In the classic board game Monopoly, the population of the board stays fixed—no matter how many times you pass Go. But in real life, the official “8 billion people” figure is treated like gospel. Governments, the UN, and media outlets repeat it as settled fact. The problem? Almost no one is actually counting. Today we break down 10 reasons the world’s population numbers may be far less reliable than we’ve been told—and why the “overpopulation” narrative might be serving ag