Geographic Candidate Ranking

Identical geographic area names can be found in many countries. When this occurs, Geocode Address World uses a ranking system to determine which of potential candidates is the most likely close match.

The specific details of this weighted ranking depend somewhat on the data source (TomTom, GeoNames, or Precisely source), but the following criteria are weighted to determine the most likely close match candidate.

Country capital status outweighs any other geographic ranking criteria. For example, San Juan entered as City returns San Juan, Puerto Rico (PRI) as the close match because it is the capital of PRI. Other San Juan cities in the world (including Spain, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic and Philippines) can be returned as non-close matches regardless of their population. To return matches, you must check the Keep multiple matches check box in Matching Options of the Management Console, and specify the number of matches you want to return.

Similarly, Geocode Address World returns Roma, ITA as a close match since that is the capital of Italy, but Roma in Romania, Honduras, and Panama are returned as non-close matches.

State/province administrative capitals are highly weighted even if their populations are not very large. For example, Springfield returns a close geographic match to Springfield, Illinois USA because this is the state capital of Illinois. Springfield, Massachusetts has a somewhat larger population, but this is outweighed by the state capital status of Springfield Illinois. Other less populous Springfield communities in the USA and other countries are also returned as close matches, but are listed below the Springfield Illinois candidate. It is possible for a large city to rate as an equal close match along with a smaller, identically named state/province capital. However, the state/province capital will not be demoted, even if it has a relatively small population.

Similarly, if your input is Albany in City with no country specified, Geocode Address World returns Albany, NY, USA as the close match candidate. This is because Albany is the capital of New York State, and therefore gets a high ranking as administrative area capital. The population is also a contributing ranking factor. If you specify the city of Albany with a different country, such as New Zealand, then the country is used and Albany, NZL is returned as the close match candidate.

If a candidate includes a city, a CityRank value is also returned, if available. CityRank is a numeric value ranging from 1 (high) to 10 (low) that indicates the relative ranking of the city. This ranking is based on relative population, administrative status, and other criteria. If multiple geographic candidates are returned, they are listed in city rank order.