# U.S. Commercial Diplomacy Index — Places & Business Directory

> A National Data System reference directory for exploring world cities, businesses, cultural places, transportation context, and country connections. It is the geographic and historical business reference companion to Commercial Diplomacy Index.

Public site: https://places.commercialdiplomacyindex.com/
Main research publication: https://commercialdiplomacyindex.com/
Research foundation: National Data System, https://nationaldatasystem.com/.

## What this directory provides
- Name search for GeoNames populated places, with country and region context.
- Country reference pages with language notes, recorded place measures, available tourism history, transportation references, and links to country research and U.S. communities.
- Published individual business and cultural-place references, country filters, and covered U.S. postal ZIP markets.
- Inquiry options for local sponsorships and reviewed business-profile claims or corrections.

## Source coverage and interpretation
GeoNames release geonames-2026-10-20-v1 contains 5,232,099 feature-class P records across 248 observed source country codes, including settlements, city sections, and source-labeled historic or abandoned places. It is not every geographic feature or a list of incorporated municipalities. CountryInfo language fields describe country context, not verified language use by a particular city, business, or person.

The Foursquare Open Source Places historical reference was collected in 2026, with an NDS source build dated August 18, 2026. Its 109,255,094 source records describe the underlying collection, not the number of individual business profiles currently published on this website. Country summaries and the named business directory have separate coverage.

The source status "current candidate" is presented as "retained for exploration"; it does not verify that a business is open today. "Analysis eligible" combines an eligible source status, valid coordinates, and a category. Country source positions describe individual source measures, not overall Commercial Diplomacy scores. Category and website coverage are properties of the supplied records, not measures of the entire national economy.

Postal ZIPs and Census ZCTAs have separate definitions. Sponsorships do not change source facts, positions, or index scores. Profile claims and correction requests require publisher review.

## Reader pages
- [Directory home](https://places.commercialdiplomacyindex.com/)
- [Search populated places](https://places.commercialdiplomacyindex.com/cities)
- [Country reference directory](https://places.commercialdiplomacyindex.com/countries)
- [Country affiliations](https://places.commercialdiplomacyindex.com/country-affiliations)
- [Business and cultural-place references](https://places.commercialdiplomacyindex.com/businesses)
- [Country business-reference measures](https://places.commercialdiplomacyindex.com/business-reference)
- [Covered U.S. ZIP business markets](https://places.commercialdiplomacyindex.com/us/zip)
- [Sources, definitions, and reference API](https://places.commercialdiplomacyindex.com/reference)
- [Sponsorship inquiries](https://places.commercialdiplomacyindex.com/advertise)
- [Shared privacy notice](https://commercialdiplomacyindex.com/privacy)

## Discovery
- [Country and reference XML sitemap](https://places.commercialdiplomacyindex.com/sitemap.xml)
- [Published-business sitemap index](https://places.commercialdiplomacyindex.com/business-sitemap.xml)
- [Main index XML sitemap](https://commercialdiplomacyindex.com/sitemap.xml)

Country facts and historical business references support exploration, not proof of demand, current operation, or commercial success. Individual business URLs enter the business sitemap when their source records are published. Private submissions and publisher-management pages are not public reference sources. This optional guide does not guarantee discovery or citation by an AI service.