The Connectivity Lab at Facebook is developing ways to make affordable internet access possible in communities around the world. Part of this is determining how human populations are distributed to design the best communication technologies for each region. The High Resolution Settlement Layer (HRSL) provides estimates of human population distribution and a layer of settlement extents at a resolution of 1 arc-second (approximately 30m). The settlement extents are based on high-resolution (0.5m) satellite imagery from DigitalGlobe; the population surface was created in collaboration with CIESIN by combining subnational census data with the settlement extents.