Population Density Data Set of China's Townships (subdistricts) (2010)

When correlated with administrative boundary, demographic data can be used to analyze the spatial distribution of population, which is significant for research on geography, resources, environment, ecology, disasters, sustainable development, etc. Based on the demographic data of the 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions publicized by the National Bureau of Statistics in 2010, we correlated township administrative units with the number of population in each, while attending to spatial topological problems such as pattern spot gaps and overlaps between the spatial divisions.

In total, 42122 spatial units were paired with their demographic data by using the decision tree. The average population density was calculated as the number of population per spatial unit, which was then converted into vector data for generating the dataset of township-level population density in China (2010). A validation of the data shows an overall accuracy of 99%, with a less than 10% deviation for each province or municipality.