Ultra-realistic City Economic Simulation

The City Economic Simulation DLC replaces the base game’s city model with one built for depth — a metropolis whose growth and prosperity you can read, and change, in detail.

The city economic simulation, showing a city and its economic indicators

What the simulation models

Factor	What it covers
Quality of life	Citizen satisfaction, shaped by access to healthcare, education, leisure and a clean environment.
Industrial competitiveness	The city’s strength in each industry, measured against a global benchmark.
City government finance	A real budget — tax revenue on one side, the cost of essential services on the other.
GDP and economic indicators	Detailed GDP breakdowns showing what each sector and industry contributes.
Tax system	Tax policy you set, and its effect on satisfaction, business profitability and economic activity.

A refined city scale

The model’s depth costs computation, so city populations run at roughly one-tenth of the base game — around 500,000 people. What you lose in headline numbers you gain in the simulation of individual citizens and their behavior.

Supply and demand across retail, manufacturing, farming and natural resources were recalibrated for the smaller scale, so the game plays as a balanced challenge rather than a scaled-down one.

The City Report

Open it from the Information Center. It is organized into the pages below, each covering one aspect of the city’s performance.

City Graphs 1

The first page of city graphs, charting population, migration and supply indexes

Graph	What it shows
City population	Population over time. Growth is supported by a low unemployment rate, a high quality of living, and enough new apartments.
Annual immigrants	People moving into the city each year.
Annual emigrants	People leaving the city each year.
Housing supply and demand index	Positive means supply exceeds demand; negative means the reverse.
Office space supply and demand index	The same measure for office space.

City Graphs 2

The second page of city graphs, charting quality of living, unemployment and job openings

Graph	What it shows
Quality of living	People live better in apartments with good access to community and sports facilities, a green environment and shopping convenience — and with a higher real wage rate.
Unemployment rate	Trends lower when GDP growth is healthy and private companies are expanding and hiring.
Job openings	With plenty of openings, the city can afford to accept immigrants faster.

Economic Graphs

The economic graphs page, charting GDP, wages and inflation

Graph	What it shows
GDP growth	Driven by consumer spending, private investment, government spending and net exports.
Total GDP	The sum of those same four components.
GDP per capita	Total GDP divided by population — roughly, the value of goods produced per person.
Wage rate	A rising rate means people are earning more.
Inflation rate	Affected by the unemployment rate (the unemployed spend less) and by money supply and demand (a higher money supply promotes spending).
Purchasing power	Shown instead of inflation when Inverse Inflation is enabled. It is what a unit of currency buys — inflation erodes it.

Income Statement

The income statement of the city government.

The city government's income statement

Balance Sheet

The balance sheet of the city government.

The city government's balance sheet

GDP Component Graphs

GDP is the sum of four components, each charted separately:

Consumption — the value of goods and services bought by people.
Investment — total investment by businesses.
Government spending — total spending by the city government.
Net exports — exports less imports.

Graphs of the four GDP components over time

How to Increase GDP Growth

GDP Details

The dollar amounts behind each component of GDP.

The GDP details page, listing the dollar amount of each component

Mayor

The city’s mayoral history, past election results, and the status of the next election if one falls this year.

The mayoral history page, listing past mayors and election results

City Policies

The city policies page, where tax rates, benefits and immigration limits are set

Policy	What it does
Consumer tax rate	Charged whenever consumers spend: tax = product price × consumer tax rate. Set it too high and consumer spending declines, which in turn hurts the business sector.
Individual income tax rate	Too high a rate depresses consumer spending, and the Jobs and Income category of the Quality of Life index falls with it.
Corporate profit tax rate	A high rate brings the city greater tax revenue; a low rate attracts business investment.
Unemployment benefits pay rate	Benefits as a percentage of the reference salary.
Annual limit on immigrants	Cities tighten immigration when there are not enough jobs for newcomers, or when public facilities cannot keep up with the population.

Industries

The city’s competitiveness across industries.

Column	What it tells you
City competitiveness rating	The higher it is, the more people are employed in that local industry. A weak rating forces the city to import large volumes, which costs manufacturing jobs.
Global competitiveness rating	The benchmark. Once the city’s rating exceeds it, the city can export to the world market.
Volume of export	Exports begin only above the global rating, and strong exports improve city employment significantly.

Learn More about City Competitiveness Ratings

Quality of Life

Each element below carries a distinct weight, shown in the Weight column.

The Quality of Life page, listing each contributing element and its weight

Element	What determines the rating
Housing and community facilities	The city’s housing supply and the average Overall Rating of existing apartments.
Jobs and income	The wage level, the unemployment rate and the individual income tax rate.
Education	The Overall Satisfaction ratings of schools and universities (on the Public Facilities page) and the education levels of citizens (in a school’s or university’s detail window).
Health	The Overall Satisfaction ratings of the city’s hospitals.
Social security	The average unemployment benefits pay rate, as a percentage of the reference salary, over the past three years.
Safety	The Overall Satisfaction ratings of police stations and fire stations.
Food availability at retail	The variety and supply of food on sale.
Products availability at retail	The variety and supply of consumer products on sale.
Environment	The city’s pollution level — select Pollution mode on the minimap to see it.
Sports	The Overall Satisfaction ratings of the city’s sports facilities.

Public Facilities

Every public facility owned and operated by the city government.

The Public Facilities page, listing the city government's facilities

Rankings

How this city ranks against the others across various performance categories.

The Rankings page, comparing the city against others by category

Bonds

The city government can raise financing by issuing bonds.

The Bonds page, where the city government issues bonds to raise finance