How to raise your standard of living in Victoria 3

Victoria 3 is a strategy game developed by Paradox Development Studio that sees players manage the often conflicting interest of their given society and strive to help develop their population. In Victoria 3, players are able to rise their populations from middling peasants to affluence through three distinct tiers.

Standard of living is an in-game measurement of the population’s ability to survive and thrive in society. Maintaining a high standard of living is key not only in staving off a possible revolution but also increasing the population’s social mobility. The simplest way to increase the standard of living is to grow your population’s wealth.

All populations have a set of needs that the population will spend their wages on. After fulfilling their needs, all leftover money will help add to the population’s level of wealth. There are three basic categories of occupation and wealth in Victoria 3, determining how much the population will be paid, including the lower strata, middle strata, and upper strata.

The strata to which the population belongs will set their expected standard of living, meaning that the cost of living will increase as the population brings in more wealth. If the standard of living falls below the expected baseline, populations are more likely to become unhappy, increase turmoil and radicalism, and eventually revolt. To ensure that the population can afford their needs with enough left over to increase wealth, there are two major strategies to do so.

How to raise wages in Victoria 3

The most efficient means of raising your population standard of living in Victoria 3 is to raise wages. To do this, players must make sure that their buildings which employ the population are profitable and have a positive balance.

Maintaining a competitive workforce will ensure that wages will remain high, which can be achieved by diversifying your industries and raising wages across all occupations. Proper supply lines are also a major factor in developing a high standard of living, as these will e the goods available for your population to purchase. The better the supply line, the less populations will need to spend.

How to increase welfare spending in Victoria 3

Another means of raising your population’s standard of living is to enact welfare spending. Enacted through your laws, welfare payments are given to segments of the population who fall under the normal wage, determined by averaging the wages of everyone in the country.

Players are able to increase their welfare spending by leveling up the country’s social security institution. Higher welfare will make the threshold for receiving welfare payments lower, granting more members of the population access to welfare.