Behind the Curtain - NPC Demographics

Cross-Posted from ENW.
I take a very 'numerocentric' or objective approach as DM, I like the sense of progression it brings. If anything I think it is an easier approach in 4e, because PCs power up more slowly than in prior editions, and it's easy to create workable demographics from the start where eg 'normal people' exist throughout the Heroic Tier range.
One thing I did in my Wilderlands campaign (Southlands) was to set a 'baseline mook' value at 5th level minion. This was done with an eye to keeping such useable throughout the Heroic Tier, allows for eg 'experienced mooks' who are 9th level minions (so twice the XPV) without straining disbelief, and fits well with the monster demographics in the 4e Monster Manual and Monster Vault. I think it helped a lot that I started the campaign at 3rd level.


Some sample demographics IMC:

Typical peasant farmer or townsman - minion-2 Human Rabble
Orc commoner - minion-4 Drudge 
Typical Altanian barbarian nomad 'bravo' - minion-5 Skirmisher
Human Lackey - minion-7 (eg cultist)
Typical Altanian barbarian 'warrior' (Lodge member) - minion-8 soldier
Orc warrior - minion-9

"Standard monsters" are typically 5 levels lower, but fit in the same sort of scale, eg: 

Human common Bandit: skirmisher-2 = min-7
Orc Raider: skirmisher-3 = minion-8
Orc Berserker: brute-4 = minion-9
Altanian or Orc Reaver: skirmisher-5 = min-10
Altanian Sword Knight: soldier-8 = min-13

I'll typically mix up 4th level brute orc berserkers with 9th level minion orc warriors rather than treat them as being the same monster, but that will depend on circumstances - eg in my previous campaign when I ran a mass battle with dozens & dozens of combatants I made the human knights min-8 (instead of soldier-2) and the gnolls min-10 (instead of skirmisher-5) for convenience & playability.