The IMF is using a 2008 population estimate based on a 2001 census whose validity has been called into question. A 2003 U.S. State Department report on Equatorial Guinea stated that "although the 2002 (sic) census estimated the population at 1,015,000, credible estimates put the number at closer to 500,000. The opposition claimed that the Government inflated the census in anticipation of the December presidential election. (...) Opposition leaders charged earlier in the year that census results showing a twofold population increase were flawed and that numbers were inflated to perpetuate election fraud." [1]
