Great Britain Country Boundaries at December 2015 with Multiple Resolutions

Office for National Statistics provides digital vector boundaries for countries in Great Britain as at 31 December 2015. The dataset contains five boundary versions, including full-resolution extent and coastline-clipped versions at 20m, 200m, and 500m generalisation. File sizes range from 168 KB for the ultra generalised version to 29 MB for the full-resolution clipped version.

Use Cases

• Create thematic maps of Great Britain based on country-level administrative units.
• Perform spatial analysis or joins using the coastline-clipped boundaries mentioned in the description.
• Develop web mapping applications using the generalised (20m, 200m, 500m) versions for faster rendering.
• Conduct historical or comparative analysis using the specific 31 December 2015 snapshot date.

Strengths

• Provides five distinct boundary versions, including full extent and four coastline-clipped generalisations.
• Specific snapshot date of 31 December 2015 ensures temporal consistency.
• File sizes are explicitly listed, ranging from 168 KB to 29 MB, indicating scalability for different use cases.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data is from 2015; administrative boundaries may have changed, requiring verification for current applications.

Provenance

Source

Office for National Statistics

Collection Method

Digital vector boundaries derived from Ordnance Survey and ONS data.

Time Range

Snapshot as at 31 December 2015

Freshness

Last updated 2026 07 08 13:31:57.079473; freshness should be verified

Geography

Great Britain