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 […]
Counting Everyone in a Changing City Read More »
Imagine a life-saving vaccine is available, but reaching it means walking for hours, sometimes days. For millions of families in low- and middle-income countries, this isn’t a thought experiment. It’s everyday life. In 2021 alone, around 15.7 million children did not receive their first dose of the diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP1) vaccine. One of the biggest challenges
Mapping the Last Mile: How Data Is Helping Reach Unvaccinated Children Read More »
As we set fresh goals for the new year – whether to learn something new, develop new skills, or make a bigger impact in our work or studies – WorldPop’s learning resources offer a rich and accessible way to grow your understanding of population data and geospatial analysis for global good. These free, expert-created materials
Start the New Year by Exploring WorldPop’s Free Learning Resources Read More »
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
Mapping the Invisible: How Technology Is Filling the World’s Population Data Gaps Read More »
How do you count everyone in a country where some communities are hard to reach because of geography, insecurity, or limited infrastructure? This is the challenge Cameroon is taking on as it prepares for its first national census in nearly two decades, and it’s doing so with an innovative hybrid approach. Earlier this week in
Hybrid Census in Cameroon: Making Sure Everyone Counts Read More »
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 »
What 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
DEGURBA: Why Your Urban Definition Depends on Your Data Read More »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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.
