1QUESTION 1 OF 3
Answer & explanation
The official answer, with Fermi’s reasoning step by step.
Answer & explanation
Official answer
750,000,000
people
How to estimate it
Fermi’s official “Napkin math”
The easiest place to start is Italy, France, Spain and England, about 60 million each, plus Turkey and Egypt at about 100 million apiece. How many more live across the Balkans, the Middle East and North Africa? Maybe 250 million.
- Italy, France, Spain, England
- 4 × 60,000,000
- Turkey and Egypt
- + 200,000,000
- Balkans, Middle East, North Africa
- + 250,000,000
- 240M + 200M + 250M
- ≈ 690,000,000
Rounded assumptions may give a slightly different estimate. The official answer above is the game’s reference value.
Source calculation & reference
- Europe inside the 117 AD line (England and Wales, the Rhineland, the Balkans and more)
- ≈ 364,000,000
- Turkey, the Middle East and the Caucasus
- + 199,000,000
- Egypt and the North African coast
- + 185,000,000
- 364M + 199M + 185M, rounded
- ≈ 750,000,000
Reference cited by Fermi: World Bank population estimates for 2024, split along the empire's 117 AD borders with national census and statistics office figures.
How close was your guess?
Your comparison will appear here.
Compare by ratio: divide the larger number by the smaller one. The closer to 1×, the better.