World Urban Areas represents the major urban areas of the world as shaded polygons.

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).

Metro Extracts are chunks of OpenStreetMap data clipped to the rectangular region surrounding a particular city or region of interest. Data is available for locations around the world. To download the OSM data, go to the Metro Extracts download page at https://mapzen.com/data/metro-extracts/. The page has a map showing the available downloads, as well as a filter box and an alphabetical list of city names below it.

Area of dense human habitation. Derived from 2002-2003 MODIS satellite data at 1 km resolution: Schneider, A., M. A. Friedl, D. K. McIver, and C. E. Woodcock (2003) Mapping urban areas by fusing multiple sources of coarse resolution remotely sensed data. Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing, volume 69, pages 1377-1386.

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.