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The article discusses the emergence of the magic number 500, which is based on a notion of Joseph B. Birdsell that 500 individual's constitute a self-defining limit to the size of a social unit. Using the distribution and areas of Australian tribes, Birdsell argues that equilibrium mechanisms influenced the statistical constant of 500 persons among hunter-gatherers in general. This theory invoked works which theorized that the basic unit of hunter-gatherer organization is self-defining. However, after several analyses on the model, the author believes that the method of estimating tribal populations from the area ratio requires that the size of the population approximates a statistical constant.