The paper titled ''Global gridded population datasets systematically underrepresent rural population'' by Josias Láng-Ritter et al. provides a valuable contribution to the discourse on the accuracy of global population datasets, particularly in rural areas. We recognize the efforts put into this research and appreciate its contribution to the field. However, we feel that key claims in the study are overly bold, not properly backed by evidence and lack a cautious and nuanced discussion. We hope these points will be taken into account in future discussions and refinements of population estimation methodologies. We argue that the reported bias figures are less caused by actual undercounting of rural populations, but more so by contestable methodological decisions and the historic misallocation of (gridded) population estimates on the local level.

翻译：Josias Láng-Ritter等人题为《全球格网化人口数据集系统性低估农村人口》的论文，为全球人口数据集（特别是在农村地区）的准确性讨论提供了宝贵贡献。我们认可这项研究付出的努力，并赞赏其对该领域的贡献。然而，我们认为该研究中的关键论断过于大胆，未能得到证据的充分支持，且缺乏审慎与细致的讨论。我们希望这些观点能在未来关于人口估算方法的讨论与改进中得到考虑。我们认为，所报告的偏差数据较少源于对农村人口的实际漏计，而更多是由存在争议的方法学决策以及（格网化）人口估算在地方层面的历史性分配错误所导致。