[Theory] What is the population of the world?

[twillight]

This question started to bug me oh-so-sudden after watching most of the seasons, as it is in real life a trivia, a no-problem issue, so it took time to notice this anomaly.

Have you ever wondered either in the games, the anime or the manga when you go to the local professor to get your starter, there are always 1 fire, 1 grass and 1 water type to choose from exactly?

Now take the next step with Gary MTF Oak and other examples. Assume there are two children to choose their starter. Does each of them get the chance to choose any of the three types? Can both for example take bulbasaurs?
The answer is NO!
The second-to-choose is stuck with only 2 choices!

Start to get suspicious?
You should be!
Because how come the case of Ash do not occur more often?

Now, when does a kid get a starter?
It is a little wishy-washy here, as there are two options:
- the novelization of season 1 tells in a certain day of april after the kid entered his/her 10th age.
- on their 10th birthday.

Both have troubling consequences.

If the first option is true, that means per region only 3 child per year borns, and that's the maximum! Many times we see only 1 or 2 child at the professors to choose their starter.
But let's be generous, and assume 3 per year. Let's say life-expectancy is like in real life for humans, aka. 60 years.
That means any region's maximum population can be 60*3 = 180!

Of course this cannot be true, so let's try reverse. The highest known population of a region (Unova) is 949.
Still assuming 3 child per year that can show how long a poke-human lives in average: 949/3 = 317 years!

-----

If the second option is true, we have another kind of problem, but let's do the previous math, with the assumption a poke-year equals a real-life year, aka. 365 days. That'd mean in one year even with 1 child a week we get 52 child per year,and 52*60 = 3120 population. If pokeworld is a dangerous place, and people live only 30 years as average the expected population would still be 1560, which is way above the minimum population known which is Kanto's 375 average.
Where did the population go? To the Great Pokemon War?
Sad fact is, for a population to exist without facing extinction on the long run is 500, so a less-than 400 population is problematic.

But maybe we have the answer how people keep going.
You know with a normal population birth don't spread equally in a year. There are peaks of giving birth, and random factors and whatnot. So sooner or later you'll end up with 10 year old kids lining up at their birthday at the local professor in numbers. 4-5-10 kids will be there instead of the prescribed maximum of 3.
How can it be this never happens (except for Ash)?

The answer can be related to all the Joys, Jennys, Don Georges and so on: they are using clone-technology! That's why we never see pregnant women, or even hospitals. Hospitals of pokemon would be too troubling with all the cloning-tanks growing little Giovannis in 'em

!

 

[Simon Science]

I may hold the awnser, as i have thout of this topic before. Fact is, not all trainers get the standard water/fire/grass starter. When you battle trainers in the pokemon world, how many have those 3 starters? a very little amount acctually. While it is possible they arent using the starters and they just left them in the PC, you would think some people would use these extremley rare pokemon. Not to mention we see very young people like kindergardners and preschoolers that have pokemon, who are definetley more young than 10 years old. To be selected by the proffessor of a reigeion means to be officially working for the proffesor to complete the pokedex, and is not the only way to become a trainer. The most solid proof of this is wally. He has never consulted Prof.Birch and goes to ask a gym leader to get his starter pokemon.

This theory is still interesting. We can still get the ash situation if more than 3 people desire to work for the proffesor, and the question of population is interesting. How many people acctually have pokemon (yes some people dont have any), what is the male/female ratio of humans? How mutch of the population is part of a "team"? How many people vegetate endlessly indoors, starve eternally in a forest/mountain/...underwater!?!? Or stand forever in a gym waiting for challengers? The pokemon world is weird.

 

[Brendino]

It's an interesting idea, but don't forget that in the anime and Friend Safari in the games, there are plenty more of the Pokemon that are designated as starters that are available to catch other than the ones the Professors give out. There's also all of the day cares too, which means that a trainer could take their starter Pokemon and a Ditto (or some other compatible partner), and they could have as many of that Pokemon as they wanted.

If the starter Pokemon were as rare as they were made to seem in the early games, then there might only be a couple hundred combined. But, there are too many ways to access them in the different branches of the Pokemon universe, so while they may not exactly be common, they're probably not as hard to come by as you may think.

 

[twillight]

how many have those 3 starters?

As giving out the three traditional starters are advertised in TV, likely the majority have them. Not having a pokemon is kinda rare, an anomaly, like Dawn.Well, in a world where the only thing between you and a bunch of beedrill which can pierce 5 cm planks like paper and such, you do want pokemon.
While it is true that some inherit other kind of pokemons, or live in some tribal village specializing in local fauna (eg. Iris' dragon village) these do not seem significant.

There's also all of the day cares too

Daycares don't give away pokemons. They care for them until the owner arrives back. At least in the anmie for sure.

 

[Brendino]

There's also all of the day cares too

Daycares don't give away pokemons. They care for them until the owner arrives back. At least in the anmie for sure.

True, but many people use the day care system to breed their Pokemon, which means that they'd be able to receive starter Pokemon eggs, provided they left their own starter and a compatible Pokemon in the hands of the day care workers. Even in the anime, many people (including Brock for a long time) aspire to be Pokemon breeders, so it wouldn't be that hard to increase the population of the designated starter Pokemon with a little effort.

 

[Simon Science]

While it is true that some inherit other kind of pokemons, or live in some tribal village specializing in local fauna (eg. Iris' dragon village) these do not seem significant.

Actually, this is quite the opposite. Lets analyse this a little further: What do you need to catch pokemon? A pokeball. Where do you find those? Evrywhere. All pokemarts(who are rareley out of stock), lying on the ground in the wild, ect. Examples of this are numerous. Remember in the games when a random kid says his dad gave him a pokemon? Not a professor. Hugh, the B2W2 rival raised his partner from an egg, and was not given by a professor. Even the anime can point to this: Im sure there are MULTIPLE examples of people NOT getting there pokemon from a professor. Not to mention there is a big crack in your logic, what tells us that there are only three kids per year to get pokedexes and only one professor? Maybe its once evry week! once evry day! We CANNOT get a population growth scale of the pokemon world using a isolated event as three kids getting pokemon for their 10th aniversary.

I know that the anime says that all kids that reach 10 years old get starters, but this just dose NOT apply to all people in the pokeverse. The games and anime for that matter have ample supply of kids that are for sure under ten years old that OWN and BATTLE with pokemon, pretty mutch irrefutable proof that not all pokemon trainers get the fire-water-grass trio at their 10th birthday.

 

[twillight]

Actually, this is quite the opposite. Lets analyse this a little further: What do you need to catch pokemon? A pokeball. Where do you find those? Evrywhere. All pokemarts(who are rareley out of stock), lying on the ground in the wild, ect. Examples of this are numerous. Remember in the games when a random kid says his dad gave him a pokemon? Not a professor. Hugh, the B2W2 rival raised his partner from an egg, and was not given by a professor. Even the anime can point to this: Im sure there are MULTIPLE examples of people NOT getting there pokemon from a professor. Not to mention there is a big crack in your logic, what tells us that there are only three kids per year to get pokedexes and only one professor? Maybe its once evry week! once evry day! We CANNOT get a population growth scale of the pokemon world using a isolated event as three kids getting pokemon for their 10th aniversary.

I know that the anime says that all kids that reach 10 years old get starters, but this just dose NOT apply to all people in the pokeverse. The games and anime for that matter have ample supply of kids that are for sure under ten years old that OWN and BATTLE with pokemon, pretty mutch irrefutable proof that not all pokemon trainers get the fire-water-grass trio at their 10th birthday.

1) I recognised some people inherit pokemons, and not gain a standard starter. Examples in the anime is James and other upper-class citizens, or that kid in "Bullying the bully" (which explains how under-10 kids can "have" pokemons). Still seem they being minority.

2) to catch a pokemon you need not just a pokeball, but also a pokemon. That's why starters are such crucial.

3) there is no "hugh hole in my logic", as in the novelization of the original anime-series it is clearly told, you can get your starter from the regional prof at April of the year following your birthday, and not any other day!

4) the theory is based on the official population-numbers as well as the "3 kid, 3 starter" part, thank you very much.