Are the quadrilaterals formed by the meridians and parallels of the Urban/Rural Area grids proportional to the area on the globe?
The land area grids distributed with GRUMP are proportional to the size of the quadrilateral, so as latitude increases the area within the cells decreases. Please note also that the values are for land area only, if a portion of the cell is permanent ice or water, the value in that cell represents the land portion only.