GIS market seen doubling to $31.8 billion by 2031

Mordor Intelligence projects the global geographic information system market will rise from $16.58 billion in 2026 to $31.8 billion by 2031, driven by smart-city projects, cloud adoption, mobile field tools and AI analytics. North America remains the biggest market, while Asia-Pacific is expected to grow the fastest.

Why it matters: - GIS is moving from a specialized mapping tool to core infrastructure for planning, operations and decision-making across public and private sectors. - The market’s expected rise to $31.8 billion by 2031 signals stronger demand for location intelligence in transportation, utilities, public safety, agriculture and industrial operations. - Growth is also tied to broader shifts toward cloud software, connected devices and AI-driven analytics.

What happened: - Mordor Intelligence said the global geographic information system market will grow from $16.58 billion in 2026 to $31.8 billion by 2031. - The forecast implies a 13.94% compound annual growth rate during the period. - The report was published Sept. 29, 2026. - North America remains the largest regional market. - Asia-Pacific is projected to post the fastest growth over the forecast period.

The details: - Organizations are using location-based data for infrastructure planning, asset management, transportation, public safety, agriculture, utilities and industrial operations. - Smart-city development and national open-data initiatives are supporting adoption. - Cloud-native deployments are making GIS easier to scale and manage. - Mobile-first field data collection is expanding GIS use beyond traditional surveying teams. - AI-powered imagery analysis is improving how organizations process geospatial data. - GIS is also being integrated with IoT, 5G, edge computing, digital twins, artificial intelligence and enterprise software platforms. - Cloud deployment is gaining traction because organizations want scalable infrastructure and lower implementation complexity. - Mobile GIS applications are broadening geospatial use in the field.

Between the lines: - The report points to a market shift from desktop-based mapping toward always-on, connected geospatial systems. - Cloud, mobile and AI are becoming the main growth engines because they make GIS more useful for day-to-day business operations. - The competitive field is widening beyond software into services, APIs, cloud infrastructure and industry-specific tools. - That suggests GIS vendors are increasingly selling workflow integration, not just maps.

What's next: - Cloud-native GIS is likely to keep expanding as enterprises look for simpler deployment and lower costs. - AI-based geospatial analytics should see more use as imagery volumes grow and foundation models mature. - Regional growth is expected to remain strongest in Asia-Pacific as urbanization, infrastructure spending and smart-city projects accelerate. - Vendor competition will likely intensify through acquisitions, partnerships and platform integrations.

The bottom line: - GIS is becoming a mainstream enterprise technology, and the next wave of growth is being driven by cloud delivery, mobile data collection and AI-powered analysis.