Any country where there's no robust free press and legal protections for things like criticizing the government is lying about nearly everything, in the direction where the government feels it is advantageous to lie. If they feel they get a benefit from inflating population, they will inflate population, and it won't be subtle. The WHO and other international organizations are not legitimate sources of information; they take direction from their host countries and report numbers as directed.

If you pick any country and look at proxies that have significant cost associated with them, at relative population levels of verified locations, the population of the world differs pretty radically from the claims most countries put out.

If you don't have independent verification free from censorial pressures and legal repercussions, then you get propaganda. This is human nature, whether it stems from abuse of power or wanting to tell a story that's aspirational or from blatant incompetence or corruption.

Population numbers fall under the "lies, damned lies, and statistics" umbrella.

>If you pick any country and look at proxies that have significant cost associated with them, at relative population levels of verified locations, the population of the world differs pretty radically from the claims most countries put out.

Can you provide an example that shows a radically different population count?

>If you don't have independent verification free from censorial pressures and legal repercussions, then you get propaganda

Always?

How would you perform a census without massive amounts of money and cooperation from the government?

All "societies" from the smallest to the largest are built upon lies upon lies upon lies. When it starts falling apart, the violence commences.