In the neighborhood and ZIP aggregate statistics, what does “Unknown” mean?
The “Unknown” figure tells you the number of records that couldn’t be placed in a neighborhood, ZIP code or other geographic boundary. This can happen for two broad reasons: some records cannot be “geocoded,” and other records, despite being geocoded correctly, may lie outside our neighborhood or ZIP boundaries. See “By neighborhood” in the Philly crime section for an example of how the “Unknown” figures are presented. The first reason a record might have an “Unknown” neighborhood is if it’s not geocoded. (For more on geocoding, see this lengthly EveryBlock blog post.) Here are the common reasons why a record might not be geocoded: • A typo in a street name, e.g., “Rossevelt Rd.” instead of “Roosevelt Rd.” • An address we don’t know about. Our address database is imperfect and misses some addresses. For more, read this blog post of ours. • An ambiguous address. For example, Boston has a Chandler Street and a Chandler Road. If a record has the address “61 Chandler,” we’re not able to de
