---
id: data-sources/walk-score
about:
  depiction: data-sources/walk-score.jpg
  label: Walk Score
  description: >-
    A hosted service that rates the walkability of any address from 0 to 100
    from the walking distance to nearby amenities and from street measures; its
    companions Transit Score and Bike Score rate public transport and cycling.
    Scores are served through a widget and an API.
  tags:
    - walkability
    - transit
    - cycling
    - amenities
    - scoring
datasource:
  coverage: any address; the API is supported in the United States and Canada
  resolution: >-
    per address; city and neighbourhood rankings from a grid of points about 500
    feet apart
  access: 'server-side API with a key, and a widget, with branding requirements'
  homepage: 'https://www.walkscore.com/how-it-works/'
  cost: free tier and paid tiers
open:
  source: closed
  data: closed
  api: 'yes'
  participation: partly
  note: >-
    Scores come through a keyed API and a widget, with branding requirements and
    a free tier; the method is patented; members of the public can add places
    that feed the scores.
domains:
  - mobility
  - people
relations:
  - predicate: answers
    target: questions/sensory-landscape
provenance:
  origin: agent
  sources:
    - title: How Walk Score Works
      url: 'https://www.walkscore.com/how-it-works/'
    - title: Walk Score Methodology
      url: 'https://www.walkscore.com/methodology.shtml'
    - title: Walk Score API for web and mobile developers
      url: 'https://www.walkscore.com/professional/api.php'
    - title: Walk Score Professional Features and Pricing
      url: 'https://www.walkscore.com/professional/pricing.php'
    - title: Walk Score Widget
      url: 'https://www.walkscore.com/professional/walk-score-widget.php'
    - title: >-
        Walk Score Data Services - Walkability, Real Estate, and Public Health
        Data
      url: 'https://www.walkscore.com/professional/research.php'
  created: '2026-10-18'
  reviewed: '2026-10-18'
  reviewed_by: 'Claude, from the sources listed'
  status: draft
---
For each address the service analyses walking routes to nearby amenities in several categories, and a category earns full points within a five-minute walk (a quarter mile), fewer with distance, and none beyond a thirty-minute walk.[^2] Pedestrian friendliness is measured from population density and from road measures such as block length and intersection density.[^2] Data comes from Google, Factual, Great Schools, OpenStreetMap, the US Census, Localeze and places added by users.[^2]

Transit Score sums the usefulness of nearby transit routes from frequency, type and distance to the nearest stop, using the data that transit agencies publish in a standard format.[^2] Bike Score combines bike lanes and trails, hills, destinations, road connectivity and the number of bike commuters, from USGS, OpenStreetMap and Census data.[^2]

The site is aimed at people choosing where to live and at property marketing.[^1,3] Walk Score says academic researchers have validated the method, and that planners and analysts can use the data in research.[^2,6] City and neighbourhood rankings come from scoring a grid of points about 500 feet apart, each weighted by population density.[^2]

Walk Score is a hosted commercial service, with nothing to install. The method is patented.[^2,6] Developers call a server-side API at api.walkscore.com with an API key.[^3] There is a free tier and there are paid tiers,[^4] with branding requirements, and the API is supported in the United States and Canada.[^3] A widget shows the three scores on another site,[^5] and custom data is sold as a data service.[^6]