In this paper, two models were tried to simulate population distribution in the Efficient Ecological Economic Zone of the Yellow River Delta, in specific, township population census data in 2010 was available, and two population spatialization models were developed at 1 km resolution based on land use data and DMSP/OLS data respectively. The result shows that the linear relationship between population data and land use data or DMSP/OLS data is relatively high (the correlative coefficient R2 is 0.921, 0.920 respectively),however the model based on land use data, which usually should be revised by combing other information such as DEM and traffic network in spatial areas where the terrain varies dramatically or the transportation system is well-developed, is much better than the model based on DMSP/OLS data, especially in counties that have moderate population density. In spite of this, benefited from the positive effect of pixel overflow,the model based on DMSP/OLS data is more suitable for marginal areas of towns and cities where violent gradient of population density is found. In addition, both models perform weakly in less populated regions.