The spatial allocation of population: a review of large-scale gridded population data products and their fitness for use

Leyk, Stefan; Gaughan, Andrea E.; Adamo, Susana B.; de Sherbinin, Alex; Balk, Deborah; Freire, Sergio; Rose, Amy; Stevens, Forrest R.; Blankespoor, Brian; Frye, Charlie; Comenetz, Joshua; Sorichetta, Alessandro; MacManus, Kytt; Pistolesi, Linda; Levy, Marc; Tatem, Andrew J.; Pesaresi, Martino

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-11-1385-2019

Articles | Volume 11, issue 3

https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-11-1385-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-11-1385-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 11, issue 3

Review article

|

11 Sep 2019

Review article |

| 11 Sep 2019

The spatial allocation of population: a review of large-scale gridded population data products and their fitness for use

Stefan Leyk, Andrea E. Gaughan, Susana B. Adamo, Alex de Sherbinin, Deborah Balk, Sergio Freire, Amy Rose, Forrest R. Stevens, Brian Blankespoor, Charlie Frye, Joshua Comenetz, Alessandro Sorichetta, Kytt MacManus, Linda Pistolesi, Marc Levy, Andrew J. Tatem, and Martino Pesaresi

Data sets

Global Rural-Urban Mapping Project, Version 1 (GRUMPv1): Population Count Grid CIESIN, IFPRI, The World Bank, and CIAT https://doi.org/10.7927/H4VT1Q1H

Global Rural-Urban Mapping Project, Version 1 (GRUMPv1): Population Density Grid CIESIN, IFPRI, The World Bank, and CIAT https://doi.org/10.7927/H4R20Z93

Gridded Population of the World, Version 4 (GPWv4): Population Count CIESIN https://doi.org/10.7927/H4JW8BX5

Gridded Population of the World, Version 4 (GPWv4): Population Count Adjusted to Match 2015 Revision of UN WPP Country Totals CIESIN https://doi.org/10.7927/H4PN93PB

Gridded Population of the World, Version 4 (GPWv4): Population Density CIESIN https://doi.org/10.7927/H49C6VHW

Gridded Population of the World, Version 4 (GPWv4): Population Density Adjusted to Match 2015 Revision UN WPP Country Totals CIESIN https://doi.org/10.7927/H4F47M65

Global High Resolution Population Denominators Project WorldPop https://doi.org/10.5258/SOTON/WP00645

World Population Estimate E. Nordstrand and C. Frye https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.18213.14565

World Population Estimated 2015 C. Frye and E. Nordstrand https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.16160.79367

World Population Estimated Density 2015 C. Frye and E. Nordstrand https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.14857.70248

World Population Estimated 2016 C. Frye and M. Gilbert https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.12996.48007

World Population Estimated Density 2016 C. Frye and M. Gilbert https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.21568.58885

Anthropogenic land-use estimates for the Holocene; HYDE 3.2 K. Klein Goldewijk https://doi.org/10.17026/dans-25g-gez3

Short summary

Population data are essential for studies on human–nature relationships, disaster or environmental health. Several global and continental gridded population data have been produced but have never been systematically compared. This article fills this gap and critically compares these gridded population datasets. Through the lens of the fitness for use concept it provides users with the knowledge needed to make informed decisions about appropriate data use in relation to the target application.