I have a village of just over 3,500 happy souls; 91% happy in fact. Am playing around trying to raise this to 100% or close. Now every element is between 90 and 100% apart from Spirituality which doggedly, even religiously, hovers at 57-58%.
In the Village Happiness info box under Spirituality it says “Your Village could use more spiritual buildings in town”.
Now I already have an improved Temple with 3 priests and had built 44 upgraded Shrines in an attempt to add ‘spirituality. 47 Priests in total. Every house is ‘covered’ by at least one Shrine. I have Priests like some villages have rats.
To check if extra shrines do increase spirituality I deleted 15 shrines ensuring all houses were still covered by one shrine. Result; nothing at all, spirituality stays at 57-58%. Overall stays at 91%.
Clearly building extra shrines does not improve spirituality if deleting them does not decrease it. i.e. Shrines don’t stack.
So if my sainted villagers have reached the limit of their spiritual fulfilment should the advice not say that you can do no more; rather than steering one down a path of eternal ecclesiastical construction.
Indeed if I have reached the game’s achievable limit here should it not be awarding 100% for spiritual happiness?
Even if 32% of my villagers are confirmed atheists or secularists constructing more spiritual buildings can have no influence.
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Priests are like rats, so true 
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This has been a problem for a while 
Would be nice if it was fixed 
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The actual miracle is how you get 3500 people. My settings only allow a maximum of 2500 and I usually have it set to 2000. The next step at the end of the slider says Disabled. I find references to setting the population to unlimited but my game doesn’t have that option. The other thing is how you find room for that many people, even on a large map there’s always mountains and ponds that are in the way.
You get to 3,500 by being retired having a fairly hefty PC and not getting out much. 
Taking slider to far right disables the maximum villagers limit, it could be better labelled…
I build very tight like a medieval English village not a Mid-west suburb and that helps with desirability too. Decs hit more houses. With a medium size map I am only occupying just over half the map including farms. All Houses are now Mansions so that helps increase pop density.
Ya, I always thought “Disabled” meant the ability to go beyond 2500 is disabled. As for me, Retired: Check. Not getting out much: Check. Fairly hefty PC: Kind of “hefty”, it’s a gaming laptop that does quite well in FPS games. I start to see slight stumbling issues around 2000 and I tried getting to 2500 once or twice but it’s nearly unplayable. I’m happy with my “victory conditions”, 2000 population, all mansions, all monuments built. I don’t worry about happiness or spirituality or entertainment, you can go nuts trying to raise them.
I developed my own town plan that consists of different size modules that can be placed where the terrain allows and connected by roads of course. The primary one where the town center is has an industrial area and houses. The secondary modules are residential only or include space for industries if it’s placed far from the main town’s industries. Each is more or less self-sufficient for basics like food and firewood. It isn’t exactly tight but it does fit easily in a large map, usually 3 such modules get me to 2000 people.
I’m similar in domestic stats but my PC can only handle 1500 on a good day, needs a major upgrade or outright replacement. Does anyone know the winning lotto numbers?