Objectives: Understanding the geographic patterns and regional differences in health status plays an important role in public health research; however, the place-of-residence (township level) of an insured is not available in National Health Insurance Research Databases (NHIRD). The objective of this study was to propose principles for estimating the place-of-residence (township level) in NHIRD. Methods: Based on demographic characteristics, insurance classification, location of hospital visit, and insurance registration of the insured, this study compared three methods of estimating the place-of-residence (township level) from the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database of NHIRD in 2005. Official statistics of the usual resident population in each township from the Department of the Interior were used as reference data for comparisons among the three methods. The study further verified these methods by comparing the estimated numbers and official statistics for the medical treatment of lung and liver cancer patients in 2005. Results: This study found that the method which combined insurance classification, location of hospital visit, and insurance registration provided an optimal estimate of place-of-residence in each area by different levels of urbanization and age-group. Consideration of either location of hospital visit or insurance registration may be appropriate for specific townships and age groups. Conclusions: This study demonstrated the feasibility of estimating place-of-residence in NHIRD and the applicability of these proposed methods.