MaxMind offers different data points about IP geolocations of differing levels of specificity. Generally, our geolocation data can be broken down into country-level data, and city-level data.
Country-level geolocation data
Our geolocation data always includes information about the continent and country of the IP address, where it is available. In addition, our data products include information about the registered and represented country of an IP address where this is applicable.
Registered and represented countries
In some cases, an IP address may be located in one country, but the network it is associated with may be registered to a different country. This may be the case for mobile carrier companies who provide service in several countries, or other institutions that register and manage networks that may cross national borders.
In addition, there are some networks that represent a different country from the one in which they're located. For example, a network used by an overseas military base or embassy will be located in a different country than the one that the network represents. For represented countries, our data includes the "type" of representation. Currently, the only type in our data is "military." Learn more about the specifications for the represented country type on our developer portal.
In these cases we will return data about the registered or represented country in addition to the country in which the IP address is located.
City-level geolocation data
All of our geolocation products contain country-level geolocation data. Some of our products also include more specific geolocation data about the city, metro code, and subdivision where the IP address is located. The subdivision of an IP address may be a province, state, or other kind of region, depending on the regional structure of the country. Learn more about which geolocation products contain only country-level geolocation data, and which contain city-level geolocation data as well.
Instances in which city-level geolocation data is missing
More specific geolocation data may not be returned for every IP address, even when you're using a product that includes city-level data. This is because not all IP addresses can be geolocated with enough specificity to return information about the subdivision, city, or metro code of an IP address. Learn more about the accuracy of IP geolocation data, and how to fall back on less specific geolocation data when more specific data is not available.
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