The Japanese kept copious statistical records during their occupation of Taiwan, but this information was recorded based on the administrative divisions of the time. For this reason, missing sheets of the Taiwan Bao maps and unknown or undigitized administrative boundaries have meant that most historical research on this data has been on the national level, without clearly distinguishing differences at the local level.
日據時代總督府有相當豐富的統計資料，但這些資料是按當時各級行政區劃登錄的，因此，在部分堡圖缺失、不知道日據時期完整的行政邊界，或是沒有將各邊界數值化的情況下，過去的台灣史研究多半只能在全島層次上使用這些統計資料，而難以清楚分辨其在微觀空間分佈上的差異。