unit
People per square kilometer (people/km²) or people per hectare (people/ha)
historic data availability
Forescast data availability
description
Provides spatially explicit estimates of population distribution, showing how people are spread across rural and urban landscapes. Using WorldPop’s globally harmonized dataset, it supports analyses of human pressure, infrastructure planning, and climate or ecosystem vulnerability. Data are available annually at resolutions up to 100 m.
methodology
WorldPop combines national census and administrative population counts with satellite-derived covariates such as land cover, settlement footprints, and nightlight intensity. Machine learning models disaggregate population data into gridded estimates, normalized to match UN and national totals. The result is a high-resolution global layer representing people per pixel or polygon.
