Use and interpret Tapestry Segmentation data

Tapestry provides an accurate, detailed description of America's neighborhoods.

Esri's Data Development team produces demographic data (known as Updated Demographics) for the United States using a variety of sources to update small areas, beginning with the latest U.S. Census base along with a combination of other private sources to capture demographic change. Alongside Updated Demographics, Esri provides U.S. Census Bureau and American Community Survey (ACS) demographics as a point of reference for understanding growth in an area and to provide additional community details. Data tutorials educate both the novice and the expert analyst to learn more about a topic to properly incorporate Esri Demographics that are accessible within various products. In this tutorial, you will learn about the following:

  • How Tapestry is developed
  • Meaning and use behind Tapestry Segments and Tapestry Groups
  • Why the data is used
  • How to interpret the data
  • Important data considerations
  • Additional resources

First, you'll learn what Tapestry is and how it's built.


Tapestry

Tapestry is a market segmentation system built from using a large, well-selected array of attributes of demographic and socioeconomic variables to identify numerous unique consumer markets throughout the United States. Reflecting the diversity among American neighborhoods, Tapestry includes 67 distinct market segments. These segments reflect demographic shifts over the last decade to established consumer markets, as well as the emergence of new markets due to population growth, demographic and socioeconomic change and transforming consumer behavior.

Tapestry methodology

If you have always analyzed data using single variables, such as median household income or median age, Tapestry data may be a new concept to you. All market segmentation systems, including Tapestry, are based on the same fundamental principle that people with similar interests and lifestyles live in similar neighborhoods.

A lot of data expertise, analysis, statistical techniques, and verification processes have gone into creating the Tapestry Segmentation system. An extensive mix of household and housing characteristics were used to develop  67 market segments . Variables covering household type (for example, single person, family), population composition (for example, age, sex, education, employment status), financial characteristics, and housing variables such as home value, tenure, and housing type (for example, single-family detached, high rise, mobile home) were all clustered to uncover the varied and distinct markets.

To further ensure data stability and validity, segments were linked to the latest consumer survey data to distinguish consumer behavior—spending patterns and lifestyle choices. As a result Tapestry’s market segments are a result of combining traditional clustering algorithms with the latest data mining techniques.

For a broader view of consumer markets, segments are summarized by 14 LifeMode and six Urbanization Groups. The LifeMode Summary categories are grouped by lifestyle and life stage, while Urbanization Groups are based on each segment’s geographic and physical features.  Read the Esri Tapestry Methodology Statement for more information 


Next, you will learn the meaning and use behind Tapestry Segments and Tapestry Urbanization Groups.

Tapestry Segments

Tapestry is designed with a unique numerical code paired with a segment name. It features easy-to-visualize descriptive names such as Urban Chic, Laptops & Lattes, Workday Drive, and Metro Renters.

Tapestry descriptive profiles for all 67 segments allow you to compare consumer markets across the country for any area.

Tapestry Segment names provide an instant portrait of these areas but there is more behind the catchy name. These four-page profiles include an overall narrative, demographic and socioeconomic descriptions, consumer preferences, housing characteristics, and more. Plus, a map is included to display the density and geographic distribution of these neighborhoods.

For example, the first page of the Laptops and Lattes profile is shown, and highlights key neighborhood demographics and socioeconomic traits.

While Tapestry segment descriptions provide accurate representations of today’s consumers, they are generalizations about consumers with no guarantee that a given household will fit perfectly into a specific segment. For example, even though the description for Laptops and Lattes mentions a preference to spend money on nice clothes, dine out, travel, and drink lattes at Starbucks, not every consumer within that segment may reflect those preferences. Rather, Tapestry Segmentation is best used as a set of common characteristics among the typical consumer household.

What you learn

Once you have identified which Tapestry market segments are your ideal customers, the ability to find more areas that contain these segments becomes easier and faster. 

However, it is important to research each Tapestry segment of interest to learn detailed information about what makes them unique. This allows you to create targeted messaging for customers and understand their behaviors and consumption preferences for various products and services.


Tapestry Groups

Sixty-seven individual segments may seem like a lot to analyze and understand. For data users whose analysis does not require segment-level granularity, consumer markets are also organized and described using 14  LifeMode  and six  Urbanization  Groups. 

Groups contain segments summarized by lifestyle and life stage characteristics. Segments within a LifeMode Group share similar demographic and socioeconomic characteristics and likely have many shared experiences and consumer habits. Here is an example of Tapestry’s LifeMode Group, Affluent Estates, which contains five individual segments.

Urbanization Groups are based on a segment’s geographic and physical features such as population density, size of a city, and location relative to a metropolitan area. These groups represent markets that share similar locales, from the urban canyons of the largest cities to the rural lanes of villages or farms.

Here is an example of Tapestry’s Urbanization Summary Group Principal Urban Centers, which is made up of eight individual segments.


Why use Tapestry Segmentation

In a highly fragmented and complex marketplace, Tapestry is an invaluable tool that helps cut through the demographic fog to reveal a company’s distinct audience. Tapestry demystifies who they are, where they live, and how they think, behave, and react so businesses can strategically spend resources more effectively because every day and dollar counts. Using Tapestry allows you to gain insights into your top performing customers, where optimal sites are located, and which markets are being underserved.

As the saying goes, “Birds of a feather flock together.” This is the basic premise behind Tapestry, -neighborhoods that share similar characteristics are grouped together, while others with differing characteristics are separated.

The advantage of using Tapestry is its ability to identify patterns within the multitude of individual variables for an area. Bringing the data together in this way, allows for a robust database that describes the diverse mix of U.S. neighborhoods by painting a comprehensive picture of who lives where, describing their lifestyle choices, and highlighting how they spend their money and their free time.

Another advantage to use Tapestry Segmentation is how it can add significant value to an analysis.

Although variables such as age and income are important to understand the demographic profile of an area, analyzing these factors separately fails to uncover underlying relationships. Consumers with similar interests and characteristics make similar choices.

To demonstrate, let’s compare the typical household in two neighborhoods using select demographic variables used to distinguish each.

Pictured are two households, Household "A" and Household "B". At first glance, the income and age data are similar across both Households.

If the goal is to locate new trade areas for expansion containing a desired type of consumer household, both appear to be demographically and socioeconomically similar. But let’s look at what happens when Tapestry is folded into the analysis.

Both neighborhoods contain distinct consumer markets with different types of households, housing choices, and consumption preferences. Households in neighborhood “A” are classified as  Up and Coming Families , while neighborhood “B” is classified as  Metro Renters .

Those in the Up and Coming Families segment (Household "A") have an average household size of more than three persons per household due to this segment containing mostly married couple families. Their typical housing choices include single-family detached homes in suburban areas—where more than three quarters own their own homes. They generally drive late-model imported SUVs or compact cars, participate in family-oriented leisure activities, take trips to theme parks or zoos, and prefer watching movies at home.

On the other hand, the household population of Metro Renters (Household "B") are predominantly single urban city dwellers. On average, they have a much smaller household size (less than two persons per household) and most reside in multi-unit rental dwellings within dense urban cores. They typically rely on public transportation or taxis, as well as walking or biking to get around town. More than 70 percent have a bachelor’s degree or higher (versus a third of households in Up and Coming Families neighborhoods). They embrace the latest tech, enjoy going out to bars and restaurants, as well as doing yoga, Pilates, or heading out to the ski slopes in their down time.

What you learn

While age and income are crucial for grasping the demographic profile of an area, examining these variables in isolation misses the opportunity to reveal underlying connections. One demographic variable can offer only a single dimension of a consumer, whereas the Tapestry Segmentation system provides a vivid and rich, multidimensional profile. It enables a more comprehensive understanding of the types of residents who live in an area, including their consumption choices and lifestyle preferences. Tapestry is a powerful tool to help data users make better and more informed business decisions.


Data analytical practices

The following demonstrates using Tapestry to improve the performance of finding suitable new locations. To demonstrate a typical Tapestry data analysis, let’s look at a “What if” business scenario:

What if a growing high-end grocery retailer is searching for a potential new location to expand its corporate footprint in the East Coast?

You learn that tenant space has become available in Clarendon, an urbanized, upper-class neighborhood in Arlington, Virginia. A metro station services the Clarendon area. Situated within 15 miles of the proposed site, there are approximately 18 existing high-end grocery stores, of which 11 are located north east of your proposed location, and several others west of the location. 

Should you consider opening a new grocery store at the proposed location?

One of the best ways to get information about a potential site is to run a Tapestry Segmentation Area Profile report. This profile allows for a quick understanding of the types of residents living in an area. Using ArcGIS Business Analyst Web App, a 10-minute walk time is generated from the proposed location.

Tapestry Profiles can be run on any standard geographic area such as states, metros, counties, census tracts, block groups and ZIP codes. They can also be run on any user-defined area using rings, drive or walk times- we chose a walking distance for our analysis because of the nature of the area, its density, and lack of adequate parking.

Tapestry data interpretation

A Tapestry Segmentation Area Profile produces six pages of informative data about the households and adult population. Understanding these profiles provides you with the insight needed to better understand the demographic landscape in areas that may be unfamiliar. Let’s look at each page to demonstrate how to interpret the data so you can gain a better understanding of what the numbers mean and how these numbers can affect your decision-making process.

Using our 10-minute walk time example, Page 1 of the Tapestry Segmentation Area Profile is shown.

All Tapestry Profiles rank up to 20 top segments and list the top 10 segments in an area compared to the percentage of households by U.S. segment. Out of 67 segments, 3 are within this 10-minute walk time.

Nearly all households belong to two segments: Laptops and Lattes (59.5) and Metro Renters (33.9).

Laptops and Lattes has a very high index of 5,490 due to the small size of the trade area. The segment index measures the percentage of households in the trade area relative to the percentage of all U.S. households.

A segment index value of 100 indicates the share of households within the local area is the same as the U.S. base. A value <100 means the share is smaller, while a value >100 means it has more households.

The Laptops and Lattes index of 5,490 can be interpreted as the percentage of households that exceeds the percentage in the U.S. by a multiple of 54.9 times.

Tapestry Summary report, page 2, partially shown below, provides a visual comparison of the segment index values computed by households and adult population. As indicated on the first page of the report, Laptops and Lattes and Metro Renters both have the largest index measures.

The third and fourth pages of the Area Profile report for the Clarendon trade area list the distribution of segments sorted by LifeMode Group.  

All the consumers in the proposed area fall into LifeMode Summary Group Uptown Individuals. The count and percentage of households and adult population are displayed for every segment. 

Out of the 8,210 households that reside within a 10-minute walk time from the site, 59.5% of the households are classified as Laptops and Lattes, while 33.9% are Metro Renters, and 6.6% are Trendsetters.

Among the 13,918 adults in the area, 59.3% are classified as Laptops and Lattes, while 33.9% are Metro Renters, and 6.8% are Trendsetters.

The last two pages provide a similar segment sorting, but this time by Urbanization Group.

All the consumers in the proposed area belong to Principal Urban Center. This becomes helpful as you can quickly understand the geographic similarities or differences between the prevalent segments in the trade area. 

What you learned

In this example, Tapestry has taught you that the consumers in this trade area are young, well-educated, like to live in cities, are health conscious and care about the food they eat. In fact, they like to eat organic food, and prefer to shop at stores such as Whole Foods and Trader Joe's. And although parking seems inadequate, the location remains an attractive site option for this grocer as area residents’ car ownership is low and walking or using public transportation is common.

Upon review of the Tapestry Segmentation Area Profile report, should the grocery chain give serious consideration to this proposed location? Site selection is a multi-faceted process that requires extensive planning and research. An area’s demographic composition, while a critical component in the analysis, is just one factor in this expensive decision-making process. With that said, using Tapestry is a fast, accurate, and quick way to start the site selection process. Tapestry enables you to gain insight about an area’s customer base to produce a vivid portrait describing the persons and types of households present in an area.


Data review and considerations

Tapestry classifies every U.S. neighborhood into 67 unique segments. These segments are also combined into 14 LifeMode groups and six Urbanization groups.

Tapestry is designed to use individual market segments or LifeMode/Urbanization Summary Groups, or both, to help understand the demographic landscape within your market area.

(Note: Sometimes using the Tapestry Summary Groups can be easier to analyze if the segments that comprise the group fit the consumers you want to attract.)

Tapestry helps you answer the who, what, and where of your neighborhoods: Who are they? What do they buy or do in their free time? And where are they?

Tapestry segments are consistent across the U.S. For example, if you determined Metro Renters as your target segment, this segment represents your target market in any other area across the U.S.

Segment descriptions are accurate portrayals of today’s consumers, but they are generalizations about households, with no guarantee a household's characteristics will align perfectly in the profiles.

Tapestry is best used as a set of common characteristics among most consumers, establishing a foundation for further research.


Data access

You can access Esri Demographics using Esri software and through apps like ArcGIS  Business Analyst  ,  ArcGIS for Excel  , or ready to use maps from  ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World . For use outside of the Esri platform data files are available in CSV, dBase, Excel, shapefile, or file geodatabase formats.

 Contact an Esri data sales specialist with data questions at 800-447-9778 or send an email with your request to: datasales@esri.com 


Next steps

In this tutorial, you learned about the basics of Tapestry, how to interpret the data, and how powerful the data is for identifying key customers and developing innovative business strategies. Additional data tutorials in two series are available. Click the links below for continued data exploration, learning, and ways to access the data.


Learn more

Data methodologies

Tapestry is a market segmentation system built from using a large, well-selected array of attributes of demographic and socioeconomic variables to identify numerous unique consumer markets throughout the United States. Represented as point-in-time estimates as of July 1, the data is available for Esri’s standard geographic areas and for any user-defined polygon such as a ring or drive time.  Read the Esri Tapestry Methodology Statement for more information 

Frequently asked questions

Use our  data reference page  to help answer additional questions about Esri Demographics.

Helpful links


Connect with us

If you have a topic you would like covered in a data tutorial to help you better understand U.S. data, send us an e-mail with your topic idea.

About this story

This story was created by Donna Fancher in collaboration with the Esri Data Development team. To start working with the U.S. data collection, visit the   Esri Location Data Resources   page.

Led by chief demographer Kyle Cassal and economist Douglas Skuta, Esri's Data Development team uses sophisticated quantitative methods to produce small area demographic and socioeconomic data to support informed decision-making. The team builds on a rich history of market intelligence to produce trusted independent estimates and forecasts for the United States based on innovative methodologies that use public and private data sources with the power of ArcGIS. Esri's Data Development team provides more than 7,000 proprietary data items to better understand the characteristics of people and places across multiple statistical and administrative boundaries and custom trade areas.

Esri, the Esri globe logo, The Science of Where, Tapestry, ArcGIS, esri.com, and @esri.com are trademarks, service marks, or registered marks of Esri in the United States, the European Community, or certain other jurisdictions. Other companies and products or services mentioned herein may be trademarks, service marks, or registered marks of their respective mark owners.

All rights reserved

Copyright © 2024 Esri