ArcGIS Places data is a collection of business locations and point-of-interest geographic coordinates that Esri builds from data sourced from third-party commercial data providers and international distributor partners. ArcGIS Places data is updated based on software release schedules and the update cadence of each provider. During the update process, Esri reviews and standardizes each dataset to ensure that the information received is compatible with Esri's location-based products, software, and services. This topic provides an overview of that process.
While each dataset has unique properties, delivery methods, and outputs, there are certain basic benchmark requirements that each dataset must meet and that can be described more generally as follows:
- Esri reviews each dataset to identify broad errors, such as records that are missing name or address attributes or that have invalid spatial locations. Records that fail to meet this initial data quality review are flagged and removed from the dataset.
- Esri assigns a unique 32-character place identifier to every record.
- Esri assigns a proprietary category system to each record to help users find relevant businesses and facilities across three data sources: Data Axle, Foursquare, and SafeGraph.
In addition to the above global changes, the methodology processes or protocols described below are applied to the individual datasets.
Data Axle
Esri uses data sourced from Data Axle to create ArcGIS Places Business Locations datasets for Canada and the United States. This data is also used to inform the United States Daytime Population data and the U.S. Business Summary dataset. Updates are integrated into Esri software three times a year. The following additional methodologies are applied to this data:
- Records from outside the U.S. and Canada are removed from the dataset.
- The top 50 U.S. retailers—including subsidiary companies—are ranked by sales.
SafeGraph
Esri uses data sourced from SafeGraph to create points of interest datasets for Canada, Puerto Rico, and the United States. Updates from SafeGraph are integrated into Esri software three times a year. The following additional methodologies are applied to this data:
- The top 50 U.S. retailers—including subsidiary companies—are ranked by sales.
Foursquare Open Source
Esri provides Foursquare Global Open Source places data for approximately 170 countries. The following additional methodologies are applied to this data:
- Esri applies North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) 2022 codes to this dataset to provide a comparable user experience with other ArcGIS Places datasets.
- Categories and metadata, such as aliases and descriptions, are translated into French, German, Japanese, Portuguese (Brazilian), and Spanish for international use.