Judge

Development

When the series Judge Dredd was being developed in 1976–77 it was originally planned that the story would be set in New York, in the near future. However, when artist Carlos Ezquerra drew his first story for the series, a skyscraper in the background of one panel looked so futuristic that editor Pat Mills asked him to draw a full-page poster of the city. Ezquerra's vision of the city – with massive tower blocks and endless roads suspended vast distances above the ground with no visible means of support – was so futuristic that it prompted a rethink, and a whole new city was proposed. Art director Doug Church suggested that the city should extend along the entire Eastern Seaboard, and be called Mega-City One, and his idea was adopted.

While the first Judge Dredd story is set in "New York 2099AD", prog 3 ("prog" = issue) retconned that and said New York was just part of Mega-City One. The back of prog 3 included an Ezquerra "Futuregraph" poster of Mega-City One (a page from an unused Dredd story), which said the city stretched from Montreal to Georgia and had 150 million citizens; it was part of the "United States of the West" (USW). Prog 4 then established that Mega-City One was surrounded by wildernesses from the Atomic Wars. The 150 million population was later revised to 100 million in earlier strips and abruptly bumped to 800 million later on. The United States of the West concept was dropped entirely; a "United Cities of North America" of three megacities was mentioned in prog 42 and then itself dropped in favour of Mega-City One being an independent entity.

In early strips, the Judges existed alongside a regular police force, were popular with the citizens, and the people enjoyed robots doing the work, with the "Grand Judge" saying they would not consent to work more than ten hours a week. Over time, the strip would have the Judges as a feared police-state force with sole power; prog 118 (written when unemployment was going up in Britain) established that citizens resented being unemployed and took up bizarre crazes to deal with the boredom, and this remained part of the strip from then on.

Description

Mega-City One evolved out of a growing conurbation stretching from Boston to Washington DC, which took form in the 21st century to cope with the escalating population crisis in the United States and – as a solution chosen to deal with the high crime rate – led to the introduction of the Judge system.

Mega-City One was one of three major areas to survive the nuclear war in 2070, due to an experimental laser missile-defense system built not long before. The other two being Mega-City Two (encompassing California, Washington and Oregon) and Texas City. Apart from those megacities, the United States has been reduced to the Cursed Earth.

Eventually, Mega-City One extended to Miami, Florida, which became a holiday resort, and spread west into Ohio and/or West Virginia. The megacity was built over the top of the old cities and the polluted Ohio River, creating the lawless Undercity, though a few buildings like the Empire State Building and Statue of Liberty were moved to Mega-City One for the tourists. Maps of the city show that in the early 22nd century, it stretched roughly from southern Maine down through Florida and to the north-east has absorbed the Quebec City-Windsor Corridor in Canada. 800 million citizens lived in the city at this point.

The population and city sprawl were halved by nuclear attack and Soviet invasion in 2104 (in the 1982 story "The Apocalypse War"), with the loss of the entire south in a saturation nuclear strike. The north-west and upper north were also lost, leaving the city stretching from roughly New Hampshire through North Carolina and losing the Canadian territory. A small part of the north west survived: the North West Hab Zone, separated from the rest of the city by a stretch of radioactive wasteland called Nuke Alley and linked to the main city by a bridge. The population remained at around 400 million from 2104 until 2134.

Mega-City One has a far greater population density than any city in the present-day world. Most city dwellers (citizens) live in huge apartment blocks (50,000+), though many citizens live a perpetually nomadic existence in vehicular mo-pads (mobile homes) due to inadequate housing provisions. These citizens travel the city via the many public transport routes available, rarely stopping. Some mo-pads are quite luxurious, complete with swimming pools.

Other territories

Mega-City One has protectorates and colonies outside of the city walls:

Mega-City One held joint jurisdiction over Atlantis, an underwater city located mid way across the Atlantic along with Brit Cit until 2143 when it was destroyed by a mafia hit squad during a failed hit, killing most of its population.

Various colonies on other planets and on moons, used as both settings and background detail in Dredd and its spin-off strips. Law and the city's central government are enforced by Colonial-Marshal Judges; indigenous aliens and MC-1 colonialists are often oppressed and some cause insurgencies. Military forces are often mentioned as being space based (see Military). The spin-off strip Insurrection showed that the Special Judicial Service have an outer-space army to deal with any colonies where the judicial staff declare independence. The main push into space began roughly in 2095, under Chief Judge Goodman, as a way of supplying the city with resources that a post-war Earth could no longer provide. The most famous colony is the penal colony on Titan, where corrupt Judges are sent.

Various farms, mines, prisons, and protectorate townships in the Cursed Earth. The Cursed Earth Auxiliaries patrol the area for the Justice Department. The city used to have mutant camps, where mutants born in the city were deported, but these were ended after the repeal of the mutant apartheid laws.

Townships One through Four: since 2130, the bulk of mutant citizens live in large towns outside of the city. Law enforcement is mostly done by mutant deputies, and unlike the city they still use the jury trial system (unless a judge demands otherwise).

City Blocks

Blocks are huge and can be considered to be a small town in themselves. Each one will typically possess a hospital, gymnasium, school, and shopping district. A citizen can quite literally live their whole lives without leaving their block. Due to the high unemployment rate, boredom is rife among citizens – this, coupled with the high loyalty citizens develop to their blocks, along with a city-defence militia for most city blocks, leads to many "Block Wars", riots (more like small wars) between two or more blocks.

Blocks are named after famous or historical figures, often with current events in mind. A typical example – shortly after the Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise separation there was an episode with block war breaking out between the "Kidman" and "Cruise" Blocks. A proposed crackdown on civil rights in Britain led to a block being named David Blunkett Block in one story.

Government

Since the abolition of democratic government in America in 2070, Mega-City One has been a dictatorship run by the Justice Department. It subsequently became an independent city-state following the break-up of the United States and had already been granted autonomy within the Union in 2052. Its ruler is the Chief Judge, in current stories (as of October 2025) Judge Logan. He is accountable to a council of five senior judges. The citizens are permitted to have an elected city council and mayor, but with no significant power: the idea is that a facade of democracy will placate most people.

In 2113 a referendum was held in which the people were allowed to decide whether to restore democratic government, but by this time the memory of democracy had become so distant that the majority of citizens did not bother to vote, and most of those who did opted to retain the status quo.

In the early years of Judge Dredd, Mega-City One had not been established as a dictatorship – "The Purple People Breeder" (2000 AD Sci-Fi Special 1978) mentioned "presidential candidate Howard Surb", while "Ryan's Revenge" (Dan Dare Annual 1979) had the Mayor giving orders to Justice Department. The Luna-One story arc briefly mentioned the governing body "the Grand Council of Judges" and "the Triumvirate", part of a unified state called the United Cities of North America, but this was dropped by prog 61.

List of chief judges

Judge Fargo (2031–2051)

Judge Solomon (2051–2057)

Judge Goodman (2057–2101)

Judge Cal (2101)

Judge Griffin (2101–2104)

Judge McGruder (2104–2108)

Judge Silver (2108–2112)

Judge McGruder (2112–2116)

Judge Greel (acting chief judge, 2116)

Judge Volt (2116–2121)

Judge Hershey (2122–2131)

Judge Francisco (2131)

Judge Sinfield (acting chief judge, 2131–2132) (usurper)

Judge Francisco (2132–2134)

Judge Hershey (2134–2141)

Judge Logan (2141–incumbent)

List of mayors

(This is not a complete list of mayors, but only of those who appeared in the comic.)

Mayor Amalfi

Mayor Jim Grubb

Mayor Dave the Orangutan, an actual orangutan who was elected as a mass protest vote against incompetent politicians.

Mayor Lindberg

Mayor Katz

Mayor Donald Byron Ambrose, actually serial killer PJ Maybe in disguise (having murdered the real Ambrose – and Katz – before the election)

Mayor Tony Blore

Mayor Denny Oneman

The identity of the current mayor is not known (as of May 2024).

A story in 2000 AD #32 featured a cameo role by a character referred to as "City Father Washington," whose status and role in the city's history has not been elaborated on.

Judges

Judges are the product of many (normally 15) years' of training and psychological conditioning. Training takes place in the Academy of Law and generally begins at age five. The Judges recruit promising children, and also grow clones of themselves.

Their standard issue firearm is the Lawgiver handgun, which can fire six different kinds of ammunition. It has a handprint-reading sensor which only allows its owner to use it, and a self-destruct device to kill or maim unauthorised users. Judges ride Lawmaster bikes, which are heavily armed and have artificial intelligence.

The Judges themselves are not above the law. A violation that would earn a citizen a few months in an Iso[lation]-Cube may earn a Judge a twenty-year sentence of hard labour on Saturn's moon, Titan, after surgical modification to enable the convict to survive Titan's atmosphere. They are also expected to live in celibacy, to avoid personal attachments that might bias them or make them vulnerable to manipulation and blackmail.

New graduates from the Academy of Law are classified as "rookie" Judges, and must pass an assessment by their more experienced colleagues in order to achieve full Judge status. Rookies who fail this assessment, as well as cadets who fail at the Academy, may be hired to fill auxiliary roles within the Justice Department or may leave the organization altogether.

The Justice Department has its own domestic intelligence division (the Public Surveillance Unit), and their own medical facilities. There are a number of specialist divisions within the Judges, notably Psi Division, which consists of psychic judges used to predict the future and read minds, and Tek Division, made of forensic scientists and engineers. The SJS (Special Judicial Squad) monitors and polices the Judges internally.

Judges may be assigned to a particular city block; referred to as "Block Judges," they handle both criminal and civil cases within their territory.

When a street judge retires from service at the end of his career, he may choose to take the "Long Walk", leaving Mega-City One for exile outside its borders. He may do this either in the Cursed Earth, a radioactive desert outside the city walls, or in the Undercity, the ruins of New York that lie beneath the mega-city. The Long Walk begins with a brief ceremony at the city gates, wherein the retiring judge walks through an honour guard of judges as they discharge their firearms into the air, while another judge formally bids him farewell. Judges who take the Long Walk are expected never to return, but to die "bringing law to the lawless." Alternatively, retiring judges may instead be placed in administrative or teaching posts instead of taking the Long Walk.

Origin

The Judge System was created by Eustace Fargo, then special government prosecutor for street crime, between 2027 and 2031, to combat a rising tide of violent crime and to speed up the process of justice. While there was heavy protest in Congress over the idea of abandoning due process, the electorate was in favour and President Gurney (who supported Fargo's plan) was re-elected with a massive majority. The original uniforms heavily resembled those of normal American police officers, albeit with helmets and heavy body armour, and rode Lawranger motorcycles. Following the Third World War of 2070 and discovering that President Booth had stolen the election, the Judges seized power.

Civilian population

The citizens are shown to be a mixed bag. 98% are unemployed (due to advances in robotics) and range from lazy and sloth-like to highly rebellious violent criminals, bent on destroying and killing as much as they can for whatever reason they can think of at that time, if any. Most of the Judges show a lack of empathy towards them. For example, in his Christmas message, Chief Judge Francisco asked citizens if a large number that were on welfare could commit suicide in order to help balance the budget for the following year. Some Judges openly view citizens as a nuisance to be removed, or like Judge Manners, as a sub-human race to be used and abused as the Judges see fit.

The citizens occupy their time with many strange and outright bizarre hobbies, such as simping (recreational stupidity), bat gliding, sky surfing and peeping (spying on people at home and in public), which is illegal when done for voyeuristic purposes, but legal when done under the authority of a Judge. If any of these ever get out of hand, and if there is no legal justification for banning, Judges simply impose a heavy tax on them, restricting them to only the few very wealthy citizens.

Most are poorly educated and many can barely read or write, some sectors are said to be entirely illiterate, but Judges aren't that concerned, as it makes it easier for them to control and they can weed out the more intelligent simply when major crimes occur. Those that can read though are not much better, for example, when a book that detailed how to commit suicide was released, thousands of previously non-suicidal citizens (including the book's author) killed themselves since they had read how to do it in the book. At one point in some of the more dangerous blocks, Judges put sedatives into the air systems to help keep the citizens docile and easier to control.

Some show huge promise, intelligence, and have extremely useful skills, many top scientists and engineers are not Judges. Most of the city's biggest advancements in areas such as food, new materials, technology (unrelated to weaponry), medicine and architecture and construction design (including the Halls of Justice) came from ordinary citizens. All the major businesses and entertainment (apart from Justice Department propaganda channels) figures are citizens as are a lot of the city's diplomats, but they always report to a Judge before making any decisions. Not all valued skills are the same as the real world ones, examples of this are human taxidermy and professional gluttony. Most of the highly intelligent citizens end up in crime such as PJ Maybe, and Nero Narcos, as they are very limited in the wealth or power they can attain (the amount of real power a citizen can gain though is very limited) legally.

Law

Mega-City One's laws are harsh, with many crimes not found in present-day law. Possession of sugar, for example, is illegal, as is the smoking of tobacco outside of licensed Smokatoriums, and coffee is banned as an illegal stimulant. The laws are enforced by the Judges, who are a combination of a judge and police officer. Ordinary laws are enforced more harshly than the present day, as a political choice to deal with the high crime rate. Most ordinary citizens are sent to the Iso-Cubes, tiny cells located within huge prisons. For example, one strip saw a citizen sentenced to a month in the iso-cubes for littering, while in another story a citizen was given 6 months for jaywalking. Judges impose immediate sentences on the spot, usually lengthy sentences of imprisonment (or "encubement"). In extreme cases, even the death penalty may be imposed, although relatively sparingly compared with the present day, and reserved for mass murder or the endangerment of the security of the city, but sometimes it is used simply to make an example or to intimidate the citizens. Nevertheless, many criminals are shot to death while resisting arrest, and resistors who survive Judge assault often receive a whole-life cube term.

The Judges themselves are not exempt from the law; in fact they are expected to obey it more strictly than any other. A violation that would earn a citizen a few months in an Iso-Cube would get a Judge a twenty-year sentence, served as hard labor on Saturn's moon, Titan, after surgical modification to enable the convict to survive outside without needing an expensive space suit. (Titan is a moon of Saturn in reality, but was located over Jupiter in an early Dredd strip.) When Judges do make a minor mistake (anything where the citizen is alive and not in an intensive care ward) such as wrongful arrest or search, they do have to pay the citizen a compensation fee if there are no crimes to be charged with. On that basis, if they can't find any evidence for the main charge, then they will look for any minor crime or misdemeanors to charge the citizen with to get themselves off the hook.

Firearm possession is only legal with the proper firearms permit, which is very hard to obtain. The only real exception is for Citidef units, which may use heavy weapons. (Since Block Mania the security on these is extreme and they are only issued during wartime.) In spite of this, many firearms are in circulation; some are sold on the black market while others are left over from the various invasions that have occurred over the past thirty years. Some families still possess twentieth-century handguns that have been handed down through the years. These are sometimes found by crime blitzes and will usually earn culprits the same penalty as a lasblaster from their time period.

Military

The original United States Armed Forces no longer exists: the explanation in "Origins" was that Chief Judge Goodman had built up the Judges until they were a match for the United States Army, as a precaution against President Booth. When Booth was overthrown after the Atomic Wars, the remains of the US Army were routed and finally destroyed in 2071's Battle of Armageddon. (In the immediate aftermath of the war, military discipline broke down and the Judges had to kill or arrest soldiers that were preying on the citizens.)

Mega-City One's military forces are inconsistently portrayed. During crises inside the city, regular Judges or Citi-Def are almost always shown doing the fighting instead and the military is usually mentioned in outer space – "Day of Chaos" eventually explained that they're unlicensed to act against the civilian population. From "The Cursed Earth" onwards, the city's armed forces have usually been presented as a branch of the Judges ("Judge-Troopers"): stories by Gordon Rennie introduced a Defence-Div, 1990s spin-off Maelstrom had heavily armed STAR (Strategic Target Attack Retaliation) Judges to carry out targeted strikes, and the Insurrection serials give the Special Judicial Service its own space fleet and armed force to stamp out rebellions. In contrast, stories by John Wagner have presented the military as a separate group, with some members believing the Judges are too lenient. Uniforms differ depending on the story. The STAR Judges were given an origin as founded in 2108 by Commander Brand, with Brand and his original squad secretly left to die after committing an act of genocide in 2111 (this was covered up as a legitimate act of war and the STARs turned into martyrs, allowing Mega-City One to still claim the devastated planet).

The main military force mentioned is the Space Corps, composed of marines and fleets, who fight against alien races that threaten the colonies. (When originally introduced in The Corps spinoff, they were Judges from the Academy of Law but in later stories these are recruited citizens.) Another force are the Genetic Infantry: genetically engineered men, bred in a lab to be dedicated soldiers. (The story Warzone had an ex-Genetic Infantry soldier who was a primitive version of the Genetic Infantry from Rogue Trooper.) The Citi-Defs (Citizen Defence) are a reserve force composed of citizens. Each city block contains a Citi-Def force in case of crises, though usually they turn up in Dredd as rogue factions waging block wars.

In very rare, desperate and often last stand scenarios the Justice Departments auxiliaries are issued weapons and fight alongside Judges, such as in the latter stages of both the Apocalypse War and Judgement Day.

Crimes

Many crimes in Mega-City One are controlled by flamboyant mob bosses:

Blitzers: hitmen with self-destruct bombs implanted inside them which detonate if they surrender when apprehended.

Body-sharking: loaning money to people willing to put a loved one into cryonic storage for collateral.

Chump-dumping: conning aliens into believing Earth is a paradise, taking their money, and then dumping them into space.

Face changing crimes: the illicit use of face changing machines to commit crimes and fraud.

Futsies: People who can no longer handle the fast pace of life begin to suffer from "Future Shock," become psychotic and begin to commit crimes.

Numbers racket: buying computer passcodes for industrial theft.

Organ leggers: those who cut up citizens and sell their organs on the black market.

Perp running: transporting felons off-world.

Psycos: telepathic protection rackets.

Stookie glanding: butchering Stookies, an intelligent alien race, for the anti-aging drug they produce.

Umpty-baggers: pushers of umpty, a candy that tastes so good it forms an instant psychological addiction.

Leisure

Most work in Mega-City One is carried out by robots; this has led to problems with boredom and unemployment. Boredom has fostered many problems in the city, with citizens spending their leisure time rioting over jobs, experimenting on their neighbors, and running amok in the streets. Weird fads include Block Wars (wars between neighboring apartment blocks, waged by each block's defense militia), "ugliness clinics", and odd fashions.

Leisure in Mega-City One consists of a number of weird and wonderful futuristic hobbies and attractions, including:

The Aggro Dome was conceived as a way for frustrated citizens to let off steam without endangering their fellow Meggers. Within the domes, citizens can vent their anger on robots, mock storefronts, and parked vehicles. Aggro Limited, the owners of the Aggro Dome franchise, petitioned for Judge replicoids to be added to a number of their buildings as a target for client retaliation. The request was promptly refused. After problems on opening day Dredd did his best to close the place for good but failed. Eventually the dome closed in the mid 2120s after visitor numbers fell too low to turn a profit.

The Alien Zoos are ever-popular attractions, featuring the most bizarre creatures from the Milky Way galaxy and beyond.

The Central Mega-City Library is open free of charge to the public and is the storehouse of information on Mega-City One and beyond, past and present. Late fees are very high.

The Dream Palace is a popular leisure activity – for some, a growing necessity – and the ultimate in escapism. Customers are plugged into dream machines where their dreams are made real. Morpheus, Inc. own the original chain of dream palaces, but were unsuccessful in blocking the expansion of rival Dream Parlours, back street services utilizing reconditioned dream machines. Some parlours offer other "diversions" to supplement their income.

The Mega-City Chamber of Horrors features robot replicas of history's most infamous villains.

Transit systems

The high population density of Mega-City One requires a complex system of transport. This often serves as accommodation as well as a means of getting around the city.

Pedestrian

Back street: Two-way passages, located in Old Town and City Bottom.

Broad-Way: A large pedestrian plaza.

Crossway: Any pedway intersection (a.k.a. Crosslink).

Eeziglide: One-way pedestrian conveyance that functions as a human conveyor-belt.

Pedway: Pedestrian-only walkway found right across the City at all levels. Subpeds are enclosed pedways that run under Pedways.

Zipstrip: One or two-way pedestrian walkway that links blocks and smaller interchanges. Enclosed zipstrips are called Pipeways.

Vehicular

Boomway: One or two-way multi-level Mega-Way (between four and ten lanes width, two to four levels height).

Filter: One-way exit or entrance to and from parking areas.

Flyover: Skedway that passes over a city block (a.k.a. Overzoom).

Inter-Block Zoom: Maglev train-system which replaced the old Sky-Rail network in the late twenty-first century. Provides a link between all the city blocks in any given sector.

Intersection: Road junction.

Judge's Lane: Two-way road that runs parallel to major roadways, reserved for Justice Department usage.

Median Strip: Protective barrier which prevents accidents in one half of a road from spreading to the other half.

Mega Circular: Two-way, six-lane Meg-Way which bypasses through-sector traffic to benefit long-distance drivers.

Meg-Way: Largest road design in Mega-City One. Two-way, between four and twenty lanes, and central reservation (a.k.a. Megaway, Speedway, Throughway, X-Pressway).

Parkarama: Ground vehicle park.

Podport: Hover vehicle park.

Skedway: One-way highway, between one and five lanes. Interskeds connect one skedway to another (a.k.a. Feedway). Underskeds are single-lane roads, often reserved for public service traffic only, that pass underneath skeds. Overskeds are the same, but pass over skeds.

Sky-Rail: Obsolete monorail public transit-system introduced in the early 21st century. One-third of Mega-City One still actively uses the Sky-Rail network while it awaits upgrading to the zoom-system. The largest Sky-Rail intersection in the City is Hell's Junction.

History

As Judge Dredd stories are set 122 years into the future and progress forward in 'real time' (stories from 1977 are set in 2099, and stories from the current year of 2026 are set in 2148), they have an extensive fictional chronology.

Stories in earlier issues would link Dredd to the chronology of the Invasion!, Ro-Busters, and Harlem Heroes strips: Mega-City One's construction is mentioned in Ro-Busters once it had moved to 2000 AD, and in a story that follows from Invasion!, while Mega-City One appears in Harlem Heroes and its lead character Giant is the father of Judge Giant. The former two strips have since been retconned out of Dredd history.

Before 2027: By the late 2020s a conurbation stretches from New York to Washington DC in an attempt to contain the populace of the East Coast states. This will eventually become the first Mega-City, a new kind of urban development to house greater numbers of people. The development causes huge amounts of civil unrest and gang-related crime.

2027: An alliance of street gangs, led by the P Street Posse, storms the White House itself. Due to intimidation of the jury, no convictions occur. This incident will lead to the creation of the Judge System to police the country. Eustace Fargo is appointed Special Prosecutor for Street Crime by President Thomas Gurney.

2028: President Gurney re-elected due to his support for instant street justice.

2031: First deployment of the Judges in the United States, led by Chief Judge Fargo. Special centres train the new recruits, often hand-picked from the regular police, and old style judges have to undergo the new judge training program with the power to convict and sentence criminals on the spot.

2039: The success of Mega-City One inspires the creation of more Mega-Cities – Mega-City Two is planned to cover the Western seaboard and Texas City will cover Texas and other southern states. Other nations will follow.

2050: Earth is a mess of pollution, starvation, and wars. On June 3, Major Indira Knight, who developed America's orbital laser weapons, is the first human to leave the Solar System. The Harlem Heroes win the World Aeroball Championship.

Other cities mentioned in Judge Dredd

The first mention of other megacities came in Robot Wars, with a Texas City Oil freighter. In the later Luna 1, when Dredd was appointed Judge-Marshall of the Luna-1 colony, the narration states that the colony is run by "the 3 great cities of North America" of which one is Texas City in the next issue. The First Luna Olympics would introduce "the Sov-Cities". Mega-City Two on the West coast was introduced in the story The Cursed Earth (1978). Since then, the exact number, location, nature, and even name of megacities fluctuates depending on the writer and strip.

In other media

Film

Mega-City One is the initial setting of the 1995 film, though the majority of the second act shifts to Cursed Earth and the outer walls. Nigel Phelps was the production designer that oversaw the design of the city, chosen because he previously designed the fantastical version of Gotham City for Tim Burton's Batman. Other illustrators that contributed designs for the city included Simon Murton and Matt Codd.

Mega-City One is the setting of the 2012 film Dredd, though it occupies a smaller area than described in the comics. According to Judge Dredd (Karl Urban), the boundaries of Mega-City One reach "from Boston to Washington D.C." (similar to the real-life concept of the Northeast megalopolis) and contains a population of 800 million. The city blocks are large, brutalist structures that tend to be slum areas; each block can seal itself off with blast shields and communications blackouts in case of war. Technology is much less advanced (outside of Justice Department equipment) and all non-Judge vehicles resemble early-21st-century models.

TV

Judge Dredd: Mega City One is a TV series that was announced as in development on 10 May 2017. The population of the city in the TV series is advertised as "four hundred million citizens".