England County Boundaries at December 2016 in Multiple Resolutions

Digital vector boundaries for Counties in England, as at 31 December 2016. The dataset contains five boundary versions, including full resolution and four generalized/clipped versions, with file sizes ranging from 73 KB to 10 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 England based on the super generalised (200m) boundaries mentioned in the description.
• Perform spatial analysis of county-level data using the full resolution boundaries clipped to the coastline.
• Develop web mapping applications using the lightweight ultra generalised (500m) boundaries for faster rendering.
• Analyze coastal administrative boundaries using the versions clipped to the Mean High Water mark.

Strengths

• Provides boundaries as of a specific date: 31 December 2016.
• Offers five distinct boundary versions, including full resolution and four generalized/clipped options.
• Includes specific file size information, such as 211 KB for the super generalised version.
• Contains intellectual property rights information from Ordnance Survey and the ONS.

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 uk_data, focusing solely on England.

Provenance

Source

Office for National Statistics

Collection Method

Likely digitized from official administrative records.

Time Range

As at 31 December 2016.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-07-08 13:33:24.407110; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Counties in England.