Census Merged Wards: England and Wales Administrative Boundaries for 2011

England and Wales digital vector boundaries for Census Merged Wards as of 31 December 2011. The dataset contains three boundary versions: full resolution (93 MB), generalised 20m (10 MB), and super generalised 200m (3 MB). It is provided by the Office for National Statistics and contains Ordnance Survey and ONS intellectual property rights.

Use Cases

• Create thematic maps of census variables based on the ward-level geography.
• Perform spatial joins with other datasets using the provided vector boundaries.
• Generate simplified (generalised) boundary sets for web mapping or faster processing.
• Analyze coastal and offshore administrative extents based on the full-resolution boundaries.

Strengths

• Provides three distinct boundary resolutions (full, 20m, 200m) for different use cases.
• Specific file sizes are provided for each resolution (93 MB, 10 MB, 3 MB).
• Boundaries are explicitly dated to 31 December 2011, providing a clear temporal snapshot.
• Includes direct REST service URLs for programmatic access and download.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to the specific administrative geography of England and Wales.

Provenance

Source

Office for National Statistics

Collection Method

Likely digitized and maintained by national statistical and mapping agencies.

Time Range

As of 31 December 2011

Freshness

Last updated 2026-07-08 13:33:09.112968; freshness should be verified.

Geography

England and Wales