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facebook_population_density·dataset

High-Resolution Global Population Density Map

Population Density Maps using satellite imagery built by Meta
land NASA VEDA COG
In plain English

What it measures. A detailed map showing where people live, with darker areas marking denser population and lighter areas sparser, at roughly 30-meter resolution.

How it's made. Built by Meta (Facebook) by detecting buildings in satellite imagery and combining that with census data to estimate population.

How & where you'd use it. Helps responders and planners know how many people are in a disaster zone or underserved area.

What's measured

facebookpopulationdensity

Coverage & cadence

  • Time span2015-01-01 → 2015-01-01
  • Spatial extent-180, -55.986, 179.82, 71.331
  • FormatsCOG

What you can do with it

  • Track deforestation, fire scars and land-cover change
  • Monitor crop and vegetation health (NDVI/EVI)
  • Map how built-up vs. green an area is over time
Official description

Facebook high-resolution population density: Darker areas indicate higher population density areas and lighter areas indicate lower population density areas, with a 30m² resolution.

Get the data

veda_access.py
# NASA VEDA — open STAC API, anonymous (cloud-optimized GeoTIFFs)
from pystac_client import Client

cat = Client.open("https://openveda.cloud/api/stac")
col = cat.get_collection("facebook_population_density")
items = list(col.get_items())          # browse the analysis-ready COGs
# open an asset with rioxarray:
# import rioxarray; da = rioxarray.open_rasterio(items[0].assets["cog_default"].href)
NASA VEDA is an open STAC catalog — browse and stream the cloud-optimized GeoTIFFs anonymously (no login).