England County Boundaries as of December 2015 in Ultra Generalised Format

Office for National Statistics provides digital vector boundaries for 'shire' counties in England as at 31 December 2015. The dataset includes multiple boundary resolutions, from full resolution to ultra generalised (500m) versions clipped to the coastline. It contains both Ordnance Survey and ONS Intellectual Property Rights.

Use Cases

• Create simplified thematic maps based on ultra generalised (500m) county boundaries.
• Perform spatial joins or analyses using the generalised (20m) or super generalised (200m) boundary files.
• Visualize county-level administrative geography in England for web mapping applications based on the provided vector data.
• Integrate county boundaries with other geospatial datasets using the full resolution extent of the realm boundaries.

Strengths

• Provides boundaries at five specific resolutions: full resolution (extent and clipped), generalised (20m), super generalised (200m), and ultra generalised (500m).
• Includes specific file size details for each resolution, such as the ultra generalised version being 72 KB.
• Contains a specific snapshot date of 31 December 2015 for the administrative boundaries.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for certain analyses.
• Last updated 2026-07-08 13:33:22.392936; freshness should be verified as the boundaries reflect a 2015 snapshot.

Provenance

Source

Office for National Statistics, containing Ordnance Survey and ONS Intellectual Property Rights.

Collection Method

Likely digitized and generalized from official cartographic sources.

Time Range

Snapshot as of 31 December 2015.

Freshness

Data snapshot is from 31 December 2015; metadata was last updated on 2026-07-08.

Geography

England, specifically 'shire' counties.