Rural population count at 1 km for 2000-2020 based on WorldPop and GHS-SMOD urbanization level

Rural population count at 1 km grid in EPSG:4326 for 2000-2020 (annual). This is only an estimate of the rural population. This probably misses many rural areas, especially in the tropics. The maps were derived using two data sources:

WorldPop population counts at 1 km;

GHS-SMOD urbanization levels at 1 km;

Rural population is estimated using the following translation rules for GHS-SMOD (note: these are arbitrary rules based on the GHS-SMOD documentation):

Class 30: “Urban Centre grid cell” = 0% rural

Class 23: “Dense Urban Cluster grid cell” = 0.5% rural

Class 22: “Semi-dense Urban Cluster grid cell” = 2% rural

Class 21: “Suburban or per-urban grid cell” = 15% rural

Class 13: “Rural cluster grid cell” = 95% rural

Class 12: “Low Density Rural grid cell” = 100% rural

Class 11: “Very low density rural grid cell” = 100% rural

The nighttime images are based on: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7750174

Schiavina, Marcello; Melchiorri, Michele; Pesaresi, Martino (2023): GHS-SMOD R2023A - GHS settlement layers,application of the Degree of Urbanisation methodology (stage I) to GHS-POP R2023A and GHS-BUILT-S R2023A,multitemporal (1975-2030). European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) [Dataset] doi:10.2905/A0DF7A6F-49DE-46EA-9BDE-563437A6E2BA PID: http://data.europa.eu/89h/a0df7a6f-49de-46ea-9bde-563437a6e2ba