I hate having to explain a joke, but I think he's referring to a period between 2005 and 2006 when CN only had 4,000 nations.
I have been contributing to keeping accurate nation numbers in zoskia's thread precisely for purposes of statisticians. http://forums.cybernations.net/topic/129434-5838/?page=5&tab=comments#comment-3540971
What a waste this game has been. With serious involvement from gave development we could have kept a lot more players. The suggestion thread is full of great ideas, all of which have been ignored.