Can nighttime lights serve as a proxy for economic inequality at the local administrative unit scale? Evidence from Spain.

ABSTRACT: Economic inequality remains a pressing issue, with localized disparities becoming increasingly visible. Monitoring these subnational dynamics is often constrained by the availability of timely, reliable data. This study evaluates the potential of nighttime light (NTL) data to proxy economic inequality at the scale of local administrative units (municipalities), using Spain as a case study. Spain is among the most unequal EU countries by the Gini index and has published municipal income distribution records since 2015. Its geographic and demographic diversity provides a robust setting for testing NTL-based measures with broader applicability. We combine two remote-sensing products (VIIRS and Harmonized NTL) with WorldPop gridded population data to compute lights-per-capita for each pixel. W

SUBMITTER: Perez-Sindin XS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12694823 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature