English County Boundaries for 2015 with Multiple Generalization Levels

England's 'shire' county administrative boundaries as of 31 December 2015. The dataset contains digital vector boundaries from the Office for National Statistics and Ordnance Survey, provided in five resolutions from full to ultra-generalized. File sizes range from 72 KB for the ultra-generalized version to 10 MB for the full-resolution coastline-clipped version.

Use Cases

• Create thematic maps of England based on the generalised county boundaries.
• Perform spatial joins with other UK datasets using the clipped coastline boundaries.
• Develop lightweight web mapping applications using the super or ultra generalised (200m/500m) versions for faster rendering.
• Analyze administrative geography changes over time by comparing with other vintages of boundary data.

Strengths

• Provides five specific boundary resolutions, including full, 20m, 200m, and 500m generalised versions.
• Includes explicit file sizes for each version, ranging from 72 KB to 10 MB.
• Contains boundaries for a specific snapshot date: 31 December 2015.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Freshness should be verified; the data reflects boundaries from 2015, though metadata was updated in 2026.

Provenance

Source

Office for National Statistics and Ordnance Survey.

Collection Method

Official administrative boundary delineation.

Time Range

As of 31 December 2015.

Freshness

Data reflects boundaries from 2015; metadata last updated 2026-07-08.

Geography

England (shire counties).