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Download Population Rasters from WorldPop

Source: R/download_worldpop_rasters.R
download_worldpop.Rd

Downloads population raster files from WorldPop for specified countries and years. Automatically selects the appropriate dataset based on years: legacy (2000-2020) or R2025A (2015-2030).

Usage

download_worldpop(
  country_codes,
  years = 2000:2020,
  type = "count",
  resolution = "1km",
  dest_dir = here::here(),
  quiet = FALSE
)

Arguments

country_codes

Character vector of ISO country codes (e.g., "GBR", "GIN"). Pass "GLOBAL" (case-insensitive) to download the worldwide mosaic from the 0_Mosaicked directory instead of a per-country raster. "GLOBAL" only works for years >= 2015 at 1km resolution and type = "count".

years

Numeric vector of years to download data for (2000-2030).

type

Character; either "density" for persons per sq km or "count" for total population count (default: "count"). Note: density is only available for years 2000-2020.

resolution

Character; either "1km" (default) or "100m". The 100m resolution is only available for years 2015-2030 and is not available for the GLOBAL mosaic.

dest_dir

Destination directory for downloaded files (default: current dir)

quiet

Logical; if TRUE, suppresses progress messages (default: FALSE)

Value

Invisible list containing:

  • files: Vector of paths to downloaded/existing files

  • counts: Named vector of successful downloads per country

Details

The function automatically selects the appropriate WorldPop dataset:

Legacy Dataset (years < 2015)

Downloads UN-adjusted population rasters from WorldPop's Global 2000-2020 dataset. Available at 1km resolution only. Supports both count and density.

R2025A Dataset (years >= 2015)

Downloads constrained population count rasters from WorldPop's Global 2015-2030 dataset (R2025A release). Available at 1km and 100m resolution. Population is constrained to built-up areas.

If your year range spans both datasets (e.g., 2010:2020), the function will automatically download from both sources.

Files are downloaded to the specified directory, with existing files skipped. Progress is shown during downloads and a summary is provided upon completion.

Examples

if (FALSE) { # \dontrun{
# Download population data for Guinea (auto-selects dataset)
download_worldpop("GIN", years = 2015:2020)

# Download legacy data (2000-2014)
download_worldpop("GIN", years = 2000:2010)

# Download spanning both datasets
download_worldpop("GIN", years = 2010:2020)

# Download 100m resolution data (R2025A only)
download_worldpop("GIN", years = 2020, resolution = "100m")
} # }