---
name: worldpop-open-population-ingestion
description: "How to get WorldPop Open Population Data data into a pandas DataFrame and Parquet: access, the request, the format, limits, quirks and terms."
---

# Load WorldPop file metadata into pandas and Parquet

Source entry: https://signal-lab-jet.vercel.app/datasets/worldpop-open-population
Provider: https://hub.worldpop.org/
Checked against the provider's documentation: 2026-11-01

## Access
- No account or key. The REST catalogue returns JSON metadata and direct GeoTIFF URLs.
- This example requests the 2000-2020 unconstrained population-count series for Australia without downloading the large rasters.

## Request
```bash
curl 'https://www.worldpop.org/rest/data/pop/wpgp?iso3=AUS'
```

## Format
JSON data array with title, description, DOI, production date, population year, citation, format, country, ISO3, licence, summary page and one or more GeoTIFF URLs.

## Load into pandas and Parquet
Needs Python 3 with requests, pandas and pyarrow.
```python
"""WorldPop Australia population-file metadata -> pandas -> Parquet. No key."""
import requests
import pandas as pd

URL = "https://www.worldpop.org/rest/data/pop/wpgp"
r = requests.get(URL, params={"iso3": "AUS"}, timeout=60)
r.raise_for_status()
df = pd.DataFrame(r.json()["data"])
df["files"] = df["files"].map(lambda values: " | ".join(values))
df.to_parquet("worldpop_aus_wpgp_metadata.parquet", index=False)
print(len(df), "files", int(df["popyear"].min()), "to",
      int(df["popyear"].max()), df["data_format"].unique().tolist())
```
Run by us on 2026-11-01 (python 3.13.5 | pandas 3.1.0 | pyarrow 26.0.0 | requests 2.34.2). Result: 21 files 2000 to 2020 ['Geotiff']

## Limits
- Rate limit: Not stated.
- Raster downloads can be large; the checked worldwide 2020 1 km file was listed as 829.43 MB.
- The metadata example returns 21 annual Australia records and does not download raster cell values.

## Quirks
- The files field is a JSON list; flatten or explode it before writing tabular output.
- Product families differ by resolution, constrained versus unconstrained modelling and UN adjustment.
- Read the record-specific licence because some products derived from named building or road sources use ODbL rather than CC BY 4.0.

## Terms and attribution
- The checked WorldPop population dataset is CC BY 4.0 and requires appropriate credit plus a licence link.
- Named OpenStreetMap and Microsoft-derived datasets use ODbL and can impose share-alike on altered data.
- Terms page: https://www.worldpop.org/geodata/summary?id=24777

## Sources
- https://hub.worldpop.org/: "Open access spatial demographic datasets built using transparent approaches."
- https://www.worldpop.org/sdi/introapi/: "Query individual countries using the “?” symbol and iso3 code:"
- https://www.worldpop.org/geodata/summary?id=24777: "The dataset is available to download in Geotiff format at a resolution of 30 arc (approximately 1km at the equator)."
- https://www.worldpop.org/geodata/summary?id=24777: "WorldPop datasets are available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License."

## Help improve this skill
Missing a source, or see something to improve? Call the MCP tool suggest_source or feedback (or POST /api/suggest or /api/feedback). Reviewed ideas: https://signal-lab-jet.vercel.app/agent-suggestions

Information for educational purposes only. Free tiers, limits and licenses belong to the providers and may change; check the provider's own terms before using the data.