Great Britain Country Boundaries at December 2015 with Multiple Resolutions

Digital vector boundaries for countries in Great Britain as of 31 December 2015. The dataset contains five boundary versions, including full resolution and four generalised versions clipped to the coastline. Contains Ordnance Survey and Office for National Statistics intellectual property rights.

Use Cases

• Create national-level maps based on the generalised (20m) or ultra generalised (500m) boundaries.
• Perform spatial analysis requiring high-precision boundaries using the full resolution extent of the realm data.
• Integrate administrative boundaries into web mapping applications using the clipped coastline versions.

Strengths

• Provides five distinct boundary versions, from full resolution (24-29 MB) to ultra generalised (168 KB).
• Snapshots are temporally specific, representing boundaries as of 31 December 2015.
• Includes both Ordnance Survey and Office for National Statistics intellectual property rights.

Limitations

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

Provenance

Source

Office for National Statistics

Collection Method

Digital vector boundaries derived from Ordnance Survey data.

Time Range

2015-12-31

Freshness

Data snapshot is from 2015-12 31; metadata last updated 2026-07-08.

Geography

Great Britain