Global 2

Graphic showing geographic distribution of median area sizes of subnational units in the input population data for the Global Subnational Demographic Dataset 2010–2030

Mapping a World in Transition: New Study Lays Foundation for WorldPop Global 2 Population Data 

WorldPop News /

Take Our Survey and Help Shape What Comes Next WorldPop researchers at the University of Southampton have published the methodology behind the massive subnational dataset used to power Global 2 – our latest high-resolution mapping of the human population.  The new article, published as a preprint in VeriXiv, details how the team harmonised and projected population data for more than 716,000 subnational administrative units across […]

Mapping a World in Transition: New Study Lays Foundation for WorldPop Global 2 Population Data  Read More »

AI generated image showing public health analysts, humanitarian responders, researchers, and urban planners using tablets, maps, and data dashboards, illustrating real-world impact. Caption reads "1,000,000+ open data downloads since 2019"

Celebrating a Milestone: 1 Million Downloads and Counting

WorldPop News /

We’re thrilled to celebrate a major milestone in our mission to ensure that everyone, everywhere is counted in decision-making. Since 2019, our open spatial demographic datasets have reached over 1 million downloads from our own site – adding to the hundreds of thousands more from our data hosting partners including HDX, ESRI’s Living Atlas, and

Celebrating a Milestone: 1 Million Downloads and Counting Read More »

Animation showing level 2 degree of urbanisation around Kinshasa, 2015-30

Mapping People, Places and Change: Exploring WorldPop’s Latest Global Data Releases

WorldPop News /

Understanding where and how populations are distributed, and how they shift over time, is at the heart of planning for health services, responding to disasters, designing cities, and tackling global challenges like climate change. WorldPop’s mission has always been to make high-resolution population and demographic data openly available, and the latest batch of global datasets

Mapping People, Places and Change: Exploring WorldPop’s Latest Global Data Releases Read More »

Photo of a truck a, a bus and a motorcycle on a city street during a flood.

The Data Behind the Shield: How Early Warnings and Population Maps Save Lives

WorldPop News /

Each year, tropical cyclones threaten more than a billion people living in low-lying coastal cities. As storms grow more intense and cities expand, the stakes are rising. But a recent study led by Dr Haiyan Liu, a visiting researcher with WorldPop, shows that multi-hazard early warnings supported by more effective use of data can dramatically

The Data Behind the Shield: How Early Warnings and Population Maps Save Lives Read More »

Photo of Suri Woman carrying a child while walking on a dirt road, Tulgit

Mapping the Last Mile: How Data Is Helping Reach Unvaccinated Children

WorldPop News /

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 »

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 »

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 »

Screen capture from webinar

Mapping People, Powering Response: WorldPop’s Work in Focus

WorldPop News /

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 »

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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