Annual Gridded Population of China Calibrated with Census and Yearbook Data (2010–2020)

A calibrated annual gridded population dataset for mainland China from 2010 to 2020 integrates township-level census data and county-level statistical yearbooks. The 18.7 GB dataset, created by lanhui li and last updated in May 2026, uses a two-stage method to correct and scale original WorldPop, GlobPop, and LandScan raster products. Evaluation indicates its spatiotemporal consistency and spatial accuracy exceed those of the original source products.

Use Cases

• Modeling population exposure to environmental hazards based on calibrated, high-resolution gridded data.
• Analyzing decadal population change and urbanization patterns across China using the 2010–2020 time series.
• Benchmarking and improving other population estimation products based on the described calibration methodology.
• Informing infrastructure and service planning at sub-county levels using data corrected with official township and county statistics.

Strengths

• 18.7 GB of high-resolution raster data provides substantial spatial detail.
• Covers an 11-year time series (2010–2020) for longitudinal analysis.
• Calibrated against official census and statistical yearbook data, likely improving accuracy over source products.
• Published under a permissive CC-BY-4.0 license for broad reuse.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Excludes Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, limiting pan-China analyses.
• The dataset is split across multiple files (Part 1, 2, 3), which may complicate initial data assembly.

Provenance

Source

Census data and China Statistical Yearbooks, integrated with WorldPop, GlobPop, and LandScan grids.

Collection Method

Two-stage calibration using township-level census interpolation and county-level statistical yearbook scaling.

Time Range

2010–2020

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-30 14:07:14; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Mainland China (excluding Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan)