Connecting to public source…
KNOW YOUR NUMBERS
Search terms are sent to Photon’s public OpenStreetMap-based geocoder. It searches cities, towns, countries, and administrative regions worldwide, independently of the selected population layer. Coverage and place names depend on OpenStreetMap. Results are held in memory for this page only.
The 2D density layer is streamed from the public WorldPop / Esri imagery service for 2020, at approximately 100 m native resolution. Zoomed-out views use the separate WorldPop 1 km imagery layer, switching to 100 m as you zoom in. Images are resampled and do not display every original cell. These are modeled population estimates, not live counts.
Drawn region outlines are sent to the WorldPop Global2 API for 2020 totals at 100 m resolution. The imagery service and Global2 API use different WorldPop releases, so their results may differ. Requests without an API key are limited to 50,000 km² per region and 1,000 daily requests. Coverage percentage is not reported by the API. The 3D view and optional Mapbox basemap belong to the country/grid variants.
This viewer fetches Natural Earth’s public country dataset directly from its GitHub repository (release 5.1.2). No dataset is bundled or saved by this app. Refresh re-fetches that source release; it does not update the estimates to the current year. The Natural Earth variant shows country-average density, not city or neighborhood density. Click a country to see its source population and year. Small territories may be absent at this map scale.
Import the original global_tiles.json format: an array of { "lat": 37.5, "lng": 23.5, "d": 120 } cells. Here d is people/km². Cells default to 1° squares centered on their coordinates.
global_tiles.json
{ "lat": 37.5, "lng": 23.5, "d": 120 }
d
For other resolutions or provenance, use { "name": "My grid", "year": 2020, "source": "Source description", "cellSize": 0.5, "tiles": [...] }. All cells must have equal size, be on a regular grid, and must not overlap. Files stay in this browser.
{ "name": "My grid", "year": 2020, "source": "Source description", "cellSize": 0.5, "tiles": [...] }
For the Natural Earth source, country boundaries are intersected with your region. Population is assumed uniform within each country; region values are country-based approximations, not local census counts. Density uses the area of the source polygon, which may include inland water. Ocean, omitted countries, and unavailable population values are not counted. Imported grids instead use uniform density per cell. Each region is independent; overlapping regions should not be summed.
Polygons cannot cross the ±180° date line. Draw separate regions on either side. Source boundaries are generalized; this is not a surveying tool.
Natural Earth requests go directly to GitHub and are analyzed in your browser. WorldPop receives the current map extent, clicked coordinates, and any region outline you submit for analysis. Imported files are not uploaded. A failed request shows a retry state; no synthetic data is substituted. Natural Earth data is public domain. Connecting Mapbox additionally sends the public token and map requests to Mapbox.
OPTIONAL CARTOGRAPHY
Enter an origin-restricted Mapbox public token. The token is held in memory for this page only.