[tz] How good is pre-1970 time zone history represented in TZ database?

Alois Treindl alois at astro.ch
Thu Jun 4 05:37:36 UTC 2020


Just to be clear: The statistics below represent the the geographical 
distribution of the birth places of users of astro.com, i.e. of people 
with an active interest in astrology.

The figures do not relate to the distribution of general population 
figures, or state surfaces or anything like that.


On 03.06.20 12:01, Alois Treindl wrote:
>
> It is known that pre-1970 time zone history is represented in TZ 
> database only for the cities which define the zone names.
> Other areas of countries are often not correctly represented in TZ 
> database before 1970.
>
> The worst are the USA and Canada, because there, in many states, the 
> authority about daylight time adherence was in the hands of counties 
> or towns, up to the Uniform Timezone Act of 1967.
>
> I am personally responsible for providing correct timezone history for 
> the astrological service company Astrodienst AG in Switzerland, which 
> runs among other things the website www.astro.com
>
> As source for timezone history we use, besides TZ database, the 
> International and American Atlas by Thomas Shanks, and our own research.
>
> The data we have are still far from perfect, because many local 
> details of time zone and daylight saving time use are unknown, 
> especially in the US and Canada.
>
> We have about 25 million birth data records in our database.
>
> I have analyzed to what extent TZ database represents the time zone 
> information correctly, for these data.
>
> I think the results are of some interest for the TZ community.
>
> The overall sums are:
>
> tz_count    24'674'767  data records, 100%
> tz_irange   23'675'636 in time range and region which TZ covers 
> correctly, 96%
> tz_good        736'769 in time range and region where TZ is 
> unreliable, but correct, 3%
> tz_bad         262'362 in time range and region where TZ database 
> gives false result. 1%
>
> This means that only 1% of our astrological charts would be false, if 
> we used TZ database only, without any extra time zone history sources.
>
> More details by country or US/Canada state.
>         state        count    in_range %  good %    bad %
> USA
>      AK (US)         19889         99.6     0.0 0.3         Alaska
>      AL (US)         64975         78.6    13.3 8.1         Alabama
>      AR (US)         43159         77.2    12.7 10.0         Arkansas
>      AZ (US)         96545         97.9     2.0 0.0         Arizona
>      CA (US)        981941        100.0     0.0 0.0         California
>      CO (US)        107204         99.5     0.5 0.0         Colorado
>      CT (US)         89273         95.8     4.2 0.0         Connecticut
>      DC (US)         58401         85.7    13.1 1.1         District 
> of Columbia
>      DE (US)         14376         91.3     8.5 0.3         Delaware
>      FL (US)        241083         89.0     6.5 4.5         Florida
>      GA (US)        114613         85.8     7.1 7.2         Georgia (US)
>      HI (US)         44070        100.0     0.0 0.0         Hawaii
>      IA (US)         50194         72.7    17.1 10.2         Iowa
>      ID (US)         23877         92.2     6.4 1.4         Idaho
>      IL (US)        267459         90.4     9.5 0.1         Illinois
>      IN (US)         88263         76.8    21.6 1.6         Indiana
>      KS (US)         45462         74.4    15.0 10.6         Kansas
>      KY (US)         56494         74.6    12.5 12.9         Kentucky
>      LA (US)         76017         80.3    11.9 7.8         Louisiana
>      MA (US)        193439         87.1    12.9 0.1         Massachusetts
>      MD (US)         91577         91.2     8.1 0.7         Maryland
>      ME (US)         31873         96.8     2.8 0.5         Maine
>      MI (US)        185568         86.0    13.3 0.7         Michigan
>      MN (US)         95725         75.0    17.0 7.9         Minnesota
>      MO (US)         91038         79.4    14.4 6.2         Missouri
>      MS (US)         28859         70.0    20.4 9.6         Mississippi
>      MT (US)         19767         73.7    24.7 1.5         Montana
>      NC (US)        106991         82.9    10.2 6.9         North Carolina
>      ND (US)         12427         71.5    17.5 10.9         North Dakota
>      NE (US)         28670         69.1    18.2 12.7         Nebraska
>      NH (US)         23707         91.2     8.2 0.6         New Hampshire
>      NJ (US)        190614         99.6     0.3 0.1         New Jersey
>      NM (US)         42651         80.6    18.4 0.9         New Mexico
>      NV (US)         36053         99.4     0.4 0.3         Nevada
>      NY (US)        628944         96.8     3.0 0.1         New York
>      OH (US)        191745         73.9    18.3 7.8         Ohio
>      OK (US)         55229         73.7    16.5 9.8         Oklahoma
>      OR (US)         98166         87.1     9.8 3.1         Oregon
>      PA (US)        228064         89.8     9.7 0.6         Pennsylvania
>      PR (US)         37149        100.0     0.0 0.0         Puerto Rico
>      RI (US)         26089         97.1     2.8 0.1         Rhode Island
>      SC (US)         40233         82.9    10.0 7.1         South Carolina
>      SD (US)         12863         72.7    18.6 8.7         South Dakota
>      TN (US)         75125         82.9     9.3 7.8         Tennessee
>      TX (US)        327328         83.3     9.8 6.9         Texas
>      UT (US)         48909         82.7    16.2 1.1         Utah
>      VA (US)        109591         85.5    10.1 4.4         Virginia
>      VT (US)         17598         86.4    12.7 0.9         Vermont
>      WA (US)        159835         84.8    11.9 3.3         Washington
>      WI (US)         85917         75.5    18.5 5.9         Wisconsin
>      WV (US)         22800         72.7    20.3 7.0         West Virginia
>      WY (US)          8962         75.1    23.9 0.9         Wyoming
>
>
> Canada
>     AB (CAN)         64249         97.9     2.0 0.1         Alberta
>     BC (CAN)         99214         98.0     2.0 0.0         British 
> Columbia (CAN)
>     MB (CAN)         21563         69.8    27.5 2.6         Manitoba (CAN)
>     NB (CAN)         10438         89.0     8.3 2.7         New 
> Brunswick (CAN)
>     NF (CAN)          7329         98.4     1.2 0.4         
> Newfoundland (CAN)
>     NS (CAN)         18829         75.4    16.3 8.2         Nova 
> Scotia (CAN)
>     NT (CAN)          1137         80.7     0.0 19.3         Northwest 
> Territories (CAN)
>     ON (CAN)        239755         86.3    12.4 1.3         Ontario (CAN)
>     PE (CAN)          2036         80.0    16.1 3.9         Prince 
> Edward Island (CAN)
>     QU (CAN)        126300         88.4     9.8 1.8         Quebec (CAN)
>     SK (CAN)         24390         78.2    12.4 9.5         
> Saskatchewan (CAN)
>     YK (CAN)           932        100.0     0.0 0.0         Yukon 
> Territories (CAN)
>
> Other countries with significant issues in TZ database, only those 
> with > 1% bad results
>           BY         13966         97.1     1.2 1.7         Belarus
>          CAR           268         33.2     0.4 66.4         Central 
> African Repub
>        CHINA        214617         96.0     2.4 1.6         China
>        CONGO          1026         49.9     0.0 50.1         Congo 
> (Brazaville)
>        GABON           704         47.7     0.0 52.3         Gabon
>         GUAM          3613         45.6     0.0 54.4         Guam
>        INDSA         51950         97.2     0.8 2.0         Indonesia
>        NIGER           294         76.9     3.7 19.4         Niger
>    NIRE (UK)         16228         97.1     0.7 2.1         Northern 
> Ireland
>           RU        177880         89.4     8.5 2.1         Russian 
> Federation
>        SUDAN          2495          0.0     0.0 100.0         Sudan 
> (?? my be my fault)
>         TAAF             2          0.0     0.0 100.0         French 
> Kerguelen Islands
>         TANZ          4162         68.3    30.2 1.5         Tanzania
>          TOK            17         41.2     0.0 58.8         Tokelau
>           UA         71260         95.9     2.4 1.7         Ukraine
>         VIET        299630         97.6     0.8 1.6         Vietnam
>
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