Merging LA County Active Businesses and Health Inspection Data with Placekey

Combining datasets makes them more useful by providing a clearer and more complete picture of the data. This allows for better analysis, improved decision-making, and the ability to spot patterns and connections that standalone datasets might miss. It also helps check and improve data quality by comparing information from different sources to find inconsistencies and correct errors.

However, joining datasets can be difficult due to mismatched addresses or place names. While you can try solving this with fuzzy matching, it often leads to challenges. Placekey offers a simpler approach, making it quick and easy to merge and clean datasets.

We were able to use Placekey to join the LA County Active Businesses dataset and the LA County Health Inspection Results dataset in a matter of seconds. These now enriched datasets offer more of an insight into Los Angeles’s business than before. Let’s take a closer look.

Insights from the Join

With Placekey, we applied identifiers to 586,551 rows from the LA County Active Businesses dataset and 182,054 rows from the LA County Health Inspection Results dataset. The join revealed several insights:

5,886 Placekeys matched between the datasets

LA County Active Businesses:

• ~1% of entries in LA County Active Businesses matched to entries in LA County Restaurant Health Inspection Data
• LA County Active Businesses added 5,886 business names and council district values to the LA County Restaurant Health Inspection Dataset

LA County Restaurant Health Inspection Data:

• ~3.2% of LA County Restaurant Health Inspection Data matched to entries in LA County Active Businesses 
• LA County Restaurant Health Inspection Data added 5,886 serial numbers and inspection descriptions to the LA County Active Businesses dataset 

How to Perform the Join Yourself

You can sign up for Placekey, execute this join, and download the datasets for free. We recommend navigating to the Join Datasets section of the developer dashboard 

Other options are available like dropping off a file in the Bulk Upload section or using the API to append Placekeys to your own datasets. Whatever method you choose it takes just a few minutes to get started.

Understanding the Datasets

The LA County Active Businesses dataset provides detailed records of all businesses considered active by the city's Office of Finance. This includes business names, addresses, NAICS codes, and more. It's updated monthly, offering a current snapshot of the business environment.

The LA County Health Inspection Results dataset records inspection results conducted on restaurants and food markets across LA County. It includes information on public health inspections, violations, and safety compliance, updated daily.

What is Placekey?

Placekey is an open entity matching API for places and addresses, helping with deduplication, matching, syncing, and merging physical places. You can find more about Placekey in our documentation. By providing a unique key, Placekey allows users to join datasets accurately, regardless of address permutations or misspellings. The service is free for up to 10,000 look-ups per day, making it accessible for most needs.

Potential Use Cases

The merged Los Angeles dataset can help with a variety of uses cases. Here are some to explore:

• Consumer Safety: Identify which businesses have passed or failed health inspections.
• Compliance Monitoring: Track inspection frequency and common violations in LA County.
• Data-driven Decision Making: Develop machine learning models to predict health inspection outcomes based on business attributes.
• Public Health Analysis: Assess the relationship between business practices and public health trends in Los Angeles.

Conclusion

By leveraging Placekey, we can efficiently merge datasets like LA County Active Businesses and Health Inspection Results, unlocking valuable insights. This process not only enhances our understanding of public health and business compliance but also empowers us to make informed decisions. We encourage you to explore these datasets using Placekey and discover new insights for yourself. Please visit Placekey's documentation and sign up to get started.