When using analytics, it’s important to understand that the data is never perfect, and geo data is no different.
Geo data is inherently inaccurate. The challenge of providing precise visitor location data is not unique to our product, but we like to disclose the inner workings of Independent Analytics so you can understand exactly what you’re seeing and make more educated decisions for your website.
Geo data accuracy
Continent and country locations are accurate roughly 99% of the time. Subdivision accuracy is about 80%, and city accuracy is around 66%.
When a city is incorrectly interpreted, it’s because a nearby city was selected as the most likely location instead. For instance, a visitor in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, could be recorded as being from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. While incorrect, the location is still relatively close. You will not see, however, a location that is wildly inaccurate, like a New York visitor recorded as being in Paris.
In summary, you can have great confidence in the continents and countries reported in the world map and data table, while subdivision and city data should be viewed as more approximate.