Worldbuilding: Thinking About the Population

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The other day, I was thinking about worldbuilding. Obviously it’s incredibly important part of planning a book. All sorts of things go into great worldbuilding; planning the layout of towns, the transport, the facilities, and the climate to name just a few. Whether a book is set in the real world or in a fantasy one, worldbuilding is of great importance. But it occurred me that there is one area people don’t tend to address much when they’re planning their worlds. And that is the racial composition of the population.

Don’t run away on me just yet. I’m not here to rant about how there isn’t enough racial diversity in books and we should all be adding characters from different ethnic groups into our stories because they’re underrepresented in fiction. Other people have done that far more effectively than I could. What I want to draw attention to is the fact that most towns in books, at least in the books I’ve read, are mostly composed from a single ethnic group. Many towns in the real world don’t work this way. In fact, many places are surprisingly racially diverse.

For example, take the city of Birmingham in England. It’s English, so you might automatically think that it would be populated by stereotypical Englishmen called William or John. But in actual fact, it has quite a high population of Indian and Pakistani people. If you were to set a story there, it would be very realistic have an Indian family running the corner shop. Here in Australia, my dad works in a poorer neighbourhood with a lot of immigrants and indigenous people. So there are a lot of Pacific Islanders and families from the Middle East in that area. Not what you would automatically think of when considering an Australian town.

When worldbuilding for a story set in the real world, even if the location is fake, it can be helpful to think about the sort of place it is and what sort of people would live there. Is it a rich neighbourhood? If so, it’s likely to be predominantly made up of people from the native culture. Is it a poorer area, with a housing estate maybe? Then it’s likely you’re going to have a lot of immigrants looking for a cheap place to live. Considering what the population is like when worldbuilding can give your story world a boost in realism. It can be such a small thing, but it makes all the difference to how real your world feels.

In fantasy books too, it’s helpful to consider the different races or nationalities while worldbuilding. Border towns are likely to have more people from neighbour countries living there. And the density of fantasy races in an area will vary too. If you have dwarves in your book, towns near mountains or quarries might have a greater population of them than those near the coasts for example. But it’s not likely that the towns will have an even distribution of the different fantasy races. It’s a small detail that is often overlooked but it can make for a much richer, more realistic story world. And isn’t that what every writer wants?

This is not to say that you should force a lot of characters of different nationalities into your books just for the sake of diversity. Some characters are naturally going to live in places composed mainly of people from a single culture. But thinking about who would actually live in a town like theirs can have a big effect on the realism of your story world. It’s a little detail, but it can make all the difference.

What do you think about racially diverse populations in books? Do you think that this is something that gets overlooked in worldbuilding? Do you think it’s important to consider this when planning your world? Why or why not?

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Imogen is a fantasy loving wordaholic with a passion for reading, writing, and consuming large amounts of tea. When she's not blogging, she can be found somewhere in Australia beside a massive pile of books.

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14 comments

  1. Kat9 February 2015 at 14:04

    You're right! I'm planning at the moment a book where the character goes to another world. I didn't think about all these small points. I didn't think about this. Great tips! I'm excited to get back to planning now:)

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    1. Kat9 February 2015 at 14:05

      P.S I think the area where your dad works sounds like a great place to set a story. Very interesting

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    2. Unknown10 February 2015 at 13:36

      There are so many things to think about when you're worldbuilding, aren't there? Every time I go back into my books, I find more areas I can flesh out. Good luck with planning your book!

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  2. Abigail Lennah9 February 2015 at 14:24

    World building is something that I definitely need to be working on. You're right that certain ethnicity groups, though they may be in a different country, can be condensed into one place. There's this one place in town: it's the most ethnically diverse neighborhood out of all of the United States. There are people who have moved in from different countries that live in this neighborhood. I've only been to it once, but... it's pretty bad. I need to think more about this! :)

    xoxo Morning

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    1. Unknown10 February 2015 at 13:43

      Those neighbourhoods where there are loads of different ethnic groups are really interesting, aren't they? I think that they would be amazing places to set stories. They would just be so rich with different cultures, customs, people, names and all that stuff. It's certainly interesting to think about. Thanks for stopping by!

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  3. Charlie9 February 2015 at 18:23

    This blog is looking so professional! You're doing a fantastic job - I always love seeing new posts from you :)

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    1. Unknown10 February 2015 at 13:44

      Thanks Charlie! I'm so glad you enjoy my blog.

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  4. Ashana Lian10 February 2015 at 03:57

    "But in actual fact, it has quite a high population of Indian and Pakistani people."

    This is true! How do you know this..? =D I live in London, but my Dad is in Birmingham at the mo so I've been there to visit him. I think it is very important for a richer story, and it is often overlooked. T then again maybe those books are trying to represent a place where everybody is (mostly) of the same ethnic background. Maybe. It is bizarre. My latest story is inspired by Indian culture, but using what i know to build a world from the ground up is challenging. Some of what I know about the country is probably stereotypes I picked up from TV or whatever. And thinking about all the little things you mentioned, food, weather, transport, the mindset of the actual people... I also want to mix that with fantasy element like I do for my other stories, but it's hard to know the right way to do it.

    "This is not to say that you should force a lot of characters of different nationalities into your books just for the sake of diversity."
    -sigh- Thank you for saying that. Damn. Some people just go overboard.

    Oooh I may need to pick your brains one day. I have a superhero story partly-set in Australia (or as least, that's what I'm hoping for) but first I need to learn a lot more about Australia as a whole! But anyhoo let me not get excited. One story at a time!!!

    Brilliant post. Do more of these! c:

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    1. Unknown10 February 2015 at 14:06

      I'm actually really glad that that fact is still true. My dad is from Birmingham, and my mum lived there for a while, and my dad talks sometimes about Birmingham and the people who live there. When I was planning this post, I instantly thought about using Birmingham as an example. It's just such an interesting sounding place.

      It can be hard to make sure the culture you're inspired by is portrayed correctly. If you're using it as an inspiration only, I think you have a bit more leeway, which is good thankfully. And some cultures have such interesting customs and mindsets, they're really great to use for inspiration.

      I felt it was important to say that, because so many people are saying that there should be more diversity in books, and it can get to feel forced. If you're going to add diversity, it has to fit the world and feel natural and be part of the book rather than feeling like it's there just because.

      Thanks Ashana! I was actually a bit nervous about this post because it's different to what I normally do, but I would love to write more like this in the future.

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  5. Unknown10 February 2015 at 07:43

    Wow, I'm really glad I stumbled upon this today. I'm currently planning a novel, and I've been thinking about the different settings population wise. This has been really helpful, thanks!

    P.S. Your blog design is gorgeous!

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    1. Unknown10 February 2015 at 14:12

      I'm so glad that you found this helpful. Good luck with your novel. It sounds like you're asking all the right questions in your planning.

      Thank you!

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  6. Anonymous10 February 2015 at 08:09

    Racial diversity in the population of a story world is such an important thing to consider, but one that I don't think I've really considered much before in my fantasy and sci-fi worlds. I'm plotting an epic fantasy right now, so I think this strategy will be useful for my story. Seraphina by Rachel Hartman is a book that I think deals with a racially diverse world very well. There are so many creatures that all mingle and live in the same areas, which made the story more interesting and added depth to the world.

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    1. Unknown10 February 2015 at 14:20

      Honestly, I haven't thought a lot about that in my fantasy worlds before. It's something I'm working on now, but it's so easy to overlook this, isn't it? I haven't read Seraphina before, but I should look it up. I love worlds with many different kinds of creatures. They're so interesting.

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  7. Heather10 February 2015 at 17:26

    Oooh, I love this because you're definitely right, but it also makes me think of statistics, because you know what? You always have outliers to your statistics, but your statistics are statistics for a reason and statistics are made of numbers and numbers make the world go 'round and these means I CAN PUT MATH IN WORLDBUILDING! Hahahahaha. Probably not your main point, but I love it anyway. :)

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