Geography - LandScan on the map

Rand McNally's 2004 Goode's World Atlas will contain the most precise population information ever because of technology recently licensed from Oak Ridge National Laboratory. LandScan, developed by a team of researchers in the lab's Computational Sciences and Engineering Division, boasts population data that are spatially refined to about one square kilometer worldwide. Eddie Bright, director of the LandScan global population project at ORNL, noted that LandScan divides the world into about 900 million cells at the level of one square kilometer or smaller. Rand McNally's Howard Veregin, director of map data, said the data provide an excellent source for updating population density maps at world, continental and national scales. And, on another level, LandScan offers a source of population information that is especially valuable for small unincorporated communities.