February 19th, 2019
New Digital Maps Available for 54 Countries in the Americas

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GfK has released a new, comprehensively overhauled map edition for the Americas. The included digital maps feature thousands of updates to these countries’ administrative and postcode boundaries, providing a reliable basis for accurate geographic analyses in geomarketing software and BI systems.

GfK’s America Map Edition encompasses approximately 640 digital maps offering up-to-date and detailed coverage of administrative and postcode boundaries for 54 countries in the Americas (including the overseas territories of Britain and France). The maps feature new regional levels in addition to enhanced levels of detail along coastlines and in cities. The map edition also offers first-ever coverage of the five-digit postcodes in Argentina and Peru as well as the six-digit postcodes in Columbia.

“A precise and up-to-date cartographic basis is essential for carrying out accurate geographic analyses,” explains Klaus Dittmann, head of cartography for GfK’s Geomarketing solution area. “Our map editions offer users from all industries boundary data to support their location-based analyses. The applications are numerous, ranging from pinpointing target groups and market potential to calculating cumulative risks and exposures in the insurance industry, or optimizing sales, delivery and service regions to improve business outcomes. Thanks to our newly available coverage of the most detailed postcode levels in key countries in Latin America, users can perform very granular assessments of their operations in these crucial regions.”

GfK’s digital maps are available in all standard map formats, including *.shp (ESRI), *.tab (MapInfo), *.lay (RegioGraph) and Oracle Spatial. All maps are vector-based and consequently offer infinite zoom and flexible viewing options. GfK’s maps include dual-language attributions of all map objects in the international nomenclature as well as the native language and nomenclature. This allows internationally active companies to plan and optimize their operations across their entire global portfolio.

New additions

There have been thousands of changes to the postal and administrative levels of the Americas over the past four years. GfK has updated administrative and postcode boundaries for almost all of the countries included in the edition on the basis of official information as well as newly available more detailed sources. A total of 16 newly created map layers have been added for 11 countries. Details on the most important new additions are listed below:

Argentina

• new layer of the 3,121 five-digit postcodes
• updated map of the 527 departamentos

Brazil

• The combined map of the two- and five-digit postcodes has been expanded to include the five-digit postcodes of the cities Campinas, Curitiba and Porto Alegre; the five-digit postcodes for São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro have been expanded, providing almost complete coverage of the metropolitan regions.

Canada

• All boundaries have been completely newly digitized.
• first-ever layer of the 489,671 blocks and 56,589 dissemination areas

Colombia

• All boundaries have been completely newly digitized.
• first-ever map of the 3,681 six-digit postcodes

Haiti

• new layer of the 140 townships
• first-ever map of the 570 sections

Mexico

• The combined map of the two- and five-digit postcodes has been expanded to include the five-digit postcodes of the cities Ecatepec, Nezahualcoyotl, Zapopan, Juarez and León as well as the two-digit postcodes 56, 62, 74 and 90; compared to the previous map edition, 2,223 regions have been added and 487 dissolved.

Peru

• All boundaries have been completely newly digitized.
• first-ever layer of the 2,670 five-digit postcodes and 1,874 districts

USA

• All boundaries have been completely newly digitized.
• first-ever layer of the 217,204 block groups and 72,754 census tracts

Additional information
on GfK’s worldwide digital maps can be found here.

Print-quality illustrations
can be found here.

About GfK

GfK connects data and science. Innovative research solutions provide answers for key business questions around consumers, markets, brands and media – now and in the future. As a research and analytics partner, GfK promises its clients all over the world “Growth from Knowledge”.

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