In the Americas, a range of national spatial data infrastructure (NSDI) initiatives exists, and a Permanent Committee for Spatial Data Infrastructure has recently been established to promote compatibility. The responses from 19 countries to a NSDI survey demonstrate that these national initiatives will facilitate development of regional data sets for population maps. In nearly every country surveyed, national statistics and census institutes are participants in the initiatives. The initiatives include better documentation and development of administrative boundaries, topography, hydrography, and transportation data sets. These datasets are viewed as fundamental, and are given priority as such. The majority of countries listed legal issues as one of their greatest concerns, and this has implications on the scientific community. Similarly, the trend in pricing policies based on cost recovery could limit many researchers. However, given the early state of these initiatives, the impact of NSDI on population and ancillary data sets could take some time. Increased efforts by international donors to support NSDIs worldwide would improve the likelihood that future data is more useful and accessible. Worldwide, spatial data infrastructure at national, regional and global levels, provides a framework for improving the next round of censuses by having better metadata, inclusion of standards with the data products, and by easier access through clearinghouse nodes. The Subcommittee on Cultural and Demographic Data (SCDD) of the U.S. NSDI is promoting standards for the description, documentation, and exchange of geospatially-referenced demographic data, identifying key demographic geospatial data sets critical for national planning and management needs, and publishing classification schemes for these data. This effort provides a guide for emerging NSDIs in other countries. Transnational and global compatibility of spatial data is dependent on close cooperation among nations.