How Many People Live in the Silo 18? Numbers Revealed

Apple TV’s ‘Silo‘ is slowly becoming the best post-apocalyptic series released this year. The show is based on a series of books written by Hugh Howie, and even though the books do a good job at describing both the atmosphere and the ambiance, a picture is worth a thousand words, and the show really managed to bring Silo “to life.” Having said that, fans of the show have endless questions regarding Silo 18 itself, and due to that, we’ve decided to see how many people live in Silo 18? 

Silo 18 currently houses around 10,000 people spread across 144 floors. The number was confirmed in the third episode of the show when Bernard, the head of IT, told the mayor that she is responsible for 10 000 lives. The population of the Silo can vary, but not by much, considering that the population is highly controlled. 

Now that we’ve covered the current population of Silo 18, it’s time to analyze the details. If you’re interested in more, stay with us and keep reading!

Silo 18 packs a lot of people over 144 floors 

Silo 18 has 144 floors (or 148 if you’re a book purist). The top of the Silo encompasses Levels 1-48; this area is called “Upper Levels” and houses important offices, nurseries, IT, some farms, temples, and the sheriff’s office, among other amenities. The midsection of the Silo encompasses floors 49-96, and this part is appropriately called “the mids.” The lower levels are generally considered the most unsightly and house the engineers, such as Juliette as well as the main generator that provides the electricity for the whole Silo. 

We know that floor 144 is not the final floor, as Juliette and George had discovered the digging machine left by the “founders,” There is an area that goes well beyond the charted floors. 

If you’re interested in more detailed floor descriptions, a Reddit user created a comprehensive guide through Silo 18 as well as its floors. 

We don’t know what all floor designations are, but according to the quotes made in the books, most of the apartments and the population are housed at the upper and mid-levels. 

Currently, Silo 18 is home to roughly 10 000 people. 

The population of Silo has to be managed carefully 

We’ve seen both in the source material and the series that Silo has everything to support the population. It has energy provided by the gargantuan generator. It has clean flowing water. It has plenty of farm spaces that take care of the population’s needs. However, it’s clear that the Silo can’t really afford for its population to jump significantly, and couples are carefully vetted before they get the opportunity to procreate and create a child.

We’ve seen in the show’s first episode that Holston and Allison were given a third opportunity to have a child. All women are required to have birth control implanted, and the birth control is taken out ONLY if the couple has been approved to have children. 

We’ve also seen that there are plenty of ways to manipulate this process, as well as Allison’s doctor faking getting out her birth control as Silo’s rulers never wanted her to have children in the first place, and this is one thing in a row of many things that motivated Allison to seek the truth. 

The population inside the Silo has to be carefully monitored because a sudden surge in new birth would lead to a depletion of almost all resources, and a sudden fall in births would lead to a, well, extinction.