WorldPop is a research programme based in the School of Geography and Environmental Science, University of Southampton.[1] The programme employs a multidisciplinary team of researchers, analysts, GIS technicians, and project specialists who construct open data on populations and population attributes at high spatial resolution. Created from a combination of The AfriPop Project, AmeriPop, and AsiaPop projects in 2013, WorldPop engages in geospatial demographic projects with governments and institutions in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) as well as collaborations with partner organisations, such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, United Nations agencies, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office,[2] commercial data providers and other international development organisations. The programme provides training in population modelling to ministries of health and national statistical offices in LMICs and works with them to support health and demographic surveys[3] to achieve Sustainable Development Goals[4]

WorldPop
AbbreviationWorldPop
Formation2013-10-01
TypeResearch project
PurposeProducing detailed and freely-available population distribution maps for low- and middle-income countries.
HeadquartersUniversity of Southampton Southampton, Hampshire
Location
  • United Kingdom
Region served
Global
Official language
English
Coordinator
Professor Andrew J Tatem
AffiliationsSchool of Geography and Environmental Science, University of Southampton
Websitehttp://www.worldpop.org/

Areas of interest

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Screen capture of WorldPop Demographics Portal interface showing subnational age/sex structures for Africa, 2020

Population Estimation

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WorldPop develops statistical population modelling methods to produce gridded population estimates that support census activities.[11][12] The programme develops new methods for data synthesis that use demographic and health surveys, census, satellite imagery,[13] cell phone[14] and other data to create consistent gridded outputs[15] and map detailed population densities.[16][17] These methods are subjected to peer review and many of the output datasets are published as open access in the journal Scientific Data.

A case study evaluating several geospatial datasets against the 'gold-standard' census data for Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea found that while the WorldPop Constrained dataset for the area matched best at lower population densities, WorldPop Unconstrained data performed poorly at all densities.[18]

Population of Papua New Guinea

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Although the government of Papua New Guinea had estimated the country's population at 9.4 million, unpublished findings of a population estimation study funded by the United Nations Population Fund[19] and conducted by WorldPop in November 2022 suggested the true population was close to 17 million.[20][21] This estimate was reviewed and amended to less than 11 million and the methodology used to calculate this figure was published in July 2023.[22][23]

WorldPop Database

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Outputs from WorldPop research contribute to a spatial database of linked information on contemporary census data, satellite-imagery-derived settlement maps, and land cover information. The resultant API, datasets, methods, and maps are available under Creative Commons license on the project's websites. Through collaboration with Esri, gridded population datasets produced by WorldPop are also available in the ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World [24][25]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Southampton Geospatial". Southampton Geospatial. University of Southampton. Retrieved 2022-11-04.
  2. ^ Ian Coady (2021-05-24). "Highlight on the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: How the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office is helping to put everyone on the map". UK Government. Retrieved 2022-11-04.
  3. ^ Tatem, Andrew (2015-01-31). "WorldPop, open data for spatial demography". Scientific Data. 4 (170004): 3. doi:10.1038/sdata.2017.4. PMC 5283060. PMID 28140397. Retrieved 2022-02-14.
  4. ^ Andrew J. Tatem (2016-07-01). "The Beveridge Memorial Lecture, 2016" (PDF). The Royal Statistical Society. Retrieved February 15, 2022.
  5. ^ Tatem, Andrew (2014-08-14). "Mapping the denominator: spatial demography in the measurement of progress". International Health. 6 (3): 153–155. doi:10.1093/inthealth/ihu057. PMC 4161992. PMID 25125576. Retrieved 2022-12-09.
  6. ^ Pindolia, Deepa; Garcia, Andres; Wesolowski, Amy; Smith, David; Buckee, Caroline; Noor, Abdisalan; Snow, Robert; Tatem, Andrew (2012-06-18). "Human movement data for malaria control and elimination strategic planning". Malaria Journal. 11 (205): 205. doi:10.1186/1475-2875-11-205. PMC 3464668. PMID 22703541.
  7. ^ Tatem, Andrew (2022-06-21). "Small area population denominators for improved disease surveillance and response". Epidemics. 40 (September 2022): 100597. doi:10.1016/j.epidem.2022.100597. PMC 9212890. PMID 35749928.
  8. ^ Nilsen, Kristine; Tejedor-Garavito, Natalia; Leasure, Douglas; Utazi, Edson; Ruktanonchai, Corrine; Wigley, Adelle; Dooley, Claire; Matthews, Zoë; Tatem, Andrew (2021-09-13). "A review of geospatial methods for population estimation and their use in constructing reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health service indicators". BMC Health Services Research. 21 (370): 370. doi:10.1186/s12913-021-06370-y. PMC 8436450. PMID 34511089.
  9. ^ Lai, Shengjie; Ruktanonchai, Nick; Zhou, Liangcai; Prosper, Oliver; Luo, Wei; Floyd, Jessica; Wesolowski, Amy; Santillana, Mauricio; Zhang, Chi; Du, Xiangjun; Yu, Honggjie; Tatem, Andrew (2020-05-04). "Effect of non-pharmaceutical interventions to contain COVID-19 in China". Nature. 585 (7825): 410–413 (2020). Bibcode:2020Natur.585..410L. doi:10.1038/s41586-020-2293-x. PMC 7116778. PMID 32365354.
  10. ^ Dotse-Gborgbortsi, Winfred; Nilsen, Kristine; Ofosu, Anthony; Matthews, Zoë; Tejedor-Garavito, Natalia; Wright, Jim; Tatem, Andrew (2022-08-31). "Distance is "a big problem": a geographic analysis of reported and modelled proximity to maternal health services in Ghana". BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth. 22 (672): 672. doi:10.1186/s12884-022-04998-0. PMC 9429654. PMID 36045351.
  11. ^ United Nations Population Fund (2020). "The Value of Modelled Population Estimates for Census Planning and Preparation" (PDF). United Nations Population Fund. Retrieved February 15, 2022.
  12. ^ Ryan Lenora Brown (2021-11-29). "As South Sudan builds back, here's how a census can help". The Christian Science Monitor. Retrieved February 15, 2022.
  13. ^ Tatem AJ, Noor AM, Hay SI (2004). "Defining approaches to settlement mapping for public health management in Kenya using medium spatial resolution satellite imagery". Remote Sensing of Environment. 93 (1–2): 42–52. Bibcode:2004RSEnv..93...42T. doi:10.1016/j.rse.2004.06.014. PMC 3350067. PMID 22581984.
  14. ^ Steele, Jessica; Pezzulo, Carla; Albert, Maximillian; Brooks, Christopher; zu Erbach-Schoenberg, Elisabeth; O'Connor, Siobhán; Sundsøy, Pål; Engø-Monsen, Kenth; Nilsen, Kristine; Graupe, Bonita; Nyachhyon, Rajesh Lal; Silpakar, Pradeep; Tatem, Andrew (2021-11-22). "Mobility and phone call behavior explain patterns in poverty at high-resolution across multiple settings". Humanities and Social Sciences Communications. 8: 288. doi:10.1057/s41599-021-00953-0. S2CID 244506793.
  15. ^ Thompson, Dana; Rhoda, Dale; Tatem, Andrew; Castro, Marcia (2020-09-09). "Gridded population survey sampling: a systematic scoping review of the field and strategic research agenda". International Journal of Health Geography. 19 (34): 16. doi:10.1186/s12942-020-00230-4. PMC 7488014. PMID 32907588.
  16. ^ Linard C, Alegana, VA, Noor AM, Snow RW, Tatem AJ (2010). "A high resolution spatial population database of Somalia for disease risk mapping". International Journal of Health Geographics. 9: 45. doi:10.1186/1476-072x-9-45. PMC 2949749. PMID 20840751.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  17. ^ Tatem AJ, Noor AM, von Hagen C, Di Gregorio A, Hay SI (2007). "High resolution settlement and population maps for low income nations: combining land cover and national census in East Africa". PLOS ONE. 2 (12): e1298. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.280.5731. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0001298. PMC 2110897. PMID 18074022.  
  18. ^ Fries B, Guerra CA, García GA, Wu SL, Smith JM, Oyono JN, Donfack OT, Nfumu JO, Hay SI, Smith DL, Dolgert AJ (2021-11-22). "Measuring the accuracy of gridded human population density surfaces: A case study in Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea". PLOS ONE. 19 (9): e0248646. Bibcode:2021PLoSO..1648646F. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0248646. PMC 8409626. PMID 34469444.
  19. ^ United Nations Population Fund (2020). "UNFPA: Census". United Nations Population Fund. Retrieved December 13, 2022.
  20. ^ Sydney, Bernard Lagan. "Papua New Guinea finds real population is almost double official estimates". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 2022-12-06.
  21. ^ Randall, Angus. "Papua New Guinea population could hit 17 million". Retrieved 2022-12-06.
  22. ^ National Statistical Office of Papua New Guinea (2023). "Population Estimates 2021". National Statistical Office of Papua New Guinea. Retrieved October 20, 2023.
  23. ^ WorldPop (July 27, 2023). "Modelled Population Estimates for Papua New Guinea". WorldPop Open Population Repository. Retrieved October 20, 2023.
  24. ^ "Esri and WorldPop Partner to Bring Updated Demographic Data to Policy Makers". Esri. 2021-12-17. Retrieved 2022-11-04.
  25. ^ "WorldPop Project". ArcGIS Online. Esri. 2021-12-17. Retrieved 2022-11-04.
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