How many people live in the regions your company serves? The size of the area changes when you compare whole states, local service areas or custom sales territories. The population figure needs to describe the area you're considering. Adding that context to a map can help you see the resident market alongside your regions and locations. Start with the question about places you need to answer. Think about how closely the areas used to count people should match your company's boundaries.
Choose the population geography
Start with the area your decision concerns. A state-level comparison needs state boundaries, while a local coverage review may need smaller areas or the custom regions you've already drawn. A broad boundary can group very different neighborhoods. Choose a level that lets you check the coverage question.
Maptive's built-in Census boundary fill supports the United States and Canada. Select the geography and demographic data that fit the question for your map. Keep customer pins and company regions easy to tell apart from the Census boundaries. Readers need to know which area each number describes.
If you match postal codes with data from another file, keep leading zeros and check which type of code you have. In the United States, Census ZIP Code Tabulation Areas are generalized areas that represent postal ZIP codes. Not every postal ZIP has one. A mailing code and a Census area aren't the same thing just because their numbers look alike.
Keep the details of how you defined your regions with the review. If a sales region is a custom shape, a county's resident count may offer context without being the count for that exact shape. Use the custom-region details when that is the area you want to review, and check the selected population measure before reporting it.
Load population under your regions
Open Map Tools and select Boundary Tool. Choose the Boundary Set for your comparison, then select Demographic Census Data. Choose the Demographic Group containing the population measure you need.
Under Fill Data, choose from the population fields offered. Use the actual field name shown in the tool, since the names can differ from one group to the next. Check what the field counts before you select Load Boundaries.
Check the new layer with the pins and regions you already use. Make sure the chosen boundary set covers the area you meant to show. If the map shows a broad geography while your decision concerns a small local region, change to the right level before spending time on its style.
Open Fill Settings and Customize Fills to adjust colors and the number of ranges. Value Ranges aims to place roughly equal numbers of boundaries in each range. Percentage Ranges divides the span from the low value to the high value into equal bands, which can leave some bands empty.
Choose ranges that help the reader compare how many people live in each area. A color is meaningful only with its legend and measure. Keep the style consistent when several maps are meant to be read together; otherwise, the same color can represent a different count in each view.
You can keep more than one fill on a boundary set and switch between them, though only one fill is displayed at a time. Boundary Formatting can also show a Custom Value that differs from the value used for the color. Check which value each part shows when you choose labels, then review the legend and labels together.
Add population to custom-region details
Click the boundary, territory, radius or drive-time polygon you want to inspect. Open Customize Metrics and choose Demographic Data. Select the Region, United States or Canada, then the Demographic Group and the population field you need.
Select Add to Proximity Details. The field is added to the area's pop-out, where you can read it alongside other selected metrics. Check a second area of the same tool type after adding it, since metric changes apply to other areas made with that tool too.
Each tool type can have its own metric set. Adding the field to a radius doesn't give every territory or drive-time area the same details. Set up and check the tool types you'll use in the review.
Add company data through Spreadsheet Data in Customize Metrics. Choose the column you need and the function that answers your question. Sum adds numeric values; Average describes their average. High Value and Low Value identify the largest and smallest values, while Group Count supports category counts.
For a customer count, use a prepared field or count that fits what one record means. If the map contains branches and candidates alongside customers, a raw marker count may include those other rows. A customer-weight column with 1 for each customer who belongs in the count and 0 for facility records can support a customer-only sum, provided you've resolved repeated records.
Review the details in several regions, including a small area and a region near the edge of the area the map covers. Check that the company metric uses the source column you meant to use. The Census field should be the same one used in the comparison.
Keep population measures clear
Read total residents and density separately
A population total tells you how many people the measure counts in an area. Population density tells you how many people live in a given amount of space. A large region can have more people than a small region while having a lower density.
Use the measure that suits the question. Total population can help describe the size of the resident market. Density can help compare how closely those people are grouped. If you work out density separately, state the area unit and use consistent units for every region.
Marker Count / Location Density counts your mapped records. It doesn't count everyone who lives there. Check whether those records represent people who are customers, households, businesses or locations before putting that count beside population. Also check any Custom Value labels, since a label can show a different measure from the boundary fill.
Preserve the dataset's period
A Census population count refers to a date. An estimate covers a stated period. Neither counts everyone living in the region at the moment you open the map. Record the date or period attached to the selected measure.
American Community Survey five-year estimates cover small areas that don't receive one-year data. A five-year period shouldn't be presented as a count from a single day. Use the definition and period of the field you selected rather than assuming the tool contains the newest release.
When a decision depends on recent changes, compare the demographic period with the date of your customer file. Keep that difference visible in the caption or notes alongside it. A newer company snapshot can still be useful beside an older resident count, as long as readers know the dates.
Compare customers with the right denominator
Use matching areas and time definitions
For a customer-to-population rate, use the same area for the company count and the resident count you divide it by. A customer total for a custom sales territory divided by the population of a surrounding county mixes two areas.
Check the company count as carefully as the population field. A count of customer transactions doesn't tell you how many different customers you have. Business locations aren't people who live in the area. Name a calculated rate for what it compares. A count of business locations per resident doesn't tell you what share of people living there are customers.
Calculate the rate in the file where you compare the checked values, and record the population field, period and company snapshot. If the count you divide by is missing or doesn't fit the question, leave it unresolved. Don't add a value just to complete the table.
Avoid overlap and partial-area errors
Inspect custom regions for overlap before adding their resident counts into a network total. The same people can live within several areas. The figure for each region can be useful, but adding them up may count those people more than once.
Don't assign everyone in a Census area to a custom region just because the two overlap. Check the population metric supplied for the custom area and its definition before saying exactly how many people your region covers. If the method matters to the decision and isn't clear, get an explanation before reporting exactly how many residents you reach.
Finish with a caption that names the population measure, area and period. Include the date of the company records and what one record means. Check it against the active fill, labels and pop-out metrics. A reader should be able to tell which figure describes the people living there and which comes from your own customer file without opening the source spreadsheet.
