Table 5.
The top 20 priority countries in terms of spatially referenced population data needs
| Rank | Country | PPU | Population data year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Iraq | 1,258,000 | 1985 |
| 2 | Congo, Democratic Republic of the | 347,000 | 1984 |
| 3 | Chad | 527,000 | 1990 |
| 4 | Syria | 1,241,000 | 1994 |
| 5 | Libya | 223,000 | 1984 |
| 6 | Cameroon | 255,000 | 1987 |
| 7 | Sudan | 358,000 | 1993 |
| 8 | Papua New Guinea | 241,000 | 1990 |
| 9 | United Arab Emirates | 399,000 | 1995 |
| 10 | Nigeria | 231,000 | 1991 |
| 11 | Togo | 216,000 | 1991 |
| 12 | Pakistan | 1,309,000 | 1998 |
| 13 | Egypt | 281,000 | 1996 |
| 14 | Iran | 260,000 | 1996 |
| 15 | Bhutan | 110,000 | 1985 |
| 16 | Algeria | 634,000 | 1998 |
| 17 | Guinea | 257,000 | 1996 |
| 18 | Uzbekistan | 118,000 | 1989 |
| 19 | Eritrea | 94,000 | 1984 |
| 20 | Senegal | 107,000 | 1985 |
The ranks are based on ranking all country data in the GPW/GRUMP database (http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu/gpw/spreadsheets/GPW3_GRUMP_SummaryInformation_Oct05prod.xls) by population per unit (PPU) and date of the input population count data, then summing these to create a simple combined rank score. Additional file 1, Table S4 shows the top 50 countries.