GfK’s 2013 map update encompasses approximately 1,000 digital maps that offer comprehensive coverage of municipalities and postcodes throughout Europe.

Bruchsal, October 16, 2013 – GfK has released its Europe Map Edition 2013/2014, which reflects thousands of changes that have occurred since the last update. The map edition is now available for ordering. These maps are part of the largest collection of digital maps of postal and administrative boundaries available on the market. They allow companies of all branches to carry out geomarketing tasks, such as analyses with a place-based component.

The new Europe Map Edition 2013/2014 is available from GfK as of mid-October, along with seamlessly fitting Europe-wide market data. The GfK maps of Europe have been extensively updated and expanded with many additional details. In most cases, the maps provide coverage down to the most detailed postal and administrative levels, which correspond to the five-digit postcodes and municipalities.

GfK has also released updates to its data on purchasing power as well as inhabitants and households; this data can be seamlessly combined with the maps to carry out international analyses of market potential.

"An up-to-date and ultra-precise cartographic basis is essential for all spatial analyses, whether carried out in geomarketing software, GIS, BI solutions or other database applications," explains GfK map expert Simon Lühr. "Postcode changes are very common; there are thousands of these kinds of changes each year in Europe alone."

Outdated postcode maps are problematic, because postcodes are the means by which address-based company and market data is linked to and visualized on digital maps. For example, if the postcode associated with a company branch site has changed, the turnover values for this location will either be assigned to an incorrect postcode or disappear altogether if the postcode in question has been dissolved.

New additions

There have been changes to every European country’s postal and administrative levels, amounting to a total of more than 4,000 changes. Below are some examples of these updates:

Albania

The IDs of the municipalities and districts now reflect the numeration provided by the official bureau of statistics, which has been published for the first time.

Belarus

The new maps of Belarus include coverage of 113 new six-digit postcodes and 530 dissolved six-digit postcodes, as well as many name and boundary changes.

Croatia

Of the country’s 861 postcodes, 173 were dissolved, which equates to 20 percent. There were also many boundary changes.

Great Britain

All map layers have been updated and newly digitized at a scale of 1:10,000 using the latest sources and satellite/aerial imagery. The scale of the new maps in urban areas corresponds to approximately 1:5,000. The map of the country's approximately 9,500 postcode sectors has also been newly digitized, offering street-level precision.

Hungary

Since January 1, 2013, there is a new level in Hungary's administrative structure: 198 districts (járás). This level is included in the 2013 GfK map edition for Hungary.       

Lithuania

Since the previous year's edition, 204 five-digit postcodes have been added and 64 five-digit postcodes have been dissolved; there have also been 196 name changes.

Luxembourg 

The updated map edition includes a new official district layer with three regions. Additionally, 25 four-digit postcodes have been added, and four four-digit postcodes have been dissolved.

Norway

In Norway, 26 cities that previously had just one postcode have now been subdivided into additional postcodes. As a result, there are now 129 new four-digit postcodes. Six postcodes were dissolved, and there were 24 boundary changes and 11 name changes.

Sweden

In Sweden, 113 four-digit postcodes were added and 32 were dissolved. This increased the number of postcodes to 9,830. There were also many boundary changes.

Switzerland

In Switzerland, 107 municipalities were dissolved and 20 added. There were also 25 boundary changes. This reduced the total number of municipalities from 2,506 (on January 1, 2012) to 2,419 (as of January 1, 2013).

Turkey 

There were once again many changes to Turkey's postcodes: 249 postcodes were added, while 483 were dissolved; there were also approximately 1,250 name changes and numerous boundary changes. This led to changes and corrections to all administrative layers.  Parts of the coast and the Adana region were completely overhauled on the basis of the newly available data sources.

Availability

The approximately 1,000 maps that together provide coverage of 42 European countries are available in all standard map formats, including *.shp (ESRI), *.tab (MapInfo), *.lay (RegioGraph) and Oracle Spatial. In addition to maps of the postal and administrative levels, the Europe country editions also include topographic details such as streets, bodies of water and city points categorized by number of inhabitants. All maps are vector-based and consequently offer infinite zoom and flexible viewing options.

Additional information

on GfK's digital maps can be found at  www.gfk.com/maps.

Print-quality illustrations 

can be found at 
https://www.gfk.com/news-and-events/News/Documents/Geomarketing/maps_europe_2013.zip.