Human Demand Index Dataset of 341 Cities in China (2000-2020)

The supply-demand relationship between humans and nature has a direct impact on sustainable development and human well-being. Drawing on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, we selected 12 indicators related to human socio-economic activities to reflect the human demand degree for ecosystems. For better cross-sectional comparison, all indicators are per capita or relative quantities, including: population density, proportion of urban population, retail sales of social consumer goods per capita, electricity consumption per capita, built-up area per capita, water consumption per capita, green area per capita, wastewater emissions per capita, sulphur dioxide emissions per capita, carbon dioxide emissions per capita and fertilizer use intensity. All data were then standardized by level difference, and the indicator weights were determined using the entropy method and hierarchical analysis. Finally, the Human Demand Index (HMDI) of 341 cities in China from 2000 to 2020 was calculated. The dataset is stored in .shp and .xls formats, and the size is 30.4 MB. The dataset could support ecosystem protection, resource and environmental carrying capacity accounting, urban sustainable development policies, etc. It could also be used for other studies.