Taking Advantage of the Improved Availability of Census Data: A First Look at the Gridded Population of the World, Version 4

Abstract

Global gridded population data are increasingly being applied to a broad range of fields. This article presents improvements made in the fourth version of the Gridded Population of the World (GPWv4) data set. GPWv4 is a minimally modeled data set that uses uniform distribution to disaggregate census data from their native input units into a thirty arc-second global grid. Due to an increase in freely accessible census data from the 2010 round of censuses, eighty-seven countries are gridded at a higher administrative level than in the previous version, with a more than fivefold increase in the total number of census units outside of the United States. The resultant decrease in unit size has greatly improved the data set accuracy. Additionally, version 4 has expanded to include grids of age, sex, and urban–rural status. Obtaining high-resolution census data and matching census geography remains a priority for improving global gridded population data sets.

Keywords:

• census geography
• GPWv4
• gridded population
• uniform distribution

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Lisa Lukang, Valentina Mara, Jared Talkin, Jane Mills, Ilyun Koh, Mou Jian Lee, Sneha Rao, Chenyang Zhao, and Evan Drewry, who all contributed to the data set production.

Funding

This work was funded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under contract NNG08HZ11C for the continued operation of the Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) at Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) at Columbia University.

Notes

¹ For a complete list of GPWv3 citations, please see http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/data/collection/gpw-v3/citations.

Additional information

ERIN DOXSEY-WHITFIELD is a Geographic Information Specialist at the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), Columbia University, 61 Route 9W, PO Box 1000, Palisades, NY 10964. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests include GIS, geospatial analysis, social and environmental vulnerability to climate change, and water quality.

KYTT MacMANUS is a Geographic Information Specialist at the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), Columbia University, 61 Route 9W, PO Box 1000, Palisades, NY 10964. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include scientific computing and GIS for data-informed decision making.

SUSANA B. ADAMO is an Associate Research Scientist at the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), Columbia University, 61 Route 9W, PO Box 1000, Palisades, NY 10964. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests include demography, ecology, environmental sociology, human impact, rural issues, and sociology.

LINDA PISTOLESI is a Geographic Information Specialist at the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), Columbia University, 61 Route 9W, PO Box 1000, Palisades, NY 10964. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests include geospatial analysis, vulnerability mapping, human-environment interactions, habitat mapping, and conservation GIS.

JOHN SQUIRES is a Research Staff Assistant at the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), Columbia University, 61 Route 9W, PO Box 1000, Palisades, NY 10964. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include GIS, sustainable food systems, forestry, water resources, and urban environments.

OLENA BORKOVSKA is a Research Staff Assistant at the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), Columbia University, 61 Route 9W, PO Box 1000, Palisades, NY 10964. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests include GIS, social and environmental vulnerability to climate change, social sciences, and population studies.

SANDRA R. BAPTISTA is a Senior Research Associate at the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), Columbia University, 61 Route 9W, PO Box 1000, Palisades, NY 10964. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests include land-change science, climate change adaptation, and interdisciplinary geospatial data access, integration, visualization, and dissemination.