Geographically-based statistical data

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Peter Yexley looks at the difficulties in the procurement of quality geographic and geographically-based statistical data..

Any individual with the slightest connection in marketing or data capture will understand the difficulties in the procurement of quality geographic and geographically-based statistical data. The Internet is possibly the best starting point when searching for geodata and other such information but how reliable and how old is the information we receive from other websites?

Global Gazetteer-related information has probably the fastest rate of obselesence because it contains information and data dealing with millions of places around the world. Thankfully the infrastructure rarely changes, such as longitude and latitude, a province name, the correct population, zip codes, postal codes, time zones, etc., however the administrative role within some countries could alter at a moments notice, this adds to the importance of ensuring your geodata supplier is up to date. This may or may not affect your marketing strategy, nonetheless, if that part of the information is out of date, we need to question the rest of the data. Its not all about marketing, this information is invaluable to expansion plans, relocation, building and development, shipping, law enforcement, insurance risk assessement, vehicle tracking, transportation, etc.

I mention The Global Gazetteer because it is a comprehensive set of databases covering populated places, ports and airports - ( Approximately 5,400, 38,300 and 50,000 entries respectively, geocoded and linked to their locations.) Airports, especially, are enriched with various codes, such as height, runway length, an indication of importance, time zone and other data., points of interest, administrative areas and countries. The data held includes administrational, locational, physical and demographic data. Although not all data is held for all records, so it is worth referring to the Gazetteer page for sample statistics and details of the data available. Detailing more than four million places around the world and enriched with additional data and the actual administrative role within the country, type of place, height and more.

The Global Gazetteer offers exceptional selection facilities so that the company ( ALLM Systems and Marketing ) can provide exactly the right data to match a customer's project requirements or even their budgetary constraints. I found that it is not a menu driven product which must be purchased as a whole. Each customer's data requirement is unique and ALLM Systems and Marketing treat it as such which is particularly useful if you want say, information about one part of a particular region. I believe that ALLM Systems and Marketing are the only company whose business is focused on gazetteer-related data.

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PERSONAL NAMES
GRC Database Information and ALLM Systems and Marketing are working jointly on a comprehensive database of given names, currently containing approximately 700,000 given ("first") names and around 37,000 family names ("surnames"). This information has been compiled through intense analysis of both real-World data sets and other sources of given- and family name information, and is continually being updated and improved.

TRAINS & BOATS & PLANES!
(Actually - Railway Stations and Ports & Airports). The major effort in this area at the moment is the collection of names, and subsequent geocoding, of railway stations. These records continue to be developed and ALLM Systems and Marketing believe that it is the most complete and extensive file available.

The following data is included:

Airports: 41,263 of which 38,305 are geocoded
Ports: 5,992 of which 5,360 are geocoded
Railway stations: 133,012 of which 49,978 are geocoded

POSTCODES
New extensive postcode data includes Greece, Russia, Ukraine, Egypt. Regular work continues on geocoding records, plus updating population and postcode information.

The current distribution of numbers across the broad groupings of places totals:

'Country' capitals 243
Administrative centres 29,438
Places more than 1,000 population 115,483
Other populated places 156,065
Places with postcodes 1,265,364
All other places with lat/long 1,901,323
Variant names 720,204
Each category is exclusive, eg a place which appears in Country Capitals group is not counted again in a lower group.

How is Gazetteer data used?

The Global Gazetteer, details more than four million populated locations around the world and its data gets used by a variety of companies world-wide for very different purposes:

100,000 places for the 3-D Atlas

All airports/airstrips for a company transporting animals world-wide, to derive shipping rates

World-wide postcode, town and province data for address cleaning and data entry validation

Port and airport data for a law enforcement agency

German postcodes and latitude/longitude data for a customer service centre system

Australian and Japanese postcodes, lat/long, population and employment data for insurance companies analysing flood and earthquake risks

Places in Europe, El Salvador and Lebanon for a vehicle tracking system

World-wide locations for a number of internet mapping companies

European places & postcodes for several European transport companies

100,000 places for the BBC Holiday Programme web site

The Global Gazatteer is a major source for all information and data, free downloads are available and there is no minimum order.

Contact Information

Telephone 0044 1202 417 477

Fax 0044 1202 417 477

ALLM Systems and Marketing
Post 9 Sevenoaks Drive
Castledean
BOURNEMOUTH
BH7 7JH
England

E-mail alan@allm-geodata.com

www.thewordis.com

Internet News by

Peter Yexley
Hertfordshire Internet
The Granary
Redwell Wood Farm
Ridge
Hertfordshire
EN6 3NA

01707 6467457

peter@ukhq.com

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