World-POI: Global Point-of-Interest Data Enriched from Foursquare and OpenStreetMap as Tabular and Graph Data

TL;DR

This paper introduces a methodology to integrate Foursquare and OpenStreetMap POI datasets, creating a rich, combined dataset with enhanced metadata and a graph-based structure for advanced spatial analysis.

Contribution

It presents a novel data integration approach combining Foursquare and OSM POIs, with a scalable, reproducible process and a graph-based data representation.

Findings

Combined dataset of approximately 1 TB, with filtered releases for practical use.

High-confidence matches identified through name similarity and spatial proximity.

Enables advanced spatial analysis and downstream applications.

Abstract

Recently, Foursquare released a global dataset with more than 100 million points of interest (POIs), each representing a real-world business on its platform. However, many entries lack complete metadata such as addresses or categories, and some correspond to non-existent or fictional locations. In contrast, OpenStreetMap (OSM) offers a rich, user-contributed POI dataset with detailed and frequently updated metadata, though it does not formally verify whether a POI represents an actual business. In this data paper, we present a methodology that integrates the strengths of both datasets: Foursquare as a comprehensive baseline of commercial POIs and OSM as a source of enriched metadata. The combined dataset totals approximately 1 TB. While this full version is not publicly released, we provide filtered releases with adjustable thresholds that reduce storage needs and make the data practical to download and use across domains. We also provide step-by-step instructions to reproduce the full 631 GB build. Record linkage is achieved by computing name similarity scores and spatial distances between Foursquare and OSM POIs. These measures identify and retain high-confidence matches that correspond to real businesses in Foursquare, have representations in OSM, and show strong name similarity. Finally, we use this filtered dataset to construct a graph-based representation of POIs enriched with attributes from both sources, enabling advanced spatial analyses and a range of downstream applications.