GHSL R2024

GHSL R2024 presents the raw Global Human Settlement Layer data on its native 1 km Mollweide grid, without additional processing or filtering. This dataset is suitable for exploring the full GHSL output, including data points that may contain artifacts.

What it includes

• Grid 1 km population — GHS-POP values on the original 1 km equal-area grid cells
• City population and density statistics — per epoch, per city, computed directly from grid cells within city boundaries
• No outlier filtering — all cities are included as reported by GHSL, including those with potentially unrealistic density values

Spatial unit

1 km Mollweide equal-area grid cells. This is the native spatial resolution of the GHSL GHS-POP product.

Temporal coverage

12 epochs: 1975, 1980, 1985, 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, 2020, 2025, 2030.

Source

Produced by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC). See GHSL — Global Human Settlement Layer for full source information.

Datasets

The Urban World provides two datasets for exploring global urbanization. Each dataset uses a different spatial representation and level of curation.

Available datasets

• Urban World v1 — a curated dataset using H3 hexagonal grids with city emergence narratives, per-cell population heatmaps, outlier filtering, and radial density profiles
• GHSL R2024 — the raw Global Human Settlement Layer on its native 1 km grid, presented without filtering

Pipeline overview

Raw raster data is downloaded from the GHSL, reprojected, and aggregated into these datasets:

Source data

Both datasets are derived from the Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL) produced by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre.

Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL)

The Global Human Settlement Layer is produced by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC). It provides global, open, multi-temporal data on human presence on Earth.

What it measures

• GHS-POP — population distribution grids (residents per cell)
• GHS-BUILT-S — built-up surface area (square meters of built footprint per cell)

Both products are available at 1 km and 100 m resolution, in the Mollweide equal-area projection.

Temporal coverage

GHSL R2023A provides data for 12 epochs: 1975, 1980, 1985, 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, 2020, 2025, and 2030. The 2025 and 2030 epochs are model-based projections.

How we use it

We download the 1 km resolution GHS-POP rasters in WGS84 projection (30 arc-second) and process the entire world into H3 Resolution 8 hexagons using area-weighted extraction (exactextract). This produces a global population timeseries of ~57 million H3 cells across 12 epochs.

From this global dataset we derive per-city statistics, population heatmaps with 30 km buffer zones, proto-city emergence data, and Bertaud-style radial density profiles using per-epoch population-weighted centroids.

City boundaries and birth years come from the GHSL Urban Centre Database (UCDB) and its Multi-Temporal Urban Centre (MTUC) boundaries, which track how each city's footprint changes across epochs.

UN World Population Prospects

The World Population Prospects (WPP) is produced by the Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA). It is the official source for global population estimates and projections, updated biennially.

What it measures

Total population based on the de facto definition — all residents of a country regardless of legal status or citizenship. Values are midyear estimates.

Temporal coverage

Estimates from 1950 to the present, with medium-variant projections through 2100. We use the 2024 revision (WPP 2024), accessed via the World Bank Open Data portal (indicator SP.POP.TOTL).

How we use it

We display the UN WPP total as the "World Population" headline figure. This provides the globally recognized denominator for urban share calculations and growth rate context.

UN World Urbanization Prospects

The World Urbanization Prospects (WUP) is produced by the Population Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA). It provides the official estimates and projections of urban and rural populations for all countries.

What it measures

The UN urban population count is based on national statistical definitions of "urban." Each country defines its own criteria — some use population thresholds, others use administrative boundaries, density, or economic activity. The UN aggregates these national definitions into a global total.

Why it differs from satellite-derived data

The Urban World uses satellite-derived city boundaries (GHSL Urban Centre Database) to define cities, which produces a lower total than the UN figure. This gap exists because:

• National definitions are broader — many countries classify small towns, peri-urban areas, and administrative units as "urban" even when satellite imagery shows sparse settlement
• Satellite boundaries are stricter — GHSL defines urban centres based on contiguous built-up area and population density, which excludes dispersed settlements that national statistics count as urban
• Different units of analysis — the UN counts people living in nationally-defined urban areas; we count people living within physically delineated city footprints

The difference is not an error — it reflects fundamentally different approaches to answering "what is urban?"

How we use it

We display the UN figure as the headline "Urban Population" to provide the globally recognized reference point. Our dataset's total is shown alongside it as context, helping users understand how much of the world's officially urban population is captured by satellite-derived city definitions.

Urban World v1

Urban World v1 is a curated analytical dataset built on top of the Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL). It uses H3 Resolution 8 hexagons as its spatial unit and applies additional processing to produce clean, reliable urban statistics.

What it includes

• Global H3 R8 population grid — GHSL population values reaggregated onto Uber's H3 hexagonal grid at resolution 8 (~0.74 km² per cell) using area-weighted extraction (exactextract) for the entire world
• City population and density statistics — per epoch, per city, with birth and death year tracking
• City emergence narratives — proto-city population data for epochs before a city is classified as an urban center, and post-city data for cities that fall below the threshold
• Per-city H3 heatmaps — population per H3 cell within a 30 km buffer zone around each city, visible across all epochs
• Density outlier filtering — statistical removal of cities with unrealistic density values caused by GHSL disaggregation artifacts
• Radial density profiles — Bertaud-style profiles measuring how density varies from a population-weighted H3 centroid that updates per epoch

Spatial unit

H3 Resolution 8 hexagons. Each hexagon covers approximately 0.74 km², providing globally consistent spatial units with uniform adjacency properties.

Temporal coverage

12 epochs: 1975, 1980, 1985, 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, 2020, 2025, 2030.

City lifecycle

GHSL defines urban centers using population and built-up area thresholds. Cities are born when a cluster of cells first meets the criteria, and can die if they later fall below it.

• Birth year — the first epoch where the city is classified as an urban center (from MTUC year-of-birth)
• Death year — the first epoch after the city's last appearance in the MTUC boundary dataset
• Proto-city data — for cities born after 1975, we show the population accumulating in the area that will become the city, using the birth-year boundary projected back in time
• Post-city data — for cities that disappear, we continue tracking population in the last-known boundary

Methodology

See Density Outlier Filtering and Radial Density Profiles for detailed descriptions of the analytical methods applied to this dataset.

Source data

Urban World v1 is derived from GHSL R2023A. The raw raster data is reprojected, reaggregated onto H3 cells using area-weighted extraction (exactextract), and then processed through the Urban World pipeline.