GeoNames Forum

Hello,

First of all, Thanks for this great resource

I was wondering if by any chances someone would know of a reliable source (a governmental site if possible) where one could find population data to fit the GeoNames existing data? It would be helpful to have some estimate of the population for each city (whether the city is considered small, medium or large) along-side each entry in the GeoName database. Therefore, if anyone could point me to a direction in this regards, it would certainly be greatly appreciated.

Many Thanks again and please continue your good work!

mary

Hi Mary

Our database includes population data for many cities. Take a look at the cities files in the download section :
http://download.geonames.org/export/dump/

cities1000.zip : all cities with a population > 1000 (ca 80.000)
cities5000.zip : all cities with a population > 5000 (ca 40.000)
cities15000.zip : all cities with a population > 15000 (ca 20.000)

Cheers

Marc

Hello Marc,

Thank You for your comment. I've looked into the 80K or so records from the cities1000.zip file and it looks quite good! I am using this information as as starting point for my search.

Yet, I am hoping to find the population data for all 3 million or so records in the database as I believe it can be found somewhere. Indeed, I found this other great site (http://www.fallingrain.com/world/) which is using the same GNS database plus some other population data source. Again, if you or someone else could point me to a resource with such complete population info, it would greatly be appreciated.

In the meantime, many thanks again the creator of this site for such great resource!!

mary

Hi Mary

I don't believe you will find a free resource with better data. If we knew of one we would have integrated it into geonames.
I had a look at the population data for Switzerland on fallingrain. It seems to be kind of a random number. Most numbers are wrong by
a factor of ten.

Marc