Worldpop MCP Server

@pipeworx/worldpop

WorldPop (University of Southampton) 100 m gridded population estimates, 2000-2020, summed over any polygon you supply. Answers "how many people live inside this boundary" for arbitrary geometry — a catchment, a flood extent, a service area — where census tables only answer for official administrative units.

Part of Pipeworx — an MCP gateway connecting AI agents to 1684+ live data sources.

Tools

• worldpop_stats_polygon(geojson, year?, dataset?, runasync?) — total population inside a GeoJSON Polygon/MultiPolygon.
• worldpop_datasets() — the population surfaces the stats service exposes.
• worldpop_task_status(taskid) — state and result of one async job.

Auth

Keyless. WorldPop asks for fair use (roughly 1,000 calls/day) and no registration.

Data sources

• https://api.worldpop.org/v1/services — dataset list (wpgppop population count, wpgpas age and sex structures).
• https://api.worldpop.org/v1/services/stats — submit a polygon job.
• https://api.worldpop.org/v1/tasks/{taskid} — collect the result.

Two traps this pack absorbs:

The stats call is ASYNCHRONOUS and answers 200 either way. Submitting returns {"status":"created","taskid":...} with no population in it — a caller that reads that as the answer gets a silent zero. worldpop_stats_polygon polls /tasks/{id} until status is finished (12 attempts, ~1.5 s apart; a city-sized polygon finishes in about 3 s) and returns the taskid regardless, so nothing is lost if the polling window expires.

A GeoJSON Feature is rejected. WorldPop's validator accepts only a bare geometry and answers "Invalid GeoJSON: ... is not valid under any of the given schemas" — as a 200 on the task, with error: true, not as an HTTP error. Every mapping tool hands you a Feature, so normaliseGeometry unwraps Feature and FeatureCollection before the call.

Quick Start

Add to your MCP client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, etc.):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "worldpop": {
      "url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/worldpop/mcp"
    }
  }
}

What this endpoint actually serves

tools/list at https://gateway.pipeworx.io/worldpop/mcp returns the tools in the table above plus the shared Pipeworx meta-tools — ask_pipeworx, discover_tools, search_within, remember/recall and the rest of the gateway-wide set. So the tool count you see is larger than this table: a single-pack endpoint currently lists roughly 30 shared tools alongside the pack's own. The connection's initialize response states its exact scope, and is the authoritative answer for a given day.

This is deliberate, not multiplexing by accident. The meta-tools are what let a scoped connection answer a question this pack does not cover — via ask_pipeworx, which routes across the whole catalog — without you adding a second MCP server. There is currently no way to mount a pack endpoint without them; if the extra schemas cost you more context than the routing is worth, connect to the full gateway once rather than to several pack endpoints.

Or connect to the full Pipeworx gateway to get every pack's tools listed directly, instead of just this one's:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "pipeworx": {
      "url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/mcp"
    }
  }
}

Both URLs reach the same gateway and the same 1684+ data sources. The only difference is which pack's tools are listed directly; ask_pipeworx reaches all of them from either one.

No MCP client? Call it over HTTP

curl -X POST https://gateway.pipeworx.io/v1/tools/worldpop_stats_polygon \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"geojson":{"type":"Polygon","coordinates":[[[-0.14,51.5],[-0.1,51.5],[-0.1,51.53],[-0.14,51.53],[-0.14,51.5]]]},"year":2020}'

No account needed for the first calls. Inspect any tool: GET https://gateway.pipeworx.io/v1/tools/worldpop_stats_polygon. Find one: POST https://gateway.pipeworx.io/v1/tools/search_packs with {"query":"..."}.

Standalone (no gateway account)

This package also runs as a local stdio MCP server — no Pipeworx account, no gateway round-trip:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "worldpop": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@pipeworx/mcp-worldpop"]
    }
  }
}

Or run it directly to confirm it starts:

npx -y @pipeworx/mcp-worldpop

It speaks MCP over stdin/stdout and answers initialize/tools/list/tools/call for only this pack's tools — none of the shared meta-tools the gateway connection above adds. Same source, same tools, no ask_pipeworx routing.

Using with ask_pipeworx

Instead of calling tools directly, you can ask questions in plain English — this works on the pack endpoint above as well as on the full gateway:

ask_pipeworx({ question: "your question about Worldpop data" })

The gateway picks the right tool and fills the arguments automatically.

More

• Docs and guides
• pipeworx.io

License

MIT