Last week, members of the WorldPop team visited the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission, meeting with the Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL), Demography, and Urban and Territorial Analysis teams.
The GHSL is a strategic knowledge infrastructure built by the JRC to make human presence on Earth visible, measurable, and actionable. It provides global, open, and comparable data on population, built-up areas, and settlements — helping institutions worldwide make informed decisions on urban development, risk management, climate action, and sustainable planning.
The visit gave us valuable insight into where our research, data outputs, and technical capabilities overlap and complement each other. By sharing approaches and perspectives, both teams identified opportunities to strengthen standards, improve consistency, and reduce duplication.
A healthy diversity of approaches strengthens the field and creates space for peer learning, innovation, and shared problem-solving.
Our immediate focus will be on practical information sharing and greater mutual awareness — spanning data and methodological challenges, capacity strengthening, and co-production with national partners. We are establishing joint activities to maintain momentum, starting with work to enhance the comparability and consistency of our outputs.
We will also be exploring opportunities to engage with wider initiatives in the coming months.
The visit confirmed that closer cooperation between WorldPop and JRC has real strategic value. Working with harmonised data, complementary expertise, and open communication, we aim to raise the quality, consistency, and impact of our work.
WorldPop send a big “thank you” to the JRC team for stimulating discussions and their warm hospitality.
Learn more
- JRC in Ispra (European Commission)
- WorldPop Open Data
- WorldPop Free Learning Resources
