TechnicalGIS

Gridded population data by country

Theme
Population
Countries
200
National sources
492
Global datasets
12
Last verified

Census-based population grids and counts, plus global gridded population (WorldPop, GHSL, LandScan, Meta HRSL, Kontur) at 30 m to 1 km. This page lists all 492 national population sources in the catalogue, country by country, after the 12 global datasets.

Global population datasets

  • Gridded Population of the World (GPWv4) (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free with registration

    CIESIN, Columbia University / NASA SEDAC · Global

    Census-based population counts and density at 30 arc-seconds for 2000–2020, distributed without modelling covariates.

    • Population
    • Census & statistics
    Licence
    CC BY 4.0
    Formats
    GeoTIFF, NetCDF, ASCII
    Link
    earthdata.nasa.gov

    Verified

  • Kontur Population (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    Kontur · Global

    Global population on a 400 m H3 hexagon grid, combining GHSL, Meta HRSL, Microsoft buildings and OSM; per-country files on HDX.

    • Population
    Licence
    CC BY 4.0
    Formats
    GeoPackage
    Link
    data.humdata.org

    Verified

  • LandScan Global (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free with registration

    Oak Ridge National Laboratory · Global

    Annual 30 arc-second (about 1 km) ambient (24-hour average) population since 2000; free account required to download.

    • Population
    Licence
    CC BY 4.0
    Formats
    GeoTIFF
    Link
    landscan.ornl.gov

    Verified

  • Meta High Resolution Population Density Maps (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    Meta Data for Good / CIESIN · Global

    Population density at about 30 m with age/sex breakdowns for most countries, derived from building detection and census data (2015–2020).

    • Population
    Licence
    CC BY 4.0
    Formats
    GeoTIFF, CSV
    Link
    registry.opendata.aws

    Verified

  • VIIRS Nighttime Lights (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free with registration

    Earth Observation Group, Colorado School of Mines · Global

    Monthly and annual night-time light composites at 15 arc-seconds (about 500 m) since 2012; free registration needed.

    • Population
    • Environment
    Licence
    CC BY 4.0 (most products)
    Formats
    GeoTIFF
    Link
    eogdata.mines.edu

    Verified

  • Global Human Settlement Layer (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    European Commission JRC · Global

    Built-up surface, building height, population grids (GHS-POP) and degree of urbanisation from 1975 to 2030 at 10 m–1 km.

    • Population
    • Buildings
    • Land cover
    • Census & statistics
    Licence
    CC BY 4.0
    Formats
    GeoTIFF
    Link
    human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

    Verified

  • WorldPop (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    University of Southampton · Global

    Gridded population counts and age/sex structure at 100 m and 1 km for every country, annually from 2000.

    • Population
    • Census & statistics
    Licence
    CC BY 4.0
    Formats
    GeoTIFF, CSV
    Link
    worldpop.org

    Verified

  • Google Open Buildings 2.5D Temporal (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    Google Research · Global South

    Annual 4 m rasters of building presence, fractional count and height for 2016–2023 across the Global South, from Sentinel-2.

    • Buildings
    • Population
    Licence
    CC BY 4.0
    Formats
    GeoTIFF
    Link
    sites.research.google

    Verified

  • OCHA Common Operational Datasets (COD) dashboard (opens in a new tab)

    Portal Cost: Free

    UN OCHA · Global

    Status and links for official COD-AB admin boundaries and COD-PS population tables endorsed for humanitarian use in 100+ countries.

    • Boundaries & admin
    • Population
    Licence
    Per dataset (mostly CC BY 3.0 IGO / CC BY 4.0)
    Formats
    Shapefile, GeoJSON, CSV, XLSX
    Link
    data.humdata.org

    Verified

  • UNdata (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    UN Statistics Division · Global

    One search across UN statistical databases: population, national accounts, energy, environment and gender statistics by country.

    • Census & statistics
    • Population
    Licence
    Free use with attribution (UNdata terms)
    Formats
    CSV, XML, API
    Link
    data.un.org

    Verified

  • World Bank Open Data (opens in a new tab)

    API Cost: Free

    World Bank · Global

    World Development Indicators and 1,400+ country-level time series (population, GDP, energy, environment) since 1960.

    • Census & statistics
    • Population
    Licence
    CC BY 4.0
    Formats
    CSV, XLSX, API
    Link
    data.worldbank.org

    Verified

  • Humanitarian Data Exchange (opens in a new tab)

    Portal Cost: Free

    UN OCHA · Global

    Humanitarian open data portal with 20,000+ datasets including OCHA common operational datasets (admin boundaries, population) for every crisis country.

    • Open data portal
    • Boundaries & admin
    • Population
    • Census & statistics
    Licence
    Per dataset (mostly CC BY 4.0 / CC BY 3.0 IGO)
    Link
    data.humdata.org

    Verified

Population sources by country

Africa 56 countries

Algeria 3
Angola 5
Benin 5
Botswana 6
Burkina Faso 6
Burundi 5
Cabo Verde 3
Cameroon 5
Central African Republic 5
Chad 5
Comoros 3
Côte d'Ivoire 5
Democratic Republic of the Congo 7
Djibouti 5
Egypt 5
Equatorial Guinea 4
Eritrea 5
Eswatini 5
Ethiopia 5
Gabon 5
Ghana 7
Guinea 5
Guinea-Bissau 4
Kenya 9
Lesotho 5
Liberia 5
Libya 3
Madagascar 5
Malawi 5
Mali 5
Mauritania 5
Mauritius 3
Morocco 3
Mozambique 6
Namibia 5
Niger 6
Nigeria 7
Republic of the Congo 4
Rwanda 5
Saint Helena 2
São Tomé and Príncipe 3
Senegal 5
Seychelles 3
Sierra Leone 5
Somalia 4
South Africa 5
South Sudan 5
Sudan 4
Tanzania 6
The Gambia 5
Togo 5
Tunisia 5
Uganda 6
Western Sahara 2
Zambia 6
Zimbabwe 5

Asia 51 countries

Afghanistan 2
Armenia 2
Azerbaijan 2
Bahrain 1
Bangladesh 2
Bhutan 2
British Indian Ocean Territory 1
Brunei 1
Cambodia 2
China 1
Cyprus 1
Georgia 2
Hong Kong 1
India 1
Indonesia 3
Iran 2
Iraq 3
Israel 1
Japan 2
Jordan 1
Kazakhstan 2
Kuwait 1
Kyrgyzstan 2
Laos 2
Lebanon 1
Macao 1
Malaysia 2
Maldives 2
Mongolia 2
Myanmar 3
Nepal 2
North Korea 2
Oman 1
Pakistan 2
Palestine 2
Philippines 2
Qatar 3
Saudi Arabia 2
South Korea 1
Sri Lanka 2
Syria 1
Taiwan 1
Tajikistan 2
Thailand 2
Timor-Leste 2
Türkiye 3
Turkmenistan 1
United Arab Emirates 2
Uzbekistan 2
Vietnam 2
Yemen 1

Europe 31 countries

Albania 1
Austria 1
Belarus 1
Croatia 1
Czechia 1
Estonia 1
Finland 1
France 1
Germany 2
Greece 1
Hungary 3
Ireland 1
Italy 1
Kosovo 1
Latvia 1
Lithuania 1
Moldova 2
Monaco 1
Netherlands 1
North Macedonia 1
Norway 1
Poland 3
Portugal 1
Romania 2
Serbia 1
Slovakia 2
Slovenia 1
Sweden 1
Switzerland 1
Ukraine 1
United Kingdom 4

North America 29 countries

Anguilla 2
Antigua and Barbuda 1
Aruba 2
Bahamas 1
Barbados 1
Belize 1
Bermuda 1
British Virgin Islands 1
Canada 2
Cayman Islands 1
Costa Rica 2
Curaçao 1
Dominica 1
Dominican Republic 1
Grenada 1
Jamaica 1
Mexico 1
Montserrat 1
Nicaragua 1
Panama 1
Puerto Rico 1
Saint Kitts and Nevis 1
Saint Lucia 1
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 1
Sint Maarten 1
Trinidad and Tobago 1
Turks and Caicos Islands 1
United States 2
United States Virgin Islands 2

South America 10 countries

Argentina 1
Bolivia 1
Brazil 2
Chile 2
Ecuador 1
Guyana 1
Paraguay 2
Peru 1
Suriname 1
Uruguay 1

Oceania 23 countries

American Samoa 1
Australia 1
Cook Islands 1
Fiji 3
French Polynesia 1
Guam 1
Kiribati 3
Marshall Islands 3
Micronesia 4
Nauru 2
New Caledonia 1
New Zealand 1
Niue 3
Norfolk Island 1
Northern Mariana Islands 1
Palau 3
Papua New Guinea 1
Samoa 1
Solomon Islands 2
Tonga 3
Tuvalu 2
Vanuatu 3
Wallis and Futuna Islands 1

Tutorials that use population data