General Question

Ltryptophan's avatar

Is it possible to get an accurate population count without an official census?

Asked by Ltryptophan (12091points) September 20th, 2021 from iPhone

Can we get an accurate approximation of the population of a country through methods other than census?

Cell phone accounts? Commodity markets?
Sewerage?

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9 Answers

RocketGuy's avatar

Census is more official, and doesn’t require proprietary customer count data from private companies.

jca2's avatar

Not everyone has a cell phone (elderly, people in nursing homes), and some people have multiple cell phones, so that’s not an accurate measure.

raum's avatar

Accurate approximation is an oxymoron.

Also, people do not have the same access to resources (cell phones, utilities, etc.).

RocketGuy's avatar

approximation – close to the real number, accurate – very close

raum's avatar

accurate: close in all details, exact

approximation: a value or quantity that is nearly but not exactly correct

Brian1946's avatar

Per https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/accurate

Free from error, especially as the result of care: an accurate diagnosis.

Conforming exactly to truth or to a standard: exact: providing accurate color.

IMO, approximations can be accurate: CA has almost 40 million people.
However, it would be inaccurate to say that CA has exactly 40 million peeps.

Mic drop…on foot; I think it would be accurate to say that my foot hurts. :p

raum's avatar

Hmmm…I can see both sides of this debate. I think my brain needs more sleep. :P

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