Understanding how diseases spread in a connected world is one of the greatest challenges in modern public health. Traditional models (like the well-known Susceptible, Infectious, and Recovered (SIR) framework) often assume that everyone mixes uniformly, meaning each person has an equal chance of interacting with everyone else. But reality is far more complex. Human populations […]
As part of the Wellcome-funded FuturePop project, WorldPop has recently released a new open access dataset. The data includes gridded global population distribution maps at ~1 km resolution (30 arc-seconds) for every 5-year interval from 2025 through 2100, under each of the five Shared Socioeconomic Pathway (SSP) scenarios (SSP1-5). The projections feed into the Coupled
A new MOnitoring Outbreaks for Disease surveillance in a data science context (MOOD) Horizon 2020 study published this week offers an insightful look at how disease modelling and data use changed throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The research, led by Dr Esther van Kleef, Technical Consultant for the World Health Organization (WHO), with WorldPop’s Professor Andy
Lessons from COVID-19: How Data and Modelling Evolved During the Pandemic Read More »
On Tuesday, October 21, Senior Research Fellow Dr. Chris Nnanatu delivered a keynote presentation at the 2025 Data Science Nigeria AI Bootcamp, where he spoke on a topic shaping Africa’s digital future: “The Future is Geospatial: Powering Africa’s Growth with Location Intelligence (LI).” Dr. Nnanatu explored how geospatial and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are transforming
The Future is Geospatial: Powering Africa’s Growth with Location Intelligence Read More »
Dr Somnath Chaudhuri, Research Fellow at WorldPop, recently visited Dhaka to participate in a key stakeholder engagement meeting for the Gates Foundation-funded project Blue Line Tracing and Wastewater Surveillance in Dhaka. The initiative, a multi-institutional collaboration involving icddr,b (formerly known as the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh), the University of Virginia, Imperial College
At the Africa Evidence Network Evidence 2025 conference in Cotonou, Benin last week, our Deputy Director (Research) Dr Jessica Espey delivered a keynote highlighting how Africa’s Regional Economic Communities (RECs) are using data and research to shape smarter policy decisions across the continent. Dr Espey, co-author of a forthcoming paper with four Sub-Saharan African colleagues
Highlighting African Leadership in Evidence-Informed Policymaking at Evidence25 Read More »
As climate change drives more extreme weather patterns, the need for accurate and timely flood forecasting has never been greater. A global leader in this effort, Google’s Flood Hub, uses artificial intelligence to predict riverine floods1, and behind the scenes, WorldPop’s Global Project Population dataset is playing a pivotal role in shaping the tool’s impact.
How WorldPop Data Powers Google’s Global Flood Forecasting Revolution Read More »
We’re excited to be working side by side with Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) and UNFPA to modernise survey planning and sampling in Pakistan, through a strategic training programme focused on Advanced Sampling for Complex Integrated Specialized Household and Economic Surveys run by Senior Research Fellows, Dr Sarchil Qader and Dr Gianluca Boo. Dr Qader
WorldPop: Sharpening Pakistan’s Survey Tools with Geospatial Know-How Read More »
Last month, Principal Enterprise Fellow, Dr Natalia Tejedor Garavito showcased WorldPop’s innovative work at CrisisReady’s Café Catastrófico webinar series. Dr Tejedor Garavito spoke on how WorldPop helps countries, especially those with limited resources, to answer a critical question: where are people, and how many are there? Using satellite imagery, mobile data, and advanced statistical models,
Mapping People, Powering Response: WorldPop’s Work in Focus Read More »
A new study led by Senior Research Fellow, Dr Gianluca Boo has introduced a powerful new Bayesian model to estimate population distribution in Kasaï-Oriental province, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), offering critical insights in a region where public health data has long been scarce. At the heart of this advanced research is a method
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.
