One of the first things I did when I started thinking about Albion was to create a spreadsheet that laid out population numbers. These numbers are somewhat flexible, of course.
About 250,000 people.
I based this number, for the curious, on the Jewish population in the 1920s, on the theory that this was a self-sustaining community who supplied many of their own practical needs like food and goods within their own community. Far more people in Albion are involved in agricultural work, proportionately, though.
The largest magical communities are Trellech (20-25,000 people depending on the season) and London (about 15,000 people, clustered around the portals in Bedford Square, Southwark, and Spitalfields). Schola and the other Five Schools all have associated villages and communities.
The rest are a mix of magical blocks or streets (in most of the major cities of Great Britain), magical towns, villages, and individual magical households and farms scattered through the landscape.
Magical folk do live somewhat longer (and have a somewhat longer period of fertility) on average - living to 120 isn't unheard of. Many people are reasonably active into their 70s, with a decline in health and energy after that point.
• Children (up to age 12): 38,000
• 13 to 23 (school and apprenticeship): 38,000
• Working age: 163,000
• Elderly (over 80): 12,000
The United Kingdom in this period is still predominantly white, especially in the countryside, but in the magical community there has been a reasonable amount of immigration from other cultures and backgrounds at various points. Some of the more common groups involve North Africa (particularly but not just Egypt), India, the Near East (as it was at the time), and of course various other parts of the wide-reaching British Empire.
Check out the
diverse character backgrounds section for current characters of particular backgrounds. (I do not keep demographic stats on this, but I do my best to have a wide representation in both major and minor characters as possible for the specific story.)
Of those 163,000 working age folks in Albion,
• 40,000 are involved directly in farming and food production
• 25,000 in childcare and household management
• 15,000 in small businesses
• 8,000 in fishing and coastal food production
• 8,000 in service in households in various ways
There are about 400 Great Families (the aristocratic families) with about 150 of those being
Lords or Ladies of the land.
At the low end in terms of numbers are magical specialists - there are about 25 Portal Keepers at any given time, up to about 200 Ritual specialists who handle ongoing ritual magic needs (many of which need to be renewed or maintained on a regular basis.)
