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SOURCES TO BE USED WITH CARE
editI have seen figures from mongabay used in some wikipedia articles, but the figures that's presented there are mainly their own estimates and calculations, and no official estimates. The runner of the site also writes, and I quote, These figures are estimates and are by no means intended to be used as official statistics. Don't get me wrong, it is possible to make own estimates that are somewhat reliable, but I guess that mongabay just have used the percentual growth/decline of the population between two official estimates/censuses to calculate the populations. And, to my point of view, that's not enough.
The World Gazetteer is a bit of a problem child when it comes to statistics about the population of cities. I have to clarify: it is basically a great place, containing a lot of useful information, but with one big flaw. The site makes an effort to list the latest available official estimates/census results, but it also list updated estimates and calculations - done by themselves. And, that's the problem. The results of these calculations are of mixed quality, sometimes not matching the reality, not even close in some cases. However, the biggest problem is perhaps not The World Gazetteer itself. The main problem is that so many are blinded by the 'as-fresh-figures-as-possible' factor that the statistics on that site offers. This is the year of 2008, and there it is, a population figure from this year already, wow! Then they use it as their main source, without checking other, better and official sources, but with perhaps figures of some older dates. I would never use calculations from The World Gazetteer as a source for wikipedia articles, and I hope that more wikipedia contributors will start thinking the same way.
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