Researchers at the University of Toronto have created a dataset on commercial areas, such as retail centers and financial districts, in roughly 70 metropolitan areas in the United States and Canada. The researchers identified roughly 24,000 distinct commercial areas using data on the number of retail stores, office buildings, and density of jobs reported on national census surveys. For each detected commercial zone, the dataset provides its outline, total area, a score of its relative concentration, the metropolitan statistical area, and the street at its geographic center.
Image credit: Christian Wiediger
