All ERA5 datasets have been migrated to Zarr v3 with improved chunking. Previous dataset versions are still available, but we recommend using the new ones.
Future updates will only apply to Zarr v3 datasets, including ERA5 monthly updates.

Hybrid gridded demographic data for the world, 1950-2020 0.25 degree resolution

This is a hybrid gridded dataset of demographic data for the world, given as 5-year population bands at a 0.25 degree grid resolution.

This dataset combines the NASA SEDAC Gridded Population of the World version 4 (GPWv4) with the ISIMIP Histsoc gridded population data and the United Nations World Population Program (WPP) demographic modelling data. Demographic fractions are given for the time period covered by the UN WPP model (1950-2050) while demographic totals are given for the time period covered by the combination of GPWv4 and Histsoc (1950-2020). More detailes can be found on the page of the original version (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3768003).

This release increases the resolution to 0.25° and is explicitly designed to match with the grid definition of the ERA5 climate reanalysis dataset. For pre-2000 population data, the ISIMIP Histsoc data was upscaled from it's native 0.5° resolution.

How to download the data

This Python snippet includes the token directly in the URL.

1import xarray as xr
2
3xr.open_dataset(
4    "https://edh:<your API key>@data.earthdatahub.destine.eu/derived-GPWv4-Histsoc/demographics-hybrid-1950-2020-15-min-v0",
5    chunks={},
6    engine="zarr",
7)

Variables

Short NameUnitsDescription
demographic_totals
DestinE platform