Gridded Population of the World (GPW), v4

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Population Estimation Service

The Population Estimation Service (PES) is a Web-based service for estimating population totals, basic demographic characteristics, and related statistics within a user-defined region. It enables users of a wide variety of map clients and tools to quickly obtain estimates of the number of people residing in specific areas without having to download and analyze large amounts of spatial data. The PES accepts polygons that define areas of interest, a list of one or more requested statistics from the set [COUNT, MINIMUM, MAXIMUM, RANGE, MEAN, STD, SUM]; and a list of one or more variable identifiers from the list of variables described here (If you have trouble accessing the link to list of variables, please contact SEDAC User Services at ciesin.info@ciesin.columbia.edu for help). The estimates returned are based on data from SEDAC's Gridded Population of the World, Version 4 Revision 11 (GPWv4.11) data collection.

The service is accessible through three standard protocols used by many online map tools and clients: the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Web processing service (WPS) standard, a representational state transfer (REST) interface, and a simple object access protocol (SOAP) interface. Standards-based clients such as uDig and QGIS are able to submit requests using the OGC WPS. The REST interface is intended for use with lightweight javascript clients.

Access

SEDAC provides a web app to access the Population Estimation Service. Please use the following link:

The Population Estimation Service may also be accessed through other online map clients or Geographic Information System (GIS) software packages if they support spatial queries through one of the three supported protocols. The service descriptions for each protocol are available at:

A service request may be made directly to the REST service using syntax that follows the default example, but may differ in terms of user defined variable identifiers and requested statistics.

Recommended Citation:

Center for International Earth Science Information Network - CIESIN - Columbia University. 2018. Population Estimation Service, Version 3 (PES-v3). Palisades, NY: NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC). https://doi.org/10.7927/H4DR2SK5. Accessed DAY MONTH YEAR.