Business Licenses
Business licenses issued by the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection in the City of Chicago from 2002 to the present. This dataset contains a large number of records/rows of data and may not be viewed in full in Microsoft Excel. Therefore, when downloading the file, select CSV from the Export menu. Open the file in an ASCII text editor, such as Notepad or Wordpad, to view and search.
Data fields requiring description are detailed below.
APPLICATION TYPE: ‘ISSUE’ is the record associated with the initial license application. ‘RENEW’ is a subsequent renewal record. All renewal records are created with a term start date and term expiration date. ‘C_LOC’ is a change of location record. It means the business moved. ‘C_CAPA’ is a change of capacity record. Only a few license types may file this type of application. ‘C_EXPA’ only applies to businesses that have liquor licenses. It means the business location expanded. 'C_SBA' is a change of business activity record. It means that a new business activity was added or an existing business activity was marked as expired.
LICENSE STATUS: ‘AAI’ means the license was issued. ‘AAC’ means the license was cancelled during its term. ‘REV’ means the license was revoked. 'REA' means the license revocation has been appealed.
LICENSE STATUS CHANGE DATE: This date corresponds to the date a license was cancelled (AAC), revoked (REV) or appealed (REA).
Business License Owner information may be accessed at: https://data.cityofchicago.org/dataset/Business-Owners/ezma-pppn. To identify the owner of a business, you will need the account number or legal name, which may be obtained from this Business Licenses dataset.
Data Owner: Business Affairs and Consumer Protection. Time Period: January 1, 2002 to present. Frequency: Data is updated daily.
Columns
| Name | Socrata field name | Column name in sgr mount | Data type | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BUSINESS ACTIVITY ID | business_activity_id | business_activity_id | Text | A code for the business activity. Each ID value corresponds to a specific BUSINESS ACTIVITY value. |
| ZIP CODE | zip_code | zip_code | Text | |
| LICENSE TERM EXPIRATION DATE | expiration_date | expiration_date | Calendar date | |
| LONGITUDE | longitude | longitude | Number | |
| LICENSE ID | license_id | license_id | Number | An internal database ID for each record. Each license can have multiple records as it goes through renewals and other transactions. See the LICENSE NUMBER field for the number generally known to the public and used in most other data sources that refer to the license. |
| DOING BUSINESS AS NAME | doing_business_as_name | doing_business_as_name | Text | |
| CITY | city | city | Text | |
| WARD PRECINCT | ward_precinct | ward_precinct | Text | The ward and precinct where the business is located. This column can be used to filter by precinct more easily across multiple wards. |
| LOCATION | location | location | Point | |
| ACCOUNT NUMBER | account_number | account_number | Number | The account number of the business owner, which will stay consistent across that owner's licenses and can be used to find the owner in the Business Owners dataset. |
| LICENSE APPROVED FOR ISSUANCE | license_approved_for_issuance | license_approved_for_issuance | Calendar date | This is the date the license was ready for issuance. Licenses may not be issued if the customer owes debt to the City. |
| LICENSE CODE | license_code | license_code | Number | A code for the type of license. Each code value corresponds to a specific LICENSE DESCRIPTION value. |
| LEGAL NAME | legal_name | legal_name | Text | |
| LATITUDE | latitude | latitude | Number | |
| SSA | ssa | ssa | Text | Special Service Areas are local tax districts that fund expanded services and programs, to foster commercial and economic development, through a localized property tax. In other cities these areas are sometimes called Business Improvement Districts (BIDs). This portal contains a map of all Chicago SSAs |
| LICENSE DESCRIPTION | license_description | license_description | Text | |
| LICENSE NUMBER | license_number | license_number | Number | The license number known to the public and generally used in other data sources that refer to the license. This is the field most users will want for most purposes. Each license has a single license number that stays consistent throughout the lifetime of the license. By contrast, the LICENSE ID field is an internal database ID and not generally useful to external users. |
| APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS COMPLETE | application_requirements_complete | application_requirements_complete | Calendar date | For all application types except RENEW, this is the date all required application documents were received. For RENEW type records, this is the date the record was created. |
| APPLICATION CREATED DATE | application_created_date | application_created_date | Calendar date | The date the business license application was created. RENEW type records do not have an application. |
| POLICE DISTRICT | police_district | police_district | Number | |
| PAYMENT DATE | payment_date | payment_date | Calendar date | |
| DATE ISSUED | date_issued | date_issued | Calendar date | |
| LICENSE STATUS CHANGE DATE | license_status_change_date | license_status_change_date | Calendar date | |
| Census Tracts | :@computed_region_bdys_3d7i | :@computed_region_bdys_3d7i | Number | |
| Wards | :@computed_region_43wa_7qmu | :@computed_region_43wa_7qmu | Number | |
| Zip Codes | :@computed_region_6mkv_f3dw | :@computed_region_6mkv_f3dw | Number | |
| Historical Wards 2003-2015 | :@computed_region_awaf_s7ux | :@computed_region_awaf_s7ux | Number | |
| Community Areas | :@computed_region_vrxf_vc4k | :@computed_region_vrxf_vc4k | Number | |
| APPLICATION TYPE | application_type | application_type | Text | |
| CONDITIONAL APPROVAL | conditional_approval | conditional_approval | Text | This pertains to applications that contain liquor licenses. Customers may request a conditional approval prior to building out the space. |
| LICENSE STATUS | license_status | license_status | Text | |
| LOCATION (address) | location_address | location_address | Text | |
| LOCATION (city) | location_city | location_city | Text | |
| LOCATION (state) | location_state | location_state | Text | |
| LOCATION (zip) | location_zip | location_zip | Text | |
| STATE | state | state | Text | |
| WARD | ward | ward | Number | The ward where the business is located. |
| SITE NUMBER | site_number | site_number | Number | An internal database ID indicating the location of this licensed business to account for business owners with more than one location. |
| BUSINESS ACTIVITY | business_activity | business_activity | Text | |
| LICENSE TERM START DATE | license_start_date | license_start_date | Calendar date | |
| PRECINCT | precinct | precinct | Number | The precinct within the ward where the business is located. Note the the same precinct numbers exist in multiple wards. |
| ID | id | id | Text | A calculated ID for each record. |
| ADDRESS | address | address | Text |