Emigration
People who do not find what they need leave the city; those who go may settle in another city on the island.
Who goes, and when?
Emigration happens from time to time, when both of these hold: the city is in Needs shortfall and its satisfaction is below zero. If either is missing, nobody leaves. A city in shortfall with satisfaction above zero simply does not grow.
The interval follows game hours, not real ones; in a fast world emigration comes up that much more often. When it happens and how many leave is not written in advance. How often you look at the screen neither hastens nor delays emigration: it happens even while you are offline.
Who leaves?
Only idle citizens. Workers, scholars, priests, soldiers and recruits in training stay where they are, so the surest way to keep a city from emigration is to give its citizens jobs. The share that leaves is a percentage of the idle citizens. Workers and scholars who quit because the treasury ran dry become ordinary citizens, so they count as idle and can leave too if the city is unhappy.
Share that leaves
| Idle citizens | Share that leaves each time |
|---|---|
| ≥ 0 | 3% |
| ≥ 200 | 2% |
| ≥ 600 | 1.5% |
| ≥ 1,600 | 1% |
The share that leaves each time, by the number of idle citizens. A city with enough idle citizens loses at least the table's minimum each time, however small the share works out.
Where do they go?
To content cities of other players on the same island. The receiving city's satisfaction must be above the table's lower limit, and it must have room in its housing. The leavers are shared among the receivers in proportion to room; no city takes more than a set share of its housing in one round of emigration. Citizens nobody takes in leave the city and do not come back.
Your own cities are not each other's receivers: someone leaving one of your cities does not settle in another of yours. Accounts that are on holiday, suspended or removed, and players under beginner protection, neither send nor receive. A city under protection does not grow and its tax falls, but nobody leaves it.
Arriving settlers
A content city with free room in its housing can take in other people's citizens. The settlers join the receiver's population and start out idle; as many settle as the housing allows.
Both sides see only a number and the name of their own city in the Activity entry: who left or who arrived is not known.
The figures come from the game's own content. Balance updates can move some numbers; the rules themselves are as written here.