Foursquare

Esri's ArcGIS Places data is based on supplier content from its partner Foursquare.

Esri's global ArcGIS Places data contains information for more than 46 million places covering approximately 170 countries. It is available through licensed ArcGIS products and services; visit Introduction to ArcGIS Places data for more information.

The supplier's data is derived from more than 14 billion consumer interactions and from numerous third-party sources, which vary by country. Available ArcGIS Places data includes locations such as businesses, community services, parks, and transportation hubs.

Note that some address attributes may not be included (the value returned is null or empty). For instance, a place may not include a postal code if it is in a country that does not use postal codes. An address may be missing if the source of the information didn't provide the address. In other cases, a feature may not be associated with a street address—examples include natural features, such as a pond or a forest; built features, such as bridges or statues; or nonpermanent places, such as weekend street markets. Where applicable, places may also include an associated chain name, related to franchise businesses.

Some dataset attribute details are available in multiple languages; this varies by country and location.

Categorization code

Details available for each place include a place-name, country assignment, various address details, and a globally consistent categorization code. This categorization is based on Foursquare's hierarchical categorization and describes more than 1,000 types of features in both built and natural environments. There are 10 top-level Foursquare categorization groups; each has a five-digit associated code. These categorization groups and codes include the following:

• Arts and Entertainment (10000)
• Business and Professional Services (11000)
• Community and Government (12000)
• Dining and Drinking (13000)
• Event (14000)
• Health and Medicine (15000)
• Landmarks and Outdoors (16000)
• Retail (17000)
• Sports and Recreation (18000)
• Travel and Transportation (19000)

The last three digits of each category code are used to provide specificity. For example, 19006 is the Foursquare category code for Travel and Transportation—Electric Vehicle Charging Station.

Esri's global ArcGIS Places data can have more than one category code; for example, a location that is both a preschool and a day care center is assigned category codes for both. Either category code can be used to find the location in licensed ArcGIS products and services.

Vintage

February 2024.

Available geographies

Esri's global ArcGIS Places data based on content provided by Foursquare is a point-level dataset. These datasets contain information for more than 46 million places covering approximately 170 countries.

Update frequency

3 times per year.

Methodology

Esri creates a derivative of Places data based in part on content from Foursquare. Prior to publication, Esri applies a set of criteria to filter for the highest-quality locations possible from the full dataset of places provided by Foursquare. A location may be removed if it is suspected to be closed or has data validation or spatial errors, such as missing latitude-longitude values.

If a place is associated with multiple Foursquare categories, Esri converts these to a comma-delimited list for presentation in the software. Country values are presented as provided by Foursquare, apart from the Åland region of Finland, which is recategorized as part of Finland for consistency within ArcGIS Business Analyst.

Structures such as college campuses, landmarks, or transportation hubs may include more than one point in the dataset indicating the location. For example, an airport may have separate points for the international terminal, on-site restaurants, and parking structures. Or a landmark such as the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, for example, has separate points indicating the main structure, the Burj Khalifa Lake, and the Dubai Fountain. Esri does not de-duplicate these points in the place data received from Foursquare.

Data availability

See Introduction to ArcGIS Places data for a list of the ArcGIS products and services where you can find Esri global ArcGIS Places data based on content provided by Foursquare.

Attributes

The following Foursquare-derived attributes are available in specific ArcGIS products and services. In the below table, attributes available in ArcGIS Business Analyst Web App and ArcGIS Community Analyst are marked "BA"; attributes available in ArcGIS Pro with a Business Analyst license (using an ArcGIS Online access method) are marked "BA Pro"; attributes available in the ArcGIS Places service are marked "Places". Visit Introduction to ArcGIS Places data to learn more about these products and services, and to find related documentation.

Attribute	Description	Example	BA	BA Pro	Places
POI Name / Name ¹	The name associated with a place, including businesses, natural features, schools, public services, and so on.	Buckingham Palace Garden
Address / Street Address ¹	The street address associated with a place, formatted for the country locality.	Buckingham Palace Rd
Address Extended	Additional address information, such as a suite or apartment number.	Suite 404	—	—
Post Town	The town or place used in postal addressing for a place.	London	—	—
Neighborhood	The neighborhood or other informal geography of a place.	Westminster	—	—
P.O. Box	The post office box number for a place, when applicable.	Null	—	—
Locality	The city or town associated with a place.	London
Region	The state, province, territory, or equivalent for a place.	Greater London
Admin Region	An additional subdivision—most often a country subdivision (for example, Scotland).	England	—	—
Country	Two-letter country code based on International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 3166 standard.	GB
Postcode	Postal code or equivalent. The format is localized based on country.	SW1A 1AA
Location	The place geographic coordinate in WGS84 decimal degree format.	51.501122, -0.146041	—	—
DMA	Designated Market Area (DMA), defined by Nielsen Media Research, is a geographic area that receives similar media offerings (U.S. only).	Null	—	—
Census Block ID	The 15-digit U.S. Census Block geoid value (U.S. only).	Null		—
H3 Hexagon R7	Esri-provided Uber H3 global hexagon identifier for resolution level 7. Conceptually similar to a U.S. Census Block ID, the Uber H3 global hexagon ID is designed to help users rapidly associate and summarize places data within a grid for analysis. See this ArcGIS Blog article to learn more.	87195da49ffffff		—	—
All Foursquare Categories / Categories ¹	A list of all categories for a place, including any ancestor codes from the category taxonomy. A single place can have multiple category codes.	16000, 16017
Foursquare Categories / Category ID ¹	The most granular Foursquare category code for a place. In the ArcGIS Places service, the Category ID (number) is returned with a separate Label (name).	16017: Landmarks and Outdoors—Garden
NAICS Code	The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) equivalent of the Foursquare category.	53: Nature Parks and Other Similar Institutions			—
Foursquare Chain Name / Chain Name ¹	The standardized chain (franchised business) name for a place.	Null
Source	The primary data source from which the record is derived. Always Foursquare.	Foursquare			—
Esri ID / Place ID ¹	The unique identifier of the place, assigned by Esri. This is perpetual over time.	438b3df3d5b039e5-2d9e88b17c902519
Open Confidence	Esri-calculated confidence that a place is open or in operation.	high			—
Open 7 Days a Week	Indicates whether the place is open 7 days a week.	0		—	—
Open Weekends Only	Indicates whether the place is only open Saturday or Sunday.	0		—	—
Hours	The hours of operation by day of the week in the place's local time zone. Seasonal hours may use start and end dates.	Null	—	—
Number of Sublocations	The number of 'child' or sublocations associated with a place. For example, a shopping mall place may contain multiple 'child' stores or sublocations.	7		—	—
Geocodes / Additional Locations ¹	Possible alternative geographic coordinates for accessing a place in WGS84 decimal degree format.	{"drop_off":{"longitude": 51.501122, "latitude": -0.146041}	—	—
Telephone	The best known phone number of a place using local formatting.	020 7766 7300	—	—
Website	Publicly available website (URL) for the place or chain.	royalcollection.org	—	—
Fax	Fax number for the place in local formatting.	Null	—	—
Email	The primary contact email address for the place.	Null	—	—
Facebook ID	The unique identifier for the place's Facebook (Meta) account.	262662820559943	—	—
Instagram	The unique identifier for the place's Instagram account.	Null	—	—
Twitter	The unique identifier for the place's X (formerly Twitter) account.	britishmonarchy	—	—
Description	A freeform description of the place, managed by Foursquare users.	"Buckingham Palace's famous 38-acre garden is often described as..."	—	—
Price	A description of the overall price of the place's goods or services using the following scale: Cheap, Moderate, Expensive, Very Expensive.	Moderate	—	—
User	A rating for the place based on Foursquare user reviews ranging from 0 to 5, where 5 is the best rating.	3	—	—

¹ ArcGIS Business Analyst and the ArcGIS Places service use differing terms for this attribute.

NAICS

Esri global ArcGIS Places data based on content provided by Foursquare also features a translation from the Foursquare category to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). The NAICS values utilize the 2017 NAICS categorization. This information is not currently available in the ArcGIS Places service.

Open confidence score

Esri global ArcGIS Places data based on content provided by Foursquare contains an open confidence score, indicating the likelihood that the location is open for business on a scale of low, medium, or high. This measure is based on indicators provided by Foursquare and can be used as a criterion to filter Places data. This information is not currently available in the ArcGIS Places service.