What is Equestria's population?

[Forlong 1,726]

We've seen roughly 750 different ponies in the series overall, but that hardly scratches the serface.  At least half the population centers haven't even been seen on the show.  This means that there is easily more than 1,500 ponies in all of Equestria.  I'll make the debate easier by first listing the major population centers.  Please note that the difference between a town and city is population density rather than population itself.

 

Ponyville

Canterlot

Cloudsdale

Crystal Empire

Appleloosa

Manehattan

Dodge Junction

Hoofington*

Fillydelphia*

Trottingham*

Las Pegusis*

Baltimare*

Saddle Arabia* (might be another country)

Hollow Shades?*

Tall Tale?*

Mustangia*

 

*unseen

 

The Crystal Empire is currently subservient to Equestria (making Equestria technically an empire).  Hollow Shades and Tall Tale are iffy because they are Apple Family settlements and might not have a very large population.

[Silverwisp the Bard 2,353]

 

 

The Crystal Empire is currently subservient to Equestria

What makes you say that?

 

Anyway, my guess is that the whole of Equestria probably clocks in at a couple of million ponies in total, the Crystal Empire a a couple of thousand.

[Chevette 1,052]

Well based on the fact that Equestria doesn't seem to have a corrupted society, I would have to assume the total population is not very large. Sure they may fall under torment by outside sources, but the ponies for the most part seem like they stay under the thumb of their ruler. Some may argue that is corrupted, but the citizens of Equestria don't necessarily show un-orderly activities/criminal activities.

 

What does any of this have to do with the population? Well, the way I see it the larger the population, the more un-organized, crime-inflicted environment. The more folks you have the harder it is to keep em' in check. I would have to say Equestria does well with keeping the citizens under it's control by not having such a massive population to work with.

 

So are they killing them off? Maybe.... I mean really. How many elderly ponies do you really see around there? Not many. And for a society, they seem to have very few children running around as well. Hey, this whole thing could be a bigger conspiracy than first thought. And you never really see any street ponies being prosecuted compared to the main antagonist of the episode. It all seems very fishy to me.

 

Alright, so the logical estimation on the current population of Equestria. I'd believe it's around the size of Muskogee, Oklahoma. Why you ask? Well simple, in the Merle Haggard song Okie from Muskogee, Merle paints the picture that Muskogee is basically the perfect civilization (Much like I described Equestria just recently).

For those of you who haven't heard the song, here is a bit of the lyrics for you:

 

"We don't smoke marijuana in Muskogee;
We don't take our trips on LSD
We don't burn our draft cards down on Main Street;
We like livin' right, and bein' free."

 

There's the first part of the song for you. Pretty much shows you what I mean here. So whatever the population of Muskogee Oklahoma in 1969 (The year the song was released) is the correct population for Equestria. 

 

But remember, this is a show about colorful, talking, magical, horses that happen to fly and carry out normal lives so I am not liable for any infractions inflicted by my above statement.

Edited June 28, 2013 by Earl Hickey

[Zygen 6,066]

I have no idea as a number count honestly. And also it seems that a good bit of the ponies end up being the same background ponies, so it actually makes the population atleast of ponyville seem quite small.

 

But I have a hard time thinking that Equestria is terribly low in population, so I don't really know how much exactly honestly.

 

I'm thinking in the thousands atleast maybe even 10thousands. I can't see Equestria being a million ponies of population though, doesn't seem like there is enough room from what I've seen.

 

Crystal empire looks like maybe a couple hundred idk.

[GuerrierCosmique 146]

According to the map Equestria is an alternative version of the United States (+ Canada). It is the most important country on the entire planet (called "Equus" in some fan fictions), this concludes in the assumption it consists of an area of several million square kilometers. Cities tend to rather small in the show, most ponies seem to live on the countryside, still it's a pre-industrial civilziation. I would put population density somewhere like medieval Europe, 3 to 8 per km². My guess is ~30 million.

Edited June 28, 2013 by Tahirih

[Jammo 986]

Ponyville: 50,000 or so ponies

Canterlot: 250,000 ponies

Cloudsdale: 20,000 ponies

Crystal Empire: 50,000 like Ponyville, my guess well over 250,000 at it's peak before Sombra's rule. The crystal empire seems quite barren for a nation of it's scale.

Edited June 28, 2013 by Jammo

[RrVPfX9cPtw59FpC 1,304]

As far as I know, the Crystal Kingdom isn't part of Equestria. Celestia rules Equestria during the day and Luna during the night, so when would Caidence rule?

[Nature's Spell 526]

I won't give numbers, but I'm guessing a population similar to the Colonial Period in the US or maybe the mid 19th century. It's a fun question.

[Vinyl Scratch (Filly)™ 936]

Well I think it's safe to assume Equestria does not have such a large population, compared to earth that is. I would say a couple million ponies to be honest. But we're never truly told, so everyone can just guesstimate xD

[mr432scott 1]

Alright, before I begin my answer just wanted to say I will be basing the populations off of the real world counter parts to the Equestrian towns/cities. Equestrian counter part will be next to the actual name followed by the population estimate. (Will not be in alphabetical order)

 

Vanhoover/Vancouver: 603,500

Manehattan/Manhattan: 1,626,100

Fillydelphia/Philadelphia: 1,526,000

Baltimare/Baltimore: 620,900

Los Pegasus/Las Vegas: 314,600

Dodge Junction/Kansas City: 466,600

Canterlot/Washington DC: 646,400

 

The next few I couldn't find which they resemble so I compared them to the ones listed.

 

Apple Loosa/About twice the size of dodge junction: 933,200

Ponyville/Little bigger than Apple Loosa: 940,000

Cloudsdale/Roughly the same size as Ponyville, tiny but bigger though: 942,000

Tall Tale/On a map both Tall Tale and Vanhoover seem to be the same size: 603,500

 

Grand Total (May or may not be accurate): 9,222,800

 

Again, this may or may not be accurate considering that the populations of these cities may not directly relate to that of the cities in MLP:FIM but it was fun doing this and I hope it helps anypony out there. Thanks for reading and have a nice rest of your day. 

Edited November 14, 2014 by mr432scott

[Adorkable 2,737]

I mean..I'm not even sure, I don't think there's really a way to find out unless Lauren Faust said something about it, right?

[sweetolebob18 726]

No idea what the population is.  HOWEVER, looking at the number of children, there has to be a fairly long lifespan.  For humans, replacement rate is 2.1 kids per couple.  Given the male/female ratio & the fact that ponies seem to be monogamous, each couple has to do WAY better than that just to hold population steady.  Since huge families do not seem to be the rule, couples have to be in the baby business for a LONG time.  That is, they have lots of kids, but not a lot at once, so must have long fertile period & much longer than human lifespan

 

I'm an old time SF fan & this comes up now & again in fandom

[paradoxical 1,735]

I think that the recurring characters in other cities may give a hint to population.

 

DJ PON3 and Lyra at the wedding.

 

BonBon is in Trade Ya. 

 

If that's so, then the characters seem to appear more than you'd think you'd meet a stranger in New York city (for example)   Or even in smaller cities, like Louisville.

 

Also look at the amount of ponies on the sidewalks in Manehatten.  (very few)

The sidewalks would be filled with ponies with New York Populations.

 

I think that the population is pretty low.

 

Though the comics seem to raise that population somewhat.