Urban GDP Share Estimation Using Nighttime Lights
First release of the full analysis pipeline estimating urban contributions
to national GDP for 170 countries and 12,818 cities.
Key results
- Global mean urban GDP share: 56.7%
- Estimated global urban GDP: USD 39.2 trillion
- Model CV R²: 0.789 (5-fold, log-GDP scale)
- Kenya: 47.5% urban share — Nairobi 29.5%, Mombasa 7.1%
Contents
- Random Forest GDP model (urban_gdp_v3.py)
- 5 result tables (170 countries, top 50 cities, regional summary)
- 4 publication-ready figures (300 DPI)
- Working paper (DOCX) and presentation (PPTX)
Data source
Primary: GHS-UCDB R2019A (JRC European Commission)
Anchor: World Bank national GDP 2020