect, including sardines, but in some cases, the population buff is an “area effect” which only boosts residences within range. Public services, such as a market, work with area effects: If 20 residences are within the market’s range, you gain 20 population.
If you fulfill a residence’s every need (food, public service, and fashion), the residence will become available for an upgrade to population tier 2. Higher-tier residences usually hold a higher population because they have more needs, and therefore more opportunities to gain population buffs from goods and services.
To illustrate, on the Latium map, Liberti (tier 1 resident) can gain a maximum of 3 population per residence from food alone (sardines and porridge), whereas Plebeians (tier 2 resident) may gain a maximum of 5 population from food alone (sardines, porridge, and bread). Higher residential tiers may benefit from lower-tier population buffs, but not the other way around.
How to boost population fast in Anno 117: Pax Romana
Build residences and connect them by road to your trading post right away. Supply food through fishing huts or cockle pickers to fill the first need and gain initial residents, then add markets nearby for public service coverage that boosts nearby homes. Produce tier-specific goods like sardines, porridge, or bread island-wide to stack population gains per house, upgrade to higher tiers for greater capacity, and choose Ceres as your deity while assigning specialists to governance buildings for extra boosts.
In Latium, the best early game population boost ( 2 population) is almost immediately available: porridge. However, since porridge produces nothing else, it may be better to start with sardines instead. Once population tier 2 is unlocked, producing bread is the best way to grow your empire, as it grants a 2 population bonus.
At the start of a new game in Albion, every end product in population tier 1 provides 1 population, so it doesn’t matter which products you pursue first. When you reach population tier 2 (Smiths), producing cheese is the best way to grow your island as it provides 2 population and is fairly easy to produce – all you need is an ox farm.
To further boost population growth in Anno 117, choose Ceres as your empire’s god. Upon reaching certain devotion thresholds, she will increase your population. Keep an eye out for Specialists with population buffs as well – you can obtain them from quests or buy them from traders. Equip a Specialist on a governance building, such as your Villa, to activate the effect.
How to grow your workforce in Anno 117: Pax Romana
Build residences connected by roads to attract residents, then supply food like sardines from fishing huts and place markets nearby for area effects that add occupants to homes. Upgrade houses by meeting tier needs for fashion and services, as higher tiers yield more workforce despite lower contribution percentages-50% from tier 1, dropping to 20% at tier 3. Choose Ceres for divine population bonuses, hire Specialists with growth perks, and research workforce techs while using inherent building labor from trading posts early on.
As you may have noticed, the first workstations on a new island, including the woodcutter, sawmill, and warehouse, will operate just fine at zero population. The reason is the difference between population and workforce in Anno 117. While most of the workforce is derived from the population, some buildings come with an inherent workforce, including the trading post, which always adds 25 workforce (tier 1) to an island.
This is incredibly handy, because it allows you to set up a basic, functioning settlement even before you’ve had the opportunity to grow your population. However, you cannot rely on alternative workforce sources in the long run; if you place two woodcutters, two sawmills, and one warehouse in a fledgling town, you’re already facing a workforce deficit.
If workstations lack the desired workforce, they’ll be marked with a hammer and pickaxe icon as seen in the image below.
Workstations without enough workers can still operate at a slower pace, so if you ever face the situation as described above, be sure to place a building that provides a population buff by fulfilling a need or providing an area effect. In a brand-new town, this would be the fishing hut, which provides 1 population and 1 income (making it a great building to generate more money as well).
Beware that only some of your population will become part of the workforce within their respective tier. The higher the population tier, the smaller the workforce derived from that residential group. In tier 1 (Liberti and Waders), 50% of the population becomes workforce, so having a population of 20 Liberti would translate to 10 Libertus workforce. In tier 2 (Plebeians and Smiths), it’s down to 30%, and only 20% of the tier 3 population (Equituus and Aldermen) joins the workforce.
Which buildings give the biggest population buffs early game
Early-game population buffs in Anno 117: Pax Romana come primarily from buildings that supply needs efficiently across multiple residences, with area-effect services like markets and food providers offering the biggest immediate gains. Porridge production stands out for a quick +2 population boost per house in regions like Latium, as it’s accessible right away and scales well with basic farms and mills. Markets provide broad coverage for goods distribution, amplifying buffs from foods and services to add hundreds of residents when placed centrally near roads.
Top Early Buildings
-
Porridge Makers: Deliver +2 pop per house via grain and water chains; prioritize in Latium for fast unlocks and high coverage.
-
Fish Markets: Distribute sardines/eels for +1 each, covering 10+ houses per market for massive net gains with minimal build cost.
-
Basic Baths/Public Latrines: Area hygiene buffs (+1 pop) affect nearby homes; cheap upkeep and pave roads to extend range.
Placement Tips
Centralize markets and baths amid housing clusters to maximize overlap, ensuring paved roads connect everything for full effect. Combine with Ceres devotion for additive bonuses, avoiding spread-out builds that dilute coverage early on.
Best early-game buildings to prioritize for population boost
Porridge makers and fish markets deliver the biggest early-game population boosts in Anno 117: Pax Romana by providing +2 and +1 residents per house, respectively, across multiple residences when centrally placed. These outperform basic hygiene buildings like latrines, which add only +1 but cover areas efficiently with low upkeep.
Priority Buildings
-
Porridge Makers: Unlock via grain farms and mills in Latium; chain supplies water for +2 pop buff, scaling to dozens of houses quickly.
-
Fish Markets: Distribute cheap sardines or eels from fisheries (+1 each); one market serves 10+ homes for hundreds of net residents.
-
Public Latrines/Baths: Hygiene +1 buff in range; pave roads to connect housing clusters and amplify food effects.
Build Order Tips
Start with 2-3 porridge setups amid basic housing, add one fish market nearby, then latrines for hygiene overlap-aim for 500+ pop by turn 20 without overextending production. Central roads ensure full coverage, unlocking Plebeian upgrades faster.
