Animarium: an open, reproducible pipeline for synthetic populations of Italian cities, from ISTAT sources to open data (Tech Report v1)

A technical report introduces "Animarium," an open and reproducible pipeline for generating synthetic populations of Italian cities. This initiative created detailed synthetic data for eleven Italian municipalities, comprising over 1.8 million individuals and nearly 900,000 households, entirely from publicly available aggregate data sources. The methodology emphasizes transparency and verifiability, certifying each source with licensing and data affordances, and employing a multi-layered approach for attribute generation and placement.

This initiative provides a robust and transparent framework for generating synthetic population data from public aggregates. Such a capability can significantly enhance data-driven policy formulation, urban planning, and resource allocation without compromising individual privacy, fostering innovation in data utilization for public good.

Animarium generates synthetic populations for Italian cities using only publicly available aggregate data.

Forward consideration, not a verified fact.