Why are there different figures for the "2019 Total Employees" and "Total Number of Businesses" on the "Business Locator" report vs the "Business Summary" report for the same area?

Question

There are different totals in the two different reports for the exact same area. Perhaps it's data source differences, but it's a noticeable difference 2,492 employees vs. 2,786 and 281 businesses vs. 378.

Source note for "Business Locator" report:

Data Note for "Business Locator" report:

"Data...is based on the businesses whose location falls within the area of study. Total Daytime Business Population, Total Number of Businesses, and the Daytime Business (pop)/Residential Ratio are calculated using the collection of business points that fall within the area of study."

Source note for "Business Summary" report:

Data Note for "Business Summary" report:

"Data on the Business Summary report is calculated using Eri's Data allocation method which uses census block groups to allocate business summary data to custom areas."

Jason_RobinsonRobinson · Answer

For the Business Analyst web app the primary reason for the difference as you noticed is the two different vintages for the reports (Jan. 2019 for the summary and July 2019 for locator).

Additionally the Business Locator is aggregating actual business point whereas the Business Summary report is populated from the apportioned underlying block group data which means that generally the numbers will not match up there.  Let me know if you have any additional questions.

Regards,

Jason R.