Nighttime light (NTL) Earth observation data represent an invaluable resource for measuring population distribution, disaster impact, economic activity, and socio-economic inequalities from space. Traditional NTL data sources are spatially coarse, impeding detailed analyses of nighttime lights. Novel, high-resolution NTL data from the SDGSAT-1 satellite capture NTL variations at fine spatial detail of 10 to 40 m and open new research avenues. Herein, we demonstrate the potential of jointly assessing annual SDGSAT-1 composites and human settlement data from the Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL) and other data, characterizing the built environment, human population distribution, and the rural-urban continuum. For a study area in Northern Italy, we illustrate that such data integration generates new insights on the interactions of nighttime lights and settlement-related characteristics at unprecedented detail. For example, we find that NTL emissions tend to be highest in old parts of settlements (<1975) and lowest in very recently developed land. The brightness of non-residential areas at night approximately doubles, on average, compared to residential built-up areas. Similarly, main roads in urban settings tend to be twice as bright as residential built-up areas, while this difference largely disappears towards rural settlements. Moreover, ~80% of urban population resides in areas characterized by luminous, stationary NTL, while this population share drops to ~15% in very rural areas. Looking at infrastructure-related land use, we find that airports emit the highest levels of stationary and non-stationary NTL in our study area. These results illustrate the potential of SDGSAT-1 data for settlement analysis and population modelling.