[Wikipedia-l] Commons Database

[Matthew Brown]

On Nov 28, 2007 11:27 PM, Michal Rosa <michal.rosa at gmail.com> wrote:
> Just a quick example,
> according to en Wiki the population of Washington DC is 581,530,
> German Wiki says it's 548.360, according to French Wiki it's 553 523
> and Polish Wiki states it's 582 049.

What you're actually seeing here is what happens when data is stated
to a higher degree of accuracy than is warranted.  When a number which
changes daily is quoted so exactly, of course different sources will
differ.  I'm not sure where this practise of stating populations as if
they could be determined down to the individual person came from.

(I know this is not really relevant to your original point, but to the
one that differing information between different Wikipedia editions
may not mean any of them are wrong; they're just using different
sources for an approximate figure impossible to pin down).

-Matt