Top Twenty GIS Skills
Description: 500 GIS Users were asked what skills they use on a regular basis. The results are below.
November 2008
More Info: gclemmer@urban-research.info

1. What tasks do you use GIS for on a regular basis?

Reference/cadastral mapping (including labeling, symbolizing and creating layouts)	65.6%	328
Editing/maintaining boundaries (including clipping)	63.6%	318
Projecting data and working with coordinate systems	63.8%	319
Geocoding addresses	37.2%	186
Geocoding to a polygon	15.2%	76
Joining data to a map	70.6%	353
Thematic mapping	65.0%	325
Categorical mapping	41.2%	206
Attribute queries	80.4%	402
Location queries	71.0%	355
Custom selections	49.2%	246
Preparing data to bring into GIS	63.2%	316
Creating and working with geodatabases	63.4%	317
Editing & working with Attribute data	78.4%	392
Working with ArcCatalog	66.2%	331
Mapping gps points/Adding X,Y data	56.8%	284
Counting points within a polygon	22.4%	112
Creating buffers around points	48.4%	242
Merging multiple shapefiles into one shapefile	47.0%	235
Splitting polygons	47.6%	238
Drawing maps by hand	11.4%	57
Digitizing paper maps	27.8%	139
Creating a good map layout (colors and font choices, graphic design)	74.4%	372
Publishing maps for end users (including posting maps to the internet)	61.8%	309
Understanding different file types (.shp, .gdb, .lyr, .sde, coverage)	56.0%	280
Summarizing data	51.2%	256
Working with data models	33.8%	169
Calculating distances between points	41.8%	209
Creating raster surfaces	25.8%	129
Raster calculations	22.4%	112
Editing multi-user geodatabases	23.2%	116
Creating a TIN surface	16.0%	80
Adding metadata	33.2%	166
Working with Aerial photography	68.4%	342
3-D GIS	18.4%	92
Web mapping	31.6%	158
Integrating ArcGIS data with GoogleEarth	19.2%	96
Cluster Analysis	10.2%	51
Interoperability	14.8%	74
Routing	10.6%	53