nexustandards.com/society · 1 taught
Governance, Security and Society
NRS-H116 Population structure and movement
Illustrative: a hexagonal population grid where a wave rises, peaks and recovers from seeded outbreaks
Risk Academy, led by the Nexus Consortium · Health and Society · Department of Human Development, Work and Social Policy
Poverty, inequality, exclusion, demographic change and urban vulnerability
Human development studies the capabilities people have to live lives they value: health, education, standard of living, security and voice.
Courses in development extend the scope to one further subject: Poverty dynamics and shocks.
Search any place or open the world; the layers and generators follow human development, poverty and inequality on the planet map, the globe and in 3D.
Drag to move, right drag or Shift with a drag to turn and tilt, Ctrl with the wheel to zoom. Keyboard: arrows move, Shift with arrows turn and tilt, + and – zoom, 0 resets, V steps through the views, Escape clears.
Flat plan of the same data: relief as contours from the inline grid, the WorldPop count grid as cells, the mapped hospitals and the numbers below. The 3D twin opens on devices that can draw it, once its data and code have been checked.
The boundaries, names and designations shown do not imply any judgement on the legal status of any territory, or any endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries. Countries: Natural Earth (public domain).
Flood water, active fires and surface heat beside population and night-time lights, over the contiguous United States.
The interactive map needs JavaScript; the layer list and sources are below.
Layers 3
Hazards and exposure
Keyboard, with the map focused
Hold Ctrl or ⌘ and scroll to zoom
Latest available
NASA GIBS / EOSDIS · ASTER GDEM (METI, NASA) · Blue Marble (NASA) · © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) · Natural Earth
Loading the latest NASA imagery.
Drag to move. Ctrl or ⌘ and scroll, pinch or the buttons to zoom; hover for the values under the pointer; reset returns to the region.
Hazards and exposure, framed on the contiguous United States.Satellite and model products as NASA publishes them, each with its own date. They are indicators, not assessments of any place.
Layers and dates
For analysts in social policy, humanitarian programming and development finance who must identify who is most exposed to a shock and judge which transfers and services reduce the harm.
Each method is listed with what it assumes and where it fails.
Bodies and standards are named so learners can find and apply their published work; the Academy teaches their use and links to the publisher, and no affiliation is implied.
The share of a population below the international poverty line is set by its mean income and its inequality together; a shock that cuts mean income pushes a number of people across the line that depends on how many were standing just above it, and a transfer of a stated size pulls a computable number back.
Sources: Ravallion, The Economics of Poverty: History, Measurement, and Policy (2016); Alkire and Foster, Counting and multidimensional poverty measurement (2011); Haushofer and Shapiro, The short-term impact of unconditional cash transfers to the poor: experimental evidence from Kenya (2016); Brown, Ravallion and van de Walle, A poor means test? Econometric targeting in Africa (2018); World Bank, Poverty and Inequality Platform (2026-10-17).
risksacademy.comhealth-societydiscipline
The Nexus Standards the discipline teaches toward, grouped by master standard, with the disciplines that teach each.
nexustandards.com/society · 1 taught
NRS-H116 Population structure and movement
nexustandards.com/humanitarian · 1 taught
NRS-D2 Society, inclusion and human development risk
Nexus Standards at the AcademyThe Academy proposes how each discipline teaches toward the Nexus Standards; the mapping is open for public review.
Research and preprints as they are published, by discipline, with the faculty's other tools.
The hub lists the newest research and preprints for Human development, poverty and inequality, each with its source and date. Open the research hub
Recent developments in human development, poverty and inequality, each with its source; sources checked on 16 October 2026.
Courses for this discipline are in development; until they open, study it through the connected courses and open lessons below.
The courses from connected disciplines below also teach this field.
Each course has its primary discipline elsewhere and teaches this field as part of its scope.
| Lab | What you do in it | Courses using it |
|---|---|---|
| Exposure lab | Overlay people and assets with hazard footprints | 1 |
| Network lab | Build dependency graphs, find critical nodes, trace cascades | 1 |
| Map lab | Read hazard, exposure and boundaries on real maps | 1 |
Press Play to run this process from this page's own data.
| Aspect | In this area |
|---|---|
| Technology that helps | Digital public infrastructure and digital identity. |
| Risk technology creates | Exclusion, surveillance and the automation of work. |
Field platforms of the ecosystem where the subject is studied and applied.
Foundry system pages describe what each system and its rooms are designed to do; the courses teach the methods these systems apply.
Start from who you are.
Start with Sen, then Alkire, then Ravallion.
Key terms
The expansion of people's freedoms and capabilities to live lives they value.
Poverty measured across several deprivations, such as health, education and living standards.
The likelihood that a household falls into or stays in poverty after a shock.
The shift from high to low birth and death rates as societies develop.
Reports is the Consortium's quarterly publication. What you know about this subject can become evidence, a case or a correction in the next edition, credited to you and published under CC BY 4.0 where it is your own work.
The catalogue lists each course with its outcomes, labs, hours and level.