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ArcGIS Places data methodology

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 four data sources: Data Axle, Esri India, Foursquare, and SafeGraph.

  • Esri identifies the top retailers in the United States by sales volume, and includes subsidiary companies wherever chain information is available.

Tip:

See this ArcGIS Blog article to learn how to perform a search for top retailers in the United States using ArcGIS Business Analyst Web App.

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.

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.

Foursquare Open Source

Esri provides Foursquare Global Open Source (licensed under the Apache License. Version 2.0) 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.

Note:

Reference A—© 2025 Foursquare Labs, Inc. All rights reserved. Licensed under the Apache License. Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0. Unless required by applicable law or agreed in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.