It's hard for me to relate to because i live in a country similar in size to Japan or UK with an official popn of 5 million, and I'm not even convinced that figure is true - there was a time when NZ supposedly had 50 million sheep but most of those were imaginary...

Here is a line of thinking I saw:

There are 500 million people in the world. The way to figure out the approximate number of people in the world is to grab the 3 or 4 most populated cities in every state and country. To get the most accurate number, take the number of all these cities added up and times it by 2 to account for the rural areas.

... I can grab the population of the largest cities in China and come to a closer estimate than their inflated country population number. They don't expect people to do this math, so they can throw out a fake population number of the entire country, while posting a more realistic number for the cities. I'm sure I can simplify proving the hoax by focusing on China alone.

China can be key to me solving this hoax without wasting much time with all the other countries.

China 1.357 billion alleged population in 2013

10 largest cities in 2013
Shanghai 22 mill - Beijing 19 mil - Tianjin 11 mill - Guangzhou 11 mill - Shenzhen 10 mill - Dongguan 8 mill - Taipei 8 - mill - Chengdu 7 mill - Hong Kong 7 mill - Hangzhou 7 mill =110,000,000

Double that population to account for the other cities and rural areas... =220,000,000 ... Thats's more than a billion off the 1.357 Billion mark

I used the closest numbers I could find, 2013.

Imagine this... China's alleged population would be like having a country of 160 New York City's. There is no possible way that country is as populated as 160 NYC's! Total BS!!!