Table 1 Summary of gridded population datasets available for LMICs
Approach | Name | Coverage | Population†| Constrained to settlements | Producer | Resolution | Years | Statistical error | Available |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Top-down | Global | Residential | No | Columbia University—Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) |  ~ 1 × 1 km | 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, 2020 | No | Yes—free | |
Global | Residential | Yes | Europe Commission—Joint Research Centre (JRC) | 250 × 250 m | 1975, 1990, 2000, 2015 | No | Yes—free | ||
High Resolution Settlement Layer (HRSL) [30] | 140 countries | Residential | Yes | Facebook & CIESIN |  ~ 30 × 30 m | Various 2015–2019 | No | Yes—free | |
World Population Estimate (WPE) [31] | Global | Residential | Yes | ESRI | 150 × 150 m | 2016 | No–but confidence level ranked | Yes—paid | |
LandScan-Global [36] | Global | Ambient | Yes | Oak Ridge National Laboratory |  ~ 1 × 1 km | Annually 2000–2017 | No | Yes—paid | |
Demobase [37] | 3 countries | Residential | Yes | United States Census Bureau |  ~ 100 × 100 m | Various 2003–2013 | Yes—at scale of input pop | Yes—free | |
57 countries | Residential | No | WorldPop Project |  ~ 100 × 100 m | Various 2010–2015 | No | Yes—free | ||
69 countries | Residential | No | WorldPop Project |  ~ 100 × 100 m | 2010, 2015, 2020 | Yes—at scale of input pop | Yes—free | ||
Global | Residential | No | WorldPop Project |  ~ 100 × 100 m | Annually 2000–2020 | Yes—at scale of input pop | Yes—free | ||
Bottom-up | LandScan HD [39] | 23 countries | Day-time, residential, & ambient | Yes | Oak Ridge National Laboratory |  ~ 100 × 100 m | varying | Yes—by cell | Yes—by request‡ |
GRID3 [40] | 10 countries | Residential | Yes | WorldPop Project, Flowminder Foundation, CIESIN, UN Population Fund (UNFPA) |  ~ 100 × 100 m | varying | Yes—by cell | Yes—free |