{"id":172011,"date":"2010-08-12T16:45:04","date_gmt":"2010-08-12T16:45:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/?post_type=blog&#038;p=172011"},"modified":"2018-12-18T11:54:38","modified_gmt":"2018-12-18T19:54:38","slug":"wgs84-vs-nad83","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-desktop\/mapping\/wgs84-vs-nad83","title":{"rendered":"WGS84 vs. NAD83"},"author":4331,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":""},"categories":[22941],"tags":[31781,38411,36201],"industry":[],"product":[36991],"class_list":["post-172011","blog","type-blog","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mapping","tag-coordinate-system","tag-mapping-center","tag-projection","product-arcgis-desktop"],"acf":{"short_description":"What is the difference between the WGS84 and NAD83 datums?","flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<p><strong>Question:<\/strong>\u00a0What is the difference between the WGS84 and NAD83 datums? If I create a map using the WGS84 datum, can I label the map as both WGS84 and NAD83? Or, does it depend on what scale the map is in?<\/p>\n<p>I thought I heard that they are no longer interchangeable, but I recently saw a map labeled as WGS84\/NAD83 for its horizontal datum. Thanks for any clarification.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Answer:<\/strong>\u00a0There are a number of difference between the NAD83 and the WGS84 datum. One is the reference ellipsoid. The North American 1983 datum (NAD83) uses the Geodetic Reference System (GRS80) ellipsoid while the World Geodetic System of 1984 (WGS84) uses the WGS 84 ellipsoid. The dimensions of these ellipsoids differ slightly. For more information, refer to\u00a0<a title=\"Projection basics the GIS professional needs to know\" href=\"http:\/\/webhelp.esri.com\/arcgisdesktop\/9.3\/index.cfm?TopicName=Projection_basics_the_GIS_professional_needs_to_know\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Projection basics the GIS professional needs to know<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>A map will have only one\u00a0coordinate system, either Geographic or Projected in our software\u2019s terminology. For example, the \u201cWGS84 projection\u201d is a geographic one. A UTM projection is a projected one. Either of these will use only one datum. However, the data on the map could have come from multiple sources, all with unique projections and therefore datums.<\/p>\n<p>The map that you saw could not possibly be drawn using both the WGS84 and NAD83 datums. That said, I note that some GPS data are self-described as \u201cNAD83\/WGS84\u2033 using the disclaimer that \u201cThe differences between these two datums for North America is not discernible with mapping\/GIS grade or consumer grade GPS equipment.\u201d That may be true, but the cartographer would do further research to find out more. For example, here is one explanation I found: \u201cFor the sake of discussion, whenever you hear WGS84\/NAD83, you can automatically assume it is NAD83. In this document we will refer to either WGS84\/NAD83 or NAD83 as WGS84\/NAD83\u2033. The cartographer should then know to make the note on the map clear that the map\u2019s projection (assuming it is the same one as the GPS data) really uses the NAD83 datum. If it is not the same one as the GPS data, the datum definition is embedded in the projection definition.<\/p>\n<p>Look for a blog entry on this in the next day or two where I hope to make these distinctions clearer.<\/p>\n<p><em>Formerly a Mapping Center Ask a Cartographer\u00a0 Q &amp; A.<\/em><\/p>\n"}],"authors":[{"ID":4331,"user_firstname":"Aileen","user_lastname":"Buckley","nickname":"Aileen Buckley","user_nicename":"abuckley","display_name":"Aileen Buckley","user_email":"abuckley@esri.com","user_url":"","user_registered":"2018-03-02 00:15:57","user_description":"Dr. Aileen Buckley is a cartographer researcher and Senior Principal GIS Engineer at Esri. I'm on the ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World Team, making, writing, and talking about maps. I'm also involved in a number of cartographic societies and association, and I'm the chair of the ICA Ethics in Cartography Commission.","user_avatar":"<img data-del=\"avatar\" src='https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Aileen.jpg' class='avatar pp-user-avatar avatar-96 photo ' height='96' width='96'\/>"}],"related_articles":"","card_image":false,"wide_image":false},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.9 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>WGS84 vs. NAD83<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-desktop\/mapping\/wgs84-vs-nad83\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"WGS84 vs. NAD83\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-desktop\/mapping\/wgs84-vs-nad83\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ArcGIS Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/esrigis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-12-18T19:54:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ESRI\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":[\"Article\",\"BlogPosting\"],\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-desktop\/mapping\/wgs84-vs-nad83#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-desktop\/mapping\/wgs84-vs-nad83\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Aileen Buckley\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#\/schema\/person\/874953792dea98fe178fbb6a5e8255b0\"},\"headline\":\"WGS84 vs. NAD83\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-08-12T16:45:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-12-18T19:54:38+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-desktop\/mapping\/wgs84-vs-nad83\"},\"wordCount\":3,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Coordinate System\",\"Mapping Center\",\"projection\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Mapping\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-desktop\/mapping\/wgs84-vs-nad83\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-desktop\/mapping\/wgs84-vs-nad83\",\"name\":\"WGS84 vs. NAD83\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-08-12T16:45:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-12-18T19:54:38+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-desktop\/mapping\/wgs84-vs-nad83#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-desktop\/mapping\/wgs84-vs-nad83\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-desktop\/mapping\/wgs84-vs-nad83#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"WGS84 vs. NAD83\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/\",\"name\":\"ArcGIS Blog\",\"description\":\"Get insider info from Esri product teams\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Esri\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Esri.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Esri.png\",\"width\":400,\"height\":400,\"caption\":\"Esri\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/esrigis\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/ESRI\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/5311\/\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#\/schema\/person\/874953792dea98fe178fbb6a5e8255b0\",\"name\":\"Aileen Buckley\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Aileen.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Aileen.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Aileen Buckley\"},\"description\":\"Dr. Aileen Buckley is a cartographer researcher and Senior Principal GIS Engineer at Esri. I'm on the ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World Team, making, writing, and talking about maps. I'm also involved in a number of cartographic societies and association, and I'm the chair of the ICA Ethics in Cartography Commission.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/buckley.aileen\/\",\"linkedin.com\/in\/aileenbuckley\"],\"honorificPrefix\":\"Dr.\",\"honorificSuffix\":\"PhD\",\"gender\":\"female\",\"award\":[\"Chair of the ICA Commission on Ethics in Cartography\"],\"knowsAbout\":[\"Cartography\",\"GIS\"],\"knowsLanguage\":[\"English\"],\"jobTitle\":\"Research Cartographer\",\"worksFor\":\"Esri\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/author\/abuckley\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"WGS84 vs. NAD83","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-desktop\/mapping\/wgs84-vs-nad83","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"WGS84 vs. NAD83","og_url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-desktop\/mapping\/wgs84-vs-nad83","og_site_name":"ArcGIS Blog","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/esrigis\/","article_modified_time":"2018-12-18T19:54:38+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@ESRI","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":["Article","BlogPosting"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-desktop\/mapping\/wgs84-vs-nad83#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-desktop\/mapping\/wgs84-vs-nad83"},"author":{"name":"Aileen Buckley","@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#\/schema\/person\/874953792dea98fe178fbb6a5e8255b0"},"headline":"WGS84 vs. NAD83","datePublished":"2010-08-12T16:45:04+00:00","dateModified":"2018-12-18T19:54:38+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-desktop\/mapping\/wgs84-vs-nad83"},"wordCount":3,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#organization"},"keywords":["Coordinate System","Mapping Center","projection"],"articleSection":["Mapping"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-desktop\/mapping\/wgs84-vs-nad83","url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-desktop\/mapping\/wgs84-vs-nad83","name":"WGS84 vs. NAD83","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-08-12T16:45:04+00:00","dateModified":"2018-12-18T19:54:38+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-desktop\/mapping\/wgs84-vs-nad83#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-desktop\/mapping\/wgs84-vs-nad83"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/arcgis-desktop\/mapping\/wgs84-vs-nad83#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"WGS84 vs. NAD83"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/","name":"ArcGIS Blog","description":"Get insider info from Esri product teams","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#organization","name":"Esri","url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Esri.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Esri.png","width":400,"height":400,"caption":"Esri"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/esrigis\/","https:\/\/x.com\/ESRI","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/5311\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#\/schema\/person\/874953792dea98fe178fbb6a5e8255b0","name":"Aileen Buckley","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Aileen.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Aileen.jpg","caption":"Aileen Buckley"},"description":"Dr. Aileen Buckley is a cartographer researcher and Senior Principal GIS Engineer at Esri. I'm on the ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World Team, making, writing, and talking about maps. I'm also involved in a number of cartographic societies and association, and I'm the chair of the ICA Ethics in Cartography Commission.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/buckley.aileen\/","linkedin.com\/in\/aileenbuckley"],"honorificPrefix":"Dr.","honorificSuffix":"PhD","gender":"female","award":["Chair of the ICA Commission on Ethics in Cartography"],"knowsAbout":["Cartography","GIS"],"knowsLanguage":["English"],"jobTitle":"Research Cartographer","worksFor":"Esri","url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/author\/abuckley"}]}},"text_date":"August 12, 2010","author_name":"Aileen Buckley","author_page":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/author\/abuckley","custom_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Newsroom-Keyart-Wide-1920-x-1080.jpg","primary_product":"ArcMap","tag_data":[{"term_id":31781,"name":"Coordinate System","slug":"coordinate-system","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":31781,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":9,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":38411,"name":"Mapping Center","slug":"mapping-center","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":38411,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":35,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":36201,"name":"projection","slug":"projection","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":36201,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":11,"filter":"raw"}],"category_data":[{"term_id":22941,"name":"Mapping","slug":"mapping","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":22941,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":2692,"filter":"raw"}],"product_data":[{"term_id":36991,"name":"ArcMap","slug":"arcgis-desktop","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":36991,"taxonomy":"product","description":"","parent":36981,"count":325,"filter":"raw"}],"primary_product_link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/?s=#&products=arcgis-desktop","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog\/172011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/blog"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4331"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog\/172011\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172011"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=172011"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=172011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}