Meredith Reba, Femke Reitsma and Karen C. Seto compiled a dataset of urban settlements between 3700 BC and AD 2000. It’s the first of its kind, and while not comprehensive, it does provide a view into growth around the world. Max Galka put together the straightforward map above to display the data.

Best part is you can download the data and have a go yourself. [via kottke]