JRC-CENSUS dwelling grid 2021

The JRC-CENSUS Dwelling Grid 2021 is a dataset providing the count of total conventional dwellings for Europe according to the 2021 census at a spatial resolution of 1 kilometre x 1 kilometre (cell size). UNIT OF MEASURE: dw (dwellings count) RESOLUTION: pixel size=1km. COMPLETENESS: 100%. POLICY CONTEXT: This dataset was produced in the context of a collaboration between the JRC and Eurostat to enable analyses at higher spatial resolution and improved interoperability with other spatial datasets in a standardised grid, i.e., Eurostat’s GISCO 1 km grid. METHODOLOGY: The JRC-CENSUS Dwelling grid 2021 at 1 km resolution was produced by downscaling or disaggregating the count of conventional dwellings at municipality level available for Local Administrative Units (LAU), version 2021. The disaggregation was informed by a proxy layer at fine-scale spatial resolution on residential built-up volume – a technique often referred as dasymetric mapping. This approach involved the following main steps: (1) Production of the proxy layer, (2) Collection of census data on the number of dwellings per municipality, (3) Link between the census data and the geographical boundaries of municipalities, (4) Disaggregation of counts of dwellings from municipal boundaries to 1 km grid cells. DATA SOURCES: Eurostat Census grid 2021 V2-2 (version 22-01-2025), DBSMv1 R2023, EUBUCCO v0.1, OVERTURE Maps 2024-09-18.0, LUISA Base Map 2018, HR Water and Wetness Layer 2018, Coastal Zones LCLU 2018, GHS-BUILT-V R2023A, Urban Atlas Building Height 2012- v2, GHS-BUILT-ANBH, R2023A, TomTom Multinet 2018, LAU 2021, Census 2021 Dwellings occupancy status UNCERTAINTY AND LIMITATIONS: Despite the notable advance in the ancillary data used as proxy for dwelling distribution at 1 km resolution, certain limitations subsist. The residential built-up volume inherits errors present in the input data used, such as incorrect land-use classifications, omission and commission errors in the maps of built-up, as well as uncertainty in building height measurements. Although fully consistent with the original dwelling counts at LAU level, the dwelling grid at 1 km resolution should be considered an estimate.