How the Nearside livability score works
No black box. Here is exactly how a Nearside score is built, and why you can re-weight every part of it.
No black box. Here is exactly how a Nearside score is built, and why you can re-weight every part of it.
A score is only trustworthy if it shows its work. Here is precisely how Nearside turns an address into a livability number out of 100.
Score = weighted amenities × neighbourhood factor × (1 − penalties)
For each of ten everyday categories (groceries, healthcare, transit, schools, dining, safety services, shopping, parks, pharmacies, gyms) we measure real on-foot walk-times to the nearest options and how well the category is covered. Closer and better-covered scores higher, on a decay curve — a 4-minute walk earns near-full credit, a 20-minute one very little.
Junk listings — places with almost no reviews, or a lone suspicious 5★ — are filtered out by a credible-review gate before they can inflate a category. A well-reviewed, genuinely-used place counts; a phantom pin doesn't.
A multiplier reflects how genuinely urban and walkable the surroundings are: amenity density, how much is reachable within 5 minutes, the breadth of categories present, the vitality of the best nearby places, and street connectivity. A dense, well-connected core scores far higher than a sparse, car-dependent point.
Poor street connectivity (lots of detours) and difficult terrain apply transparent penalties, each shown in the "Why this score" panel.
The default score is neutral so it's comparable across places. But you can set your own priorities — schools up, nightlife down — and Nearside re-weights instantly, using the same underlying signals. The environmental reads (air quality, flood risk, climate) are shown alongside the score but deliberately not folded into it, so the core number stays stable and honest.
Paste any address and get a data-grounded livability read in seconds — free, no login.
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