Before this BBC podcast kicks off, I'd like to tell you about some others you might enjoy.

My name's Will Wilkin and I Commission Music Podcast for the BBC.

It's a really cool job, but every day we get to tell the incredible stories behind songs,

moments and movements, stories of struggle and success, rises and falls, the funny, the ridiculous.

And the BBC's position, at the heart of British music

means we can tell those stories like no one else. We were, are and always will be right there

at the centre of the narrative. So whether you want an insightful take on music right now, or a

nostalgic deep dive into some of the most famous and infamous moments in music, check out the

music podcasts on BBC Sounds.

Hello and thanks for downloading the more or less podcast. We're your guide to the numbers

in the news and in life, and I'm Tim Harford.

Exactly how many people live on our planet is one of those difficult to answer questions.

8.2 billion is the UN estimate, but that's based largely on census data.

And does everyone, everywhere, always fill in a census when it comes along every 10 years or so?

Probably not. So in a recent study from Finland found that rural populations around the world

had been underestimated by 50 to over 80%, the media got quite excited.

This would be a huge error.

A 50% underestimate would mean the actual number of people in an area is double the number they thought there were.

One newspaper in Spain, El Mundo, did its own sums and said this meant there were potentially 2 billion more people in the world than we currently think there are.

That is a big number. But is it what the researchers

in Finland actually meant? Absolutely not. So what's going on? Yosius Langruta, a researcher

at Alto University in Finland, was a co-author of the report.

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