Population & Demographics

Population

Population Dynamics

Population & Demographics

Population density in the Sahel varies significantly from the north to the south.

Urban centers in the southern Sahel tend to serve as hubs for trade, commerce, education, and government administration. In contrast, the northern Sahel has fewer urban centers due to its challenging climatic conditions and limited economic opportunities. However, some oases and strategic locations along ancient trade routes have historically hosted smaller settlements or trading posts.

The interactive map has been created in Google Earth Engine and visualizes different data sources in relation to the topic. Click on the map to access feature information and use the layers menu to swith between the different layers.

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Data Source: Gridded Population of World Version 4 (GPWv4), Revision 11 "Population Density(SEDAC): The Gridded Population of World Version 4 (GPWv4), Revision 11 models the distribution of global human population for the years 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2020 on 30 arc-second (approximately 1km) grid cells. Population is distributed to cells using proportional allocation of population from census and administrative units.GHS built-up grid, derived from Landsat, multitemporal (1975, 1990, 2000, 2014).

Data source: Gridded Population of World Version 4 (GPWv4), Revision 11 Global Human Settlement layer (JRC, EC): Contains a multitemporal information layer on built-up presence as derived from Landsat image collections (GLS1975, GLS1990, GLS2000, and ad-hoc Landsat 8 collection 2013/2014).

Source: ESRI Land Cover (ESRI 2021):provides global land cover products for 2020 and 2021 at 10 m resolution, developed and validated on Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 data .

Population Growth

Countries in the regions have experienced consiberable population growth in the last 40 years.The Sahel is a diverse region with a significant population spread across various countries. The population is predominantly young, with a large proportion under the age of 25.