WorldPop Project

Last updated
WorldPop
AbbreviationWorldPop
Formation2013-10-01
Type Research project
PurposeProducing detailed and freely-available population distribution maps for low- and middle-income countries.
Headquarters University 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
Website http://www.worldpop.org/

WorldPop is a research programme based in the School of Geography and Environmental Science, University of Southampton. [1] The programme employs a multidisplinary 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]

Contents

Areas of interest

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

Population Estimation

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

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

Outputs from WorldPop research contributes 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

Related Research Articles

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References

  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. 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 . Retrieved 2022-12-09.
  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 . Retrieved 2022-02-15.
  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. Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg
  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. 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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