In the 90s show "Twin Peaks" the intro showed a sign saying "population 52,201", but in the show itself everyone in town knew each other and the town itself was the size of a small village, with one diner, a few cops, and no infrastructure apart from the logging industry. It would have been more realistic to have the sign say the population was in the hundreds or maybe 1000 at most.

Source: I grew up in a small town with a population of about 1100 people and it was several times larger than Twin Peaks in area, and even with that small number of people it was rare to bump into more than a couple of acquaintances in a week's time.