Populated Places and Settlements in the Maldives from OpenStreetMap

OpenStreetMap data for settlements and residential areas in the Maldives includes named cities, towns, villages, suburbs, and residential land. The dataset is an export by the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT) and was last updated on 2026-05-14. Completeness varies by region, with urban areas likely being more thoroughly mapped than remote areas.

Use Cases

• Create demographic context maps based on named populated places.
• Perform settlement-level targeting for aid or services using residential landuse polygons.
• Conduct population distribution analysis based on the density and location of settlements.

Strengths

• Data is sourced from OpenStreetMap, a widely-used collaborative mapping project.
• Available in multiple geospatial file formats including GEOPACKAGE, KML, SHP, and GEOJSON.
• Explicitly includes features tagged with `place=*` and `landuse=residential`.

Limitations

• Completeness varies by region; remote areas may be incomplete.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

OpenStreetMap

Collection Method

Volunteer-collaborative mapping, exported by the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT).

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-14 18:39:40.117038; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Maldives