How do you count people who live behind gates or high above the street in tower blocks? This question was at the heart of a recent meeting at Thailand’s National Statistical Office (NSO), bringing together national experts, UN partners, and WorldPop researchers to explore new ways of making population data more accurate and inclusive.
On 24 December 2025, senior officials from the NSO welcomed representatives from UNFPA and WorldPop to Bangkok for a technical working group meeting focused on estimating populations in hard-to-reach urban areas. The session was opened by Ms Hathai Chanok Chin-uprawat, Deputy Director of the NSO, and attended by government statisticians and census experts from across Thailand.
The meeting showcased results from pilot work in Bangkok, where population estimates were created by combining traditional census data with satellite imagery. This hybrid approach helps capture populations living in places that are often missed by standard methods – such as gated communities and high-rise buildings.
The event marked the conclusion of Phase IV of WorldPop’s technical assistance and training programme with UNFPA Thailand and the National Statistical Office (NSO), which commenced in August 2025 under the coordination of Dr Chibuzor Christopher Nnanatu, Head of the Spatial Statistics and Population Modelling (SSPM) Group at WorldPop. Representing WorldPop, Research Fellow Dr Somnath Chaudhuri shared key insights from months of close collaboration, while the NSO technical team presented modelling approaches that were co-developed through the partnership.
Together, the work highlights how modern data and collaboration can help ensure that, even in fast-growing cities, everyone is counted – and no one is left invisible.
Headline image: The National Statistics Office welcomed representatives from UNFPA and WorldPop. TNSO, 2025
