UK gridded population 2011 based on Census 2011 and Land Cover Map 2015

https://doi.org/10.5285/0995e94d-6d42-40c1-8ed4-5090d82471e1

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Contains National Statistics data © Crown copyright and database right

This dataset is made available under the terms of the Open Government Licence

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This dataset contains gridded human population with a spatial resolution of 1 km x 1 km for the UK based on Census 2011 and Land Cover Map 2015 input data. Data on population distribution for the United Kingdom is available from statistical offices in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland and provided to the public e.g. via the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Population data is typically provided in tabular form or, based on a range of different geographical units, in file types for geographical information systems (GIS), for instance as ESRI Shapefiles. The geographical units reflect administrative boundaries at different levels of detail, from Devolved Administration to Output Areas (OA), wards or intermediate geographies. While the presentation of data on the level of these geographical units is useful for statistical purposes, accounting for spatial variability for instance of environmental determinants of public health requires a more spatially homogeneous population distribution. For this purpose, the dataset presented here combines 2011 UK Census population data on Output Area level with Land Cover Map 2015 land-use classes 'urban' and 'suburban' to create a consistent and comprehensive gridded population data product at 1 km x 1 km spatial resolution. The mapping product is based on British National Grid (OSGB36 datum).

Publication date: 2017-11-22

17 citations

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More information

View numbers valid from 01 June 2023 Download numbers valid from 20 June 2024 (information prior to this was not collected)

Format

ASCII grid

Spatial information

Study area

Spatial representation types

Tabular (text)
Raster

Spatial reference system

OSGB 1936 / British National Grid

Provenance & quality

Census data from the Office of National Statistics have been downloaded as CSV files.

Land Cover Map 2015 vector data has been obtained from CEH.

Output Area geography data (Extent of the Realm), were obtained for England & Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland.

The processing steps are detailed in the Supporting Documentation.

To ensure consistency of the final product, total population numbers were compared, at each processing step, with the official 2011 Census totals. In particular due to the clipping process, which merges data on different geographies, areas where population data are provided on administrative boundaries and areas which contain urban, suburban and urban industrial land use parcels, some inconsistencies are inevitable. In addition, the Land Cover Map has been generated in 2015 (with satellite data compiled prior to the release, whereas Census data was obtained in 2011. In the period in between, changes in residential areas will have emerged, which result in different urban or suburban land use data in LCM 2015 compared to the 2011 census (e.g. newly developed residential areas). While there is a difference between residential and workday populations in the Census dataset of 0.107%, the same population figure has been assumed for scaling. As a result, the final output file is consistent with the Census total population for the UK in 2011 within 0.0012% for residential and 0.0005% for workday populations respectively.

Licensing and constraints

This dataset is made available under the terms of the Open Government Licence

Cite this dataset as:

Reis, S.; Liska, T.; Steinle, S.; Carnell, E.; Leaver, D.; Roberts, E.; Vieno, M.; Beck, R.; Dragosits, U. (2017). UK gridded population 2011 based on Census 2011 and Land Cover Map 2015. NERC Environmental Information Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/0995e94d-6d42-40c1-8ed4-5090d82471e1

BibTeX RIS

Contains National Statistics data © Crown copyright and database right

Citations

Reis, S., Liška, T., Vieno, M., Carnell, E. J., Beck, R., Clemens, T., … Heal, M. R. (2018). The influence of residential and workday population mobility on exposure to air pollution in the UK. Environment International, 121, 803–813. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2018.10.005

Visser-Quinn, A., Beevers, L., Collet, L., Formetta, G., Smith, K., Wanders, N., … Kumar, R. (2019). Spatio-temporal analysis of compound hydro-hazard extremes across the UK. Advances in Water Resources, 130, 77–90. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advwatres.2019.05.019

Sumner, S., Bevan, P., Hart, A.G., & Isaac, N.J.B. (2019). Mapping species distributions in 2 weeks using citizen science. Insect Conservation and Diversity, 12(5), 382-388. https://doi.org/10.1111/icad.12345

Watson, J., Zidek, J.V., & Shaddick, G. (2019). A general theory for preferential sampling in environmental networks. The Annals of Applied Statistics, 13(4), 2662-2700. https://doi.org/10.1214/19-aoas1288

Reis, S., Liska, T., Vieno, M., Carnell, E., Beck, R., Clemens, T., Dragosits, U., Tomlinson, S., Leaver, D., & Heal, M. (2018). The Influence of Residential and Workday Population Mobility on Exposure to Air Pollution in the UK.ISEE Conference Abstracts, 2018(1). https://doi.org/10.1289/isesisee.2018.o03.02.16

Stański, K., Lycett, S., Porphyre, T. & Bronsvoort, B.M. de C. (2021) Using machine learning improves predictions of herd-level bovine tuberculosis breakdowns in Great Britain. Scientific Reports 11. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-81716-4

Macintyre, H.L., Mitsakou, C., Vieno, M., Heal, M.R., Heaviside, C. & Exley, K.S. (2023) Future impacts of O3 on respiratory hospital admission in the UK from current emissions policies. Environment International 178, 108046. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2023.108046

Coney, J., Pickering, B., Dufton, D., Lukach, M., Brooks, B., & Neely, R.R., III. (2022). How useful are crowdsourced air temperature observations? An assessment of Netatmo stations and quality control schemes over the United Kingdom. Meteorological Applications, 29(3). https://doi.org/10.1002/met.2075

Macintyre, H.L., Mitsakou, C., Vieno, M., Heal, M.R., Heaviside, C., & Exley, K.S. (2023). Impacts of emissions policies on future UK mortality burdens associated with air pollution. Environment International, 174, 107862. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2023.107862

Bassett, R., Young, P.J., Blair, G.S., Cai, X.M., & Chapman, L. (2020). Urbanisation’s contribution to climate warming in Great Britain. Environmental Research Letters, 15(11), 114014. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abbb51

Ascott, M.J., Gooddy, D.C., & Surridge, B.W.J. (2018). Public Water Supply Is Responsible for Significant Fluxes of Inorganic Nitrogen in the Environment. Environmental Science & Technology, 52(24), 14050–14060. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.8b03204

Dobson, M.C., Warren, P.H., & Edmondson, J.L. (2021). Assessing the Direct Resource Requirements of Urban Horticulture in the United Kingdom: A Citizen Science Approach. Sustainability, 13(5), 2628. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13052628

Madankan, M., & Renforth, P. (2023). An inventory of UK mineral resources suitable for enhanced rock weathering. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, 130, 104010. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2023.104010

Libuy, N., Fitzsimons, E., & Church, D. (2024). Describing the geographical linkage between the UK Millennium Cohort Study and crime incidents in England and Wales. International Journal of Population Data Science, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.23889/ijpds.v9i1.2132

Murage, P., Macintyre, H.L., Heaviside, C., Vardoulakis, S., Fučkar, N., Rimi, R.H., & Hajat, S. (2024). Future temperature-related mortality in the UK under climate change scenarios: Impact of population ageing and bias-corrected climate projections. Environmental Research, 259, 119565. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2024.119565

de la Cruz Libardi, A., Masselot, P., Schneider, R., Nightingale, E., Milojevic, A., Vanoli, J., Mistry, M.N., & Gasparrini, A. (2024). High resolution mapping of nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter in Great Britain (2003–2021) with multi-stage data reconstruction and ensemble machine learning methods. Atmospheric Pollution Research, 15(11), 102284. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apr.2024.102284

Whelan, M.J., Pemberton, E., Hughes, C.B., Swansborough, C., Goslan, E.H., Gouin, T., Bell, V.A., Bird, E., Bull, S., Segal, L., Cook, S.H., Jephcote, C., & Fane, S. (2025). A tiered assessment of human health risks associated with exposure to persistent, mobile and toxic chemicals via drinking water. Science of The Total Environment, 958, 177868. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.177868

Correspondence/contact details

Reis, S.

UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology

Bush Estate
Penicuik
Midlothian
EH26 0QB
UNITED KINGDOM

enquiries@ceh.ac.uk