It's a side quest, thankfully, so it can be aborted. some tips have already been given but it's a pita to get at exactly 1997 pop. I don't know many that have actually completed this quests, especially with all the event buildings giving massive pop.Requesting help with a Story Quest/Side Quest... I need to reduce my available population of 10,925 down to 1997 & the reward is 68 diamonds
OTOH this could be a great New Math problem providing many ways to describe how to reach your goal (answer)!You should skip it. No amount of diamonds is worth trying to do optimization and linear algebra for (since only nerds do that).