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What are the sources for the subnational population data?

The data come from two sources:

  • Population census and national population estimates published by each country’s national statistical offices
  • The Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, in collaboration with national statistical offices and other data providers worldwide, makes available a global gridded population database derived from the highest-resolution subnational population data available. Known as the Gridded Population of the World (GPW), the dataset is produced by CIESIN under the auspices of the Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC).

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