The GeoNames geographical database covers all countries and contains over eight million placenames that are available for download free of charge. http://www.geonames.org/ Populated Places - (Geonames) includes three separate layers: - cities with a population > 1'000 inhabitants (ca 146'000 records) - cities with a population > 5'000 inhabitants (ca 48'000 records) - cities with a population > 15'000 inhabitants and capitals (ca 24'000 records) The Data is provided "as is" without warranty or any representation of accuracy, timeliness or completeness.

The Global Rural-Urban Mapping Project, Version 1 (GRUMPv1) consists of estimates of human population for the years 1990, 1995, and 2000 by 30 arc-second (1km) grid cells and associated data sets dated circa 2000. A proportional allocation gridding algorithm, utilizing more than 1,000,000 national and sub-national geographic units, is used to assign population values (counts, in persons) to grid cells. This data set is produced by the Columbia University Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) in collaboration with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), The World Bank, and Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT).

World Cities provides a base map layer of the cities for the world. The cities include national capitals, provincial capitals, major population centers, and landmark cities.

2010 estimates of total number of people per grid square across Africa South America and Asia, with national totals adjusted to match UN population division estimates, 2012 revision (http://esa.un.org/wpp/)

Population counts at 250 m resolution. These spatial raster datasets depict the distribution and density of population, expressed as the number of people per cell. Residential population estimates for target years 1975, 1990, 2000, and 2015 provided by CIESIN were disaggregated from census or administrative units to grid cells, informed by the distribution and density of built-up as mapped in the Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL) global layers for 1975, 1990, 2000, and 2014. Values are expressed as decimals (‘Float’).”

LandScan Global Population Database 2011. Population counts at 30 arc second resolution. Using an innovative approach with Geographic Information System and Remote Sensing, ORNL's LandScan™ is the community standard for global population distribution. At approximately 1 km resolution (30" X 30"), LandScan is the finest resolution global population distribution data available and represents an ambient population (average over 24 hours). The LandScan algorithm, an R&D 100 Award Winner, uses spatial data and imagery analysis technologies and a multi-variable dasymetric modeling approach to disaggregate census counts within an administrative boundary. Since no single population distribution model can account for the differences in spatial data availability, quality, scale, and accuracy as well as the differences in cultural settlement practices, LandScan population distribution models are tailored to match the data conditions and geographical nature of each individual country and region

The Global Rural-Urban Mapping Project, Version 1 (GRUMPv1) consists of estimates of human population for the years 1990, 1995, and 2000 by 30 arc-second (1km) grid cells and associated data sets dated circa 2000. A proportional allocation gridding algorithm, utilizing more than 1,000,000 national and sub-national geographic units, is used to assign population values (counts, in persons) to grid cells. This data set is produced by the Columbia University Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) in collaboration with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), The World Bank, and Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT).

Gridded Population of the World, Version 4 (GPWv4) Population Density Adjusted to Match 2015 Revision of UN WPP Country Totals consists of estimates of human population density, based on counts consistent with national censuses and population registers with respect to relative spatial distribution, but adjusted to match the 2015 Revision of UN World Population Prospects country totals for the years 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2020.. A proportional allocation gridding algorithm, utilizing approximately 12.5 million national and sub-national administrative units, is used to assign population values to 30 arc-second (~1 km) grid cells. The population density grids are derived by dividing the population count grids by the land area grids. The pixel values represent persons per square kilometer.

The developed approach outputs a global raster layer representing both the spatial distribution and density of built-up areas, for the year 2010. The information about the presence of built-up is expressed as the percentage of built-up area respect to the total surface of the cell. Values are expressed in the range [0 to 100]. The layer is made available as a grid having a spatial resolution of 30-arc seconds (approximately 1 km at the equator), in the WGS84 coordinate system. Being available as a quantitative, continuous raster dataset significantly increases its value by facilitating integration with other spatial datasets for analysis or modeling The method uses machine learning techniques to understand the best population thresholds translating population densities to built-up densities. In the proposed methodology the MODIS Urban Land Cover (ULC) 500 m (C5) made by satellite data of the year circa 2001-2002 is used as training set for classification of the LandScan 2010 Global Population Database (LS). Similar techniques are described in Pesaresi et al. (2013) and Gueguen (2014) for the purpose of finding best rescaling parameters translating remote sensing image-derived features to a high-level-abstraction semantic as “built-up areas”.

The Global Roads Open Access Data Set, Version 1 (gROADSv1) was developed under the auspices of the CODATA Global Roads Data Development Task Group. The data set combines the best available roads data by country into a global roads coverage, using the UN Spatial Data Infrastructure Transport (UNSDI-T) version 2 as a common data model. All country road networks have been joined topologically at the borders, and many countries have been edited for internal topology. Source data for each country are provided in the documentation, and users are encouraged to refer to the readme file for use constraints that apply to a small number of countries. Because the data are compiled from multiple sources, the date range for road network representations ranges from the 1980s to 2010 depending on the country (most countries have no confirmed date), and spatial accuracy varies. The baseline global data set was compiled by the Information Technology Outreach Services (ITOS) of the University of Georgia. Updated data for 27 countries and 6 smaller geographic entities were assembled by Columbia University's Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), with a focus largely on developing countries with the poorest data coverage.