Oct 9, 2025
Understand how to evaluate population around retail locations using buffers, isochrones, and demographic datasets in Population Explorer.
Overview
Estimating population near a potential retail site is one of the first steps in understanding local demand and planning store placement. In retail analytics, population within a defined area serves as a proxy for market potential — the larger and denser the surrounding population, the greater the possible customer base.
Population Explorer simplifies this analysis by combining high-resolution demographic datasets, such as LandScan and WorldPop, with mapping tools that let you draw or generate zones around your locations. These zones — called buffers or isochrones — represent the physical or travel-time distance around a site. Each one provides accurate, dataset-driven population totals and breakdowns by age or gender.
By measuring population in this way, you can identify which locations offer the best balance of reach, density, and accessibility. This process is critical in site selection, franchise expansion, and network optimization, where decisions must be grounded in objective population metrics rather than intuition alone.
Population Explorer calculates these totals automatically when you draw a buffer, create an isochrone, or import a shape from an external KML file. The application’s folder summaries and Excel exports make it easy to compare results across sites or visualize coverage gaps.
Steps
1. Create a Folder and Site
In the left drawer, click New → Create Folder. Then click New → Create Item → Buffered Point or Isochrone to define your study area.
2. Select Data Layer
Open Layers → Settings to choose between LandScan or WorldPop datasets, and select the data year you want to use.
3. Review Population Metrics
Once generated, open the item summary panel to view total population, density, and demographic details. You can also export these figures for offline review.
Verification
Confirm that the population totals appear correctly in the folder summary panel. Export to Excel to verify that numeric values match the map-based summaries.
