HOW TO
When a new Business Analyst dataset becomes available, re-creating standard geography boundaries is a best practice that ensures analysis and reporting accurately reflect the most current data.
Many organizations use standard geographies to create trade areas to understand demographic characteristics and benchmark annual changes.
Standard geographies and administrative units often change on an annual basis. The following geography levels contain significant changes with the release of the U.S. 2023 data:
To illustrate change at the congressional district level, the map below shows the geographic difference in Michigan’s 3rd congressional district between 2022 and 2023. Not only has the boundary significantly altered due to the redistricting process, but the population has also increased by 4% from 759,512 to 789,854 people. If 2023 statistics were applied to the same 2022 boundary, the results would be an inaccurate representation of the new boundary location.
The following geography levels included in Business Analyst data can change annually, but often less significantly than the aforementioned levels. These boundaries should be reviewed.
Note:
For a list of standard geography changes (additions, removals, renaming) from the last update cycle, review the Geography section in Release Notes Esri 2023 U.S. Demographics.
Note:
For more supporting information about changes to standard geographies, visit the Business Analyst team’s blog articles for 2023 data and 2022 data.
If you created standard geography trade areas for any of the aforementioned levels using local or online 2022 data, it is recommended to re-create these trade areas with 2023 data before running new analysis and reports. To re-create standard geography trade areas, do the following:
To install or connect to local 2023 data, view Set up Business Analyst data. The same 2023 data is available via ArcGIS Online.
Note:
As a best practice, consider adding a suffix to each trade area name noting the annual dataset year, for example, Grand_Rapids_49506_2023.
Note:
As a best practice, consider maintaining a roster of trade areas in a table or feature class that contains numeric IDs. This is a convenient way to migrate previously created standard geography trade areas to the current annual dataset.
Note:
Standard geography trade areas are not the only boundary types that can change due to annual dataset updates. As a best practice, consider re-creating other trade areas where source data may impact their shape or distance. For example, each annual update contains a refresh of a national street network database and routing services that can lead to differences in trade area composition, for example, drive-time areas, threshold drive-time areas. Annually updated demographics, such as population variables, can also impact these types of boundaries.
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