Totally my personal opinion, but not knowing the approximate population of the country you live in betrays a pretty serious lack of curiosity about the world. Obviously a judgement call on how far off is "far off", but it just gives a funny feeling, you know?
True, but in the context of making a ‘finger in the air’ calculation, 1 billion or 100 million (approximating to the nearest power of ten) should be “good enough’.
And if you’re interviewing, consider that for a decent proportion of people it may not be the country they live in (at least at the time you’re asking the question).
