Tim O'Riordan

Satellite view of Ekohok, Cameroon

Mapping the Invisible: How Technology Is Filling the World’s Population Data Gaps

WorldPop News /

How many people live in a neighbourhood, a village, or a city block? It sounds like a simple question, but for millions of people around the world, the answer is still unclear. Accurate, local population data is essential for everything from planning health services and responding to disasters to allocating resources fairly. Yet traditional national […]

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Photo of Street Vendors, Guilin, China

When Heatwaves Strike, Do City Adaptation Measures Really Help?

WorldPop News /

As climate change intensifies, extreme heat is becoming a daily reality for millions of people living in cities. In response, governments are rolling out heat adaptation measures such as cooling centres, greener urban spaces and public heat warnings. But a crucial question remains: do these strategies actually work, and do they work equally for everyone?

When Heatwaves Strike, Do City Adaptation Measures Really Help? Read More »

Schematic maps showing the spatial entities around Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso identified by the four population datasets

DEGURBA: Why Your Urban Definition Depends on Your Data

WorldPop News /

hat counts as a city? It sounds like a simple question, until you realise that countries define “urban” in exceptionally different ways. In Denmark, a settlement with 200 people qualifies as urban. In Japan, you need 50,000 residents plus certain economic activities. With standards this far apart, comparing cities across borders is challenging. To smooth

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Photo of Cameroon DEGURBA workshop participants with completion certificates.

Skills for Smarter Planning: How DEGURBA Capacity Building Is Empowering Countries 

WorldPop News /

WorldPop recently completed its first workshop on automated census mapping in Malawi, a milestone for the joint FCDO-funded project with the Malawi National Statistics Office (NSO) ahead of their 2028 national census. Led by Dr Sarchil Qader and Dr Aubrey Steingrabber over two intensive weeks, 22 NSO colleagues and 4 students from the University of

Skills for Smarter Planning: How DEGURBA Capacity Building Is Empowering Countries  Read More »

Graphic illustrating the potential impact of social, mobility and contact networks on infectious disease transmission.

How Our Social Connections Shape the Spread of Disease: What New Research Reveals

WorldPop News /

In today’s interconnected world, a local outbreak can become a global crisis with remarkable speed. Planes link distant cities in hours, social media connects millions in seconds, and our daily routines weave together countless invisible threads of contact. A recent scoping review led by WorldPop PhD researcher Zhifeng Cheng and published in Infectious Diseases of

How Our Social Connections Shape the Spread of Disease: What New Research Reveals Read More »

Photo of Dr Sarchil Qader guiding Malawi NSO statisticians on ground data collection

First Automated Census-Mapping Workshop in Malawi a Success 

WorldPop News /

WorldPop recently completed its first workshop on automated census mapping in Malawi, a milestone for the joint FCDO-funded project with the Malawi National Statistics Office (NSO) ahead of their 2028 national census. Led by Dr Sarchil Qader and Dr Aubrey Steingrabber over two intensive weeks, 22 NSO colleagues and 4 students from the University of

First Automated Census-Mapping Workshop in Malawi a Success  Read More »

Photo of Willemstad, Curacao

WorldPop Strengthens Regional Partnerships at CARICOM’s 50th Statistics Meeting in Curaçao

WorldPop News /

In late October, WorldPop joined statistical leaders from across the Caribbean at the 50th meeting of the Caribbean Community’s (CARICOM) Standing Committee on Caribbean Statistics in Willemstad, Curaçao. Deputy Director Ian Coady, Senior Enterprise Fellow Dr Natalia Garavito-Tejedor and Senior Programme Coordinator, Kathryn Baxter represented WorldPop at a moment when high-quality, accessible data is becoming

WorldPop Strengthens Regional Partnerships at CARICOM’s 50th Statistics Meeting in Curaçao Read More »

Photo of delegates at the Human Planet Forum, JRC Ispra, Italy - 19–21 November 2025

Progress in Population and Urban Data: Highlights from the Human Planet Forum 2025

WorldPop News /

The 2025 Human Planet Forum gathered global experts in population modelling, urban analytics, and Earth observation for three days of scientific progress and growing collaboration. A central theme throughout the meeting was the acceleration of high-resolution, openly accessible global datasets and included a presentation by Professor Andy Tatem of our new, open Global 2 (2015-2030)

Progress in Population and Urban Data: Highlights from the Human Planet Forum 2025 Read More »

Animated GIF of Khartoum

WorldPop Global 2: A New Era of High-Resolution Population Data

WorldPop News /

This week, WorldPop Director Professor Andy Tatem presented during the Monitoring, projecting and hindcasting of human settlements, infrastructure and population session at the Human Planet Forum 2025, introducing the next generation of WorldPop’s global population datasets: Global 2 (2015–2030). These new datasets represent a major step forward in how the world measures, understands, and anticipates

WorldPop Global 2: A New Era of High-Resolution Population Data Read More »

About Us

The WorldPop research programme, based in the School of Geography and Environmental Sciences at the University of Southampton, is a multi-sectoral team of researchers, technicians and project specialists that produces data on population distributions and characteristics at high spatial resolution.

Initiated in October 2013 to combine The AfriPop Project, AsiaPop and AmeriPop projects, we have a diverse portfolio of projects, including large multi-million-pound collaborative projects with partner organisations, commercial data providers and international development organisations.

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  • University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom
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