Census Merged Wards Boundaries for England and Wales, December 2011

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

Use Cases

• Create thematic maps of census variables based on the provided ward boundaries.
• Perform spatial joins between census data and other datasets based on the ward geography.
• Analyze administrative geography changes over time based on the 2011 snapshot.
• Generate simplified visualizations for web mapping based on the super generalised (200m) boundaries.

Strengths

• Provides three distinct boundary resolutions (full, 20m generalised, 200m super generalised) for different use cases.
• Includes specific file sizes for each resolution (93 MB, 10 MB, 3 MB), aiding download planning.
• Contains intellectual property rights from both Ordnance Survey and the Office for National Statistics, indicating authoritative sources.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data is a snapshot from December 2011; freshness should be verified for current applications.

Provenance

Source

Office for National Statistics

Collection Method

Digital vector boundaries produced for the census.

Time Range

December 2011

Freshness

Last updated 2026-07-08 13:32:38.599712; freshness should be verified.

Geography

England and Wales