Leaf: Populated Areas and Settlements
Dataset: Natural Earth — ne_10m_populated_places, ne_10m_urban_areas
Natural Earth provides globally consistent settlement points and generalized urban area polygons for small-scale mapping.
Python load
import geopandas as gpd
places = gpd.read_file("ne_10m_populated_places.shp")
urban_areas = gpd.read_file("ne_10m_urban_areas.shp")
major_cities = places[places["SCALERANK"] <= 2]Key attributes
| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
NAME | Settlement name |
FEATURECLA | Feature class |
SCALERANK | Cartographic prominence rank |
POP_MAX | Maximum population estimate |
ADM0NAME | Country name |