An Estimate of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) Derived From Satellite Data
Collection of data on economic variables, especially sub-national
income levels, is problematic, due to various shortcomings in the data
collection process. Additionally, the informal economy is often
excluded from official statistics. Nighttime lights satellite imagery
and the LandScan population grid provide an alternative means for
measuring economic activity. We have developed a model for creating a
disaggregated map of estimated total (formal plus informal) economic
activity for countries and states of the world. Regression models were
developed to calibrate the sum of lights to official measures of
economic activity at the sub-national level for China, India, Mexico,
and the United States and at the national level for other countries of
the world, and subsequently unique coefficients were
derived. Multiplying the unique coefficients with the sum of lights
provided estimates of total economic activity, which were spatially
distributed to generate a spatially disaggregated 1 km2 map of total
economic activity.
- Ghosh, T., Powell, R., Elvidge, C. D., Baugh, K. E., Sutton, P. C., & Anderson, S. (2010).Shedding light on the global distribution of economic activity. The Open Geography Journal (3), 148-161.
- Link to data (169MB) The data is in GeoTiff format and has been compress using tar/gzip.