Daytime Population data can highlight very distinct day and night profiles and add clarity when segments of the day is a significant consideration in an analysis. If you are a business owner, counts of residents alone are less meaningful if you want to gauge how crowded or busy a place is during the times when your business is open. It's important to remember that populated areas can be completely residential, commercial, or some combination of each.

Daytime Population data developed by Esri enable analysts to explore how commuting expands or contracts an area's population. Esri defines daytime population as the total number of "Daytime Residents" and "Daytime Workers" present during normal business hours. Daytime population workers includes the civilian employed at work (commuters and non-commuters) and armed forces personnel (living on and off-base). Unemployed working-age population, persons employed but temporarily absent from work (i.e. illness or vacation), and persons not participating in the labor force (i.e. retirees, homemakers, college students), define population residents. Within the tutorial other key variables like population change due to commuting and other related employment variables are discussed to help better understand an area's distinct day and night demographic profile.

In this tutorial, you will learn:

how Daytime Population data is defined;

why the data is used;

how to interpret the data;

how it differs from other Esri Updated Demographics variables;

data review and considerations; and

additional resources

Explore additional data learning series such as Get started with U.S.Demographics or How to use and interpret U.S. Updated Demographics