The business, demographic, and points of interest (POI) data available through the data browser encompasses a wide variety of datasets that are updated quarterly, semiannually, annually, and decennially.
Esri Demographics provides documentation about all included data:
- For information about the datasets included with your Business Analyst subscription, see Esri U.S. data fact sheet and Esri global data fact sheet.
- To learn about the geographic boundaries available, see Introduction to Esri demographic data.
Demographic data sources
Some countries and regions have more than one demographic data source in Business Analyst Web App. These data sources include differing variables and geography levels. You can select a data source using the Click for data source selections button 
in the Data source drop-down menu.
Some Business Analyst capabilities are limited based on the data source you select. Data sources are outlined below:
| Country or region | Demographic data sources |
|---|---|
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Global |
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Points of interest (POI) data sources
Some countries and regions include data sources for points of interest (POI). You can use POI data within workflows, such as points of interest search. If there is more than one POI data source for a country, you can select from the available options.
Data sources are outlined below:
| Country or region | Points of interest (POI) data sources |
|---|---|
United States | Business points data sources: Traffic points data source: |
Canada | |
India | |
Mexico | |
Puerto Rico | |
Thailand | |
Global |
Polygon generalization
When you add web maps and layers in Business Analyst Web App, you can specify the level of detail used for input polygons generalized for analysis, reports, and sharing. This setting affects the way data is retrieved, saved, and shared in certain workflows and can impact the app performance. Use the Analysis polygons tolerance slider in the application preferences to specify the level of polygon generalization.
The slider setting defines how much the polygon boundaries will be generalized:
| Best performance | Best precision |
|---|---|
If the slider is set to the best performance, larger deviations from the original boundary lines are allowed and performance is faster. The boundaries used may deviate up to 3,200 meters from the actual boundaries. | If the slider is set to the best precision, the boundaries adhere to the original boundary lines and calculations are precise. The boundaries used will not deviate more than 10 meters from the actual boundaries. |
Note:
The selected tolerance is a threshold, meaning that if boundaries of drawn polygons are more detailed than the current tolerance setting, they will not be generalized. If the boundary precision on the map is greater than the current tolerance setting, the setting is ignored in favor of greater precision.
The polygon generalization setting impacts the workflows listed below. For this reason, it is recommended that you set the Analysis polygons tolerance slider to a higher precision in the following scenarios:
Suitability analysis | You can add your own layer from ArcGIS and use it for suitability analysis directly. The higher the precision of the analysis polygons, the more detailed the boundaries of your layer will be when used in the analysis. |
Setting up a layer | You can add your own layer from ArcGIS and set it up to be used for analysis and reporting. The higher the precision of the analysis polygons, the more detailed the boundaries of your layer will be when used in analysis and reporting. |
Saving layers that have been filtered to a subset of features | You can add your own layer from ArcGIS, filter it to a subset of the features, and save a copy. The higher the precision of the analysis polygons, the more detailed the boundaries of the saved layer. |
Saving color-coded maps and smart map searches as layers | You can create a color-coded map or smart map search with any variable and save it in the current project as a polygon layer. The higher the precision of the analysis polygons, the more detailed the boundaries of your layer will be when used in ArcGIS. |
Sharing color-coded maps and smart map searches | You can create a color-coded map or smart map search with any variable and share the result to ArcGIS as a web map, exporting shared layers to a hosted feature service. The higher the precision of the analysis polygons, the more detailed the boundaries of your layer will be when used in ArcGIS. |
Data update notes
The Esri 2021 and Esri 2022 data sources are now deprecated. For more information on Esri's annually updated U.S. demographic data, see Esri Updated Demographics.
In October 2024, the 4orange data source for the Netherlands will be deprecated. For more information on the demographic data available for this country, see Netherlands.
Be aware of the way points of interest (POI) data is presented and used in Business Analyst Web App:
- There is only a single, current-year vintage for POI data. You access the same POI data regardless of the demographic data source you selected. For example, performing a points of interest search with the demographic data source set to any year yields the same POI results.
- To find the vendor vintage, see Introduction to Places data and select the vendor you are interested in.
Null values impact the following workflows:
- For color-coded maps and smart map search, if the feature has any returned value that is null, that feature is hidden from the map. It does not cause calculation issues for statistics (such as average, minimum, and maximum).
- For suitability analysis, if the feature has any returned value that is null, that feature is not included in the ranking or scoring.
Resources
For more comprehensive information about understanding how data works in Business Analyst Web App, see the following: