City Population Annual Timeseries (UN Statistics Division)

API Access

Access dataset files directly from scripts, code, or AI agents.

Browse dataset files

Dataset Files

Each file has a stable URL (r-link) that you can use directly in scripts, apps, or AI agents. These URLs are permanent and safe to hardcode.

/core/population-city/

├ .gitignore

https://datahub.io/core/population-city/_r/-/.gitignore

├ README.md

https://datahub.io/core/population-city/_r/-/README.md

├ UPDATE_SCRIPT_MAINTENANCE_REPORT.md

https://datahub.io/core/population-city/_r/-/UPDATE_SCRIPT_MAINTENANCE_REPORT.md

├ data/unsd-citypopulation-year-both.csv

https://datahub.io/core/population-city/_r/-/data/unsd-citypopulation-year-both.csv

├ data/unsd-citypopulation-year-fm.csv

https://datahub.io/core/population-city/_r/-/data/unsd-citypopulation-year-fm.csv

└ datapackage.json

https://datahub.io/core/population-city/_r/-/datapackage.json

Key Files

Start with these files — they give you everything you need to understand and access the dataset.

datapackage.json— metadata & schema

https://datahub.io/core/population-city/_r/-/datapackage.json

README.md— documentation

https://datahub.io/core/population-city/_r/-/README.md

Typical Usage

1. Fetch datapackage.json to inspect schema and resources
2. Download data resources listed in datapackage.json
3. Read README.md for full context

Data Previews

unsd-citypopulation-year-both

Loading data...

Schema

name	type
Country or Area	string
Year	string
Area	string
Sex	string
City	string
City type	string
Record Type	string
Reliability	string
Source Year	string
Value	string
Value Footnotes	string

unsd-citypopulation-year-fm

Loading data...

Schema

name	type
Country or Area	string
Year	string
Area	string
Sex	string
City	string
City type	string
Record Type	string
Reliability	string
Source Year	string
Value	string
Value Footnotes	string

Data Files

File	Description	Size	Last modified	Download
unsd-citypopulation-year-both		4.55 MB	1 day ago	unsd-citypopulation-year-both
unsd-citypopulation-year-fm		7.13 MB	1 day ago	unsd-citypopulation-year-fm

Files	Size	Format	Created	Updated	License	Source
2	11.7 MB	csv		1 day ago	Open Data Commons Public Domain Dedication and License v1.0	UNData: UNSD Demographic Statistics

UNSD Demographic Statistics: City population by sex, city and city type.

Data

Source: UNData. UNSD Demographic Statistics.

Contains two CSV datasets:

unsd-citypopulation-year-both.csv. Size: 4.4 MB
unsd-citypopulation-year-fm.csv. Size: 6.8 MB

Final 222 lines in both datasets contain original notes.

Updates

Last update in UNdata: 26 Feb 2026

Next update in UNdata: 31 Aug 2026

About the United Nations Statistics Division

The United Nations Statistics Division collects, compiles and disseminates official demographic and social statistics on a wide range of topics. Data have been collected since 1948 through a set of questionnaires dispatched annually to over 230 national statistical offices and have been published in the Demographic Yearbook collection. The Demographic Yearbook disseminates statistics on population size and composition, births, deaths, marriage and divorce, as well as respective rates, on an annual basis. The Demographic Yearbook census datasets cover a wide range of additional topics including economic activity, educational attainment, household characteristics, housing characteristics, ethnicity, language, foreign-born and foreign population. The available Population and Housing Censuses' datasets reported to UNSD for the censuses conducted worldwide since 1995, are now available in UNdata.

Preparation

Run the requirements through pip in order to install all required packages to run the script.

pip install -r scripts/requirements.txt

The process is recorded and automated in a Python script:

scripts/process.py

Automation

Up-to-date (auto-updates each 2 month) population-city dataset could be found on the datahub.io: https://datahub.io/core/population-city

License

This data package is licensed under a ODC Public Domain Dedication and Licence (PDDL).