How is the score calculated in Civilization 5

I was wondering on the exact composition on the score in Civilization 5. It seemed to correlate roughly with the size of the civilization, but not always. I would be useful to know the details to estimate the strength of the other civilizations.

I've investigated already a bit and I'll put my preliminary results below as an answer. I would appreciate any additions and corrections.


The patch released on 15 December 2010 change some values, the values for non-standard map sizes are not updated

The mouseover for your own score helpfully shows from which categories how much of your score originates.

I've experimented a bit and my preliminary composition of the score is the following:

             Score
             Duel    Tiny    Small    Standard  Large
City         21      13      11       10        6
Population   6       4       3.5      4         ~1.5
Land         2.11    1.35    1.15     1               (water tiles don't count, the city hex does)
Technology   4       4       4        4         4
Wonder       40      40      40       25        40
Future Tech  ?       ?       ?        ?         ?

These results are from the start of a game, I assume they don't change but I can't be sure yet. It seems some things count for fractions of a point, so the numbers here may be rounded. The numbers also seem to be always rounded down, not to the nearest number.

Units and Gold do not seem to have any effect on the score.

Wonders count for a lot at 40 point per wonder. But also new cities (at standard map size) result in 19 points (10 for the city, 3 for 1 population and 6 for the land). Technology seems to be rated pretty low at 4 points, you have to research 5 technologies to get more points than one new city.


In addition to Fabian's answer, I'd like to add that, according to the manual (which is not exactly 100% accurate!), the score is composed of the following parts, in order of decreasing impact:

  1. The number of Wonders you have constructed (most important factor)
  2. The number of “future techs” you possess
  3. The number of techs you possess
  4. Your population
  5. The number of cities in your empire
  6. The number of tiles in your borders (least important factor)

I think this probably correlates to your initial findings.

It also notes your score will be 0 if eliminated, and that if you win before the final turn your score will receive a multiplier (for the purposes of high score tabling, I guess).


These values from the GlobalDefines.xml seem pretty clear and pretty much match what Fabian has above except that city now appears to be 8. I'm not sure where the modifiers for the different map sizes are located.

  • SCORE_CITY_MULTIPLIER 8
  • SCORE_POPULATION_MULTIPLIER 4
  • SCORE_LAND_MULTIPLIER 1
  • SCORE_WONDER_MULTIPLIER 25
  • SCORE_TECH_MULTIPLIER 4
  • SCORE_FUTURE_TECH_MULTIPLIER 10