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SimCity 4 by itself is very unrealistic. You can go to sites like Simtropolis and SC4Devotion to get 'custom content'.

Usually you download a bunch of these, also get Lot Editor, and in the landmarks menu a lot of the downloaded buildings ... or BATs should pop up, cause many have ploppable versions, sometimes they pop up in other menus too. Just plop them down. From there on the population that is actually given to you doesn't matter. You go for realism. These buildings, mods, etc. along with some of the MAXIS originals will make your city (aka the region...a city tile should be considered merely a neighbourhood) much more realistic. Then based on your knowledge of cities, you can make a guess of whaat based on the size, the population would be.

Or you can do what I do and use BATs that have high population - estimate how much population you want in the area, plop down a bunch of them, play the simulated time, then when a population first appears, you pause, and that would be your population. Usually try high rises as they're easier. Then delete all that, and start buildin.

Lot Editor usually helps with the realism, and can make bats previously not ploppable ... ploppable ... but it takes a while to acquire that knowledge.

You can also do it with zoning and only some plopping and playing the game with time going on - but it is harder.

There is also a mod on Simtropolis where it makes all MAXIS industrial, residential, and commercial buildings ploppable.

I'm hoping Cities XL will be good and can get back into city building games.