UK gridded population at 1 km resolution for 2021 based on Census 2021/2022 and Land Cover Map 2021
This dataset contains gridded human population with a spatial resolution of 1 km x 1 km for the UK based on Census 2021 (Census 2022 for Scotland) and Land Cover Map 2021 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 2021/2022 UK Census population data on Output Area level with Land Cover Map 2021 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). Full details about this dataset can be found at
https://doi.org/10.5285/7beefde9-c520-4ddf-897a-0167e8918595
Simple
- Date (Publication)
- 2025-02-26
- Identifier
- doi: / 10.5285/7beefde9-c520-4ddf-897a-0167e8918595
- Other citation details
- Carnell, E., Tomlinson, S.J., Reis, S. (2025). UK gridded population at 1 km resolution for 2021 based on Census 2021/2022 and Land Cover Map 2021. NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre 10.5285/7beefde9-c520-4ddf-897a-0167e8918595
Point of contact
UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
-
Carnell, E.
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0870-1955
- GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0
-
- Population Distribution - Demography
- Access constraints
- otherRestrictions Other restrictions
- Other constraints
- no limitations
- Use constraints
- otherRestrictions Other restrictions
- Use constraints
- otherRestrictions Other restrictions
- Other constraints
- If you reuse this data, you should cite: Carnell, E., Tomlinson, S.J., Reis, S. (2025). UK gridded population at 1 km resolution for 2021 based on Census 2021/2022 and Land Cover Map 2021. NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre https://doi.org/10.5285/7beefde9-c520-4ddf-897a-0167e8918595
- Spatial representation type
- grid Grid
- Distance
- 1000 urn:ogc:def:uom:EPSG::9001
- Metadata language
- EnglishEnglish
- Character set
- utf8 UTF8
- Topic category
-
- Society
- Begin date
- 2021-01-01
- End date
- 2022-12-31
N
S
E
W
- Unique resource identifier
- OSGB 1936 / British National Grid
- Distribution format
-
-
TIFF
()
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TIFF
()
- OnLine resource
-
Download the data
Download a copy of this data
- OnLine resource
-
Supporting information
Supporting information available to assist in re-use of this dataset
- Hierarchy level
- dataset Dataset
- Other
- dataset
Conformance result
- Date (Publication)
- 2010-12-08
- Statement
- Census data from the Office of National Statistics, National Records for Scotland and Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency have been downloaded as CSV/Excel files. Land Cover Map 2021 raster data has been obtained from UKCEH. Output Area (/Data Zone) 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 2021/2022 Census totals. As a result, the final output file is consistent with the Census total population for the UK in 2021.
- File identifier
- 7beefde9-c520-4ddf-897a-0167e8918595 XML
- Metadata language
- EnglishEnglish
- Character set
- ISO/IEC 8859-1 (also known as Latin 1) 8859 Part 1
- Hierarchy level
- dataset Dataset
- Hierarchy level name
- dataset
- Date stamp
- 2025-11-13T16:16:11
- Metadata standard name
- UK GEMINI
- Metadata standard version
- 2.3
Point of contact
NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre
Lancaster Environment Centre, Library Avenue, Bailrigg
,
Lancaster
,
LA1 4AP
,
UK
https://eidc.ac.uk/
Overviews
Spatial extent
N
S
E
W
Provided by
Associated resources
Not available
NERC Data Catalogue Service