Why Is Population Distributed Unevenly? | A Geographic Investigation

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Investigation Notebook

Layer 1 — Population Density

What surprised you?

Observation — what do you literally see?

Pattern — what regularity or rule seems to emerge?

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Where This Data Comes From

This tool layers real, publicly published geographic datasets so you can zoom in and check claims yourself — the same way a geographer would.

Population density — NASA SEDAC / CIESIN Gridded Population of the World (GPW v4, 2020), served via NASA GIBS.
Country outlines — Natural Earth 1:110m Admin-0 boundaries.
Climate zones — Köppen–Geiger world classification map (Peel, Finlayson & McMahon).
Rivers & lakes — Natural Earth 1:110m Rivers & Lake Centerlines / Lakes.
Relief / elevation — AWS Open Data Terrain Tiles (SRTM/NED-derived elevation), thresholded by height.
Agricultural suitability — real cropland cover from NASA SEDAC Global Agricultural Lands (cropland %, Ramankutty et al.), via NASA GIBS; a handful of well-known farming plains are labeled with illustrative markers for orientation.
Seaports — Natural Earth 1:10m Ports.
Shipping lanes, rail & highway corridors — simplified, illustrative schematic lines (not precise routes).
Night-time lights — NASA Black Marble / VIIRS City Lights composite, via NASA GIBS.
Historical civilizations — illustrative approximate culture-hearth extents.
Megacities — UN World Urbanization Prospects, urban agglomerations >10 million.

Layers marked "illustrative" are simplified for teaching and are not survey-accurate — treat their edges as approximate.

Final Challenge: Predict the Population