Journal of the Association of Korean Geographers ISSN:2287-4739(Print) 2733-8991(Online) 한국지리학회지

This study examines consistency among floating population datasets derived from the same underlying mobile network data using different aggregation criteria and identifies considerations for their use. Hourly, day-of-week, and sex- and age-specific datasets on a 50m×50m grid for 2019–2023 in Danyang-gun and Cheongsong-gun were used to analyze spatial coverage, regional totals, discrepancies in cell-level values, and their relationships with local characteristics. The findings were as follows. First, regional totals were broadly similar across the three datasets, but the day-of-week dataset had the widest spatial coverage, and the proportion of cells with positive values only in this dataset generally increased over time. Second, pairwise comparisons restricted to cells with positive values in both datasets showed that the hourly and day-of-week datasets had relatively similar value distributions, whereas differences involving the sex- and age-specific dataset were more pronounced. Relative discrepancies among the three datasets were greater in cells with lower floating population estimates and exhibited positive spatial autocorrelation. Third, associations between relative discrepancies and local characteristics weakened or changed direction after controlling for floating population size. These findings highlight the need to distinguish between spatial coverage and differences in values when using these datasets according to the purpose of the analysis.