UK Counties and Unitary Authorities Vector Boundaries (Generalised)

Office for National Statistics data provides digital vector boundaries for Counties and Unitary Authorities in the United Kingdom. The dataset contains boundaries generalised to 20m resolution (BGC) and clipped to the coastline. It includes intellectual property rights from both Ordnance Survey and the ONS.

Use Cases

• Creating thematic maps based on county-level administrative units.
• Performing spatial joins for demographic or economic analysis using the official boundaries.
• Developing location-based services that require accurate, generalised regional polygons.
• Conforming to official geographic standards for reporting and visualization.

Strengths

• Boundaries are generalised to a specific 20m resolution (BGC), indicating a controlled level of detail.
• Contains intellectual property from two authoritative UK sources: Ordnance Survey and the Office for National Statistics.
• Available via multiple access methods (REST API, WFS), suggesting machine-readable availability.

Limitations

• Sources conflict on the reference date: one platform states boundaries are 'as at December 2025', while another states 'December 2023'.
• Column names and record counts are not provided in the available metadata.
• Specific license terms are not stated, only that it contains IPR from OS and ONS.

Provenance

Source

Office for National Statistics (UK), incorporating Ordnance Survey data.

Collection Method

Official digital vector boundary production.

Time Range

December 2023 or December 2025 (conflict).

Freshness

Last platform update recorded on 2026-05-13, but the underlying data reference date is in conflict.

Geography

United Kingdom (Counties and Unitary Authorities).