Great Britain Country Boundaries at December 2015 in Multiple Resolutions

Digital vector boundaries for countries in Great Britain as of 31 December 2015. The dataset contains five versions of boundaries, including full-resolution and several generalised versions clipped to the coastline. It is provided by the Office for National Statistics and contains Ordnance Survey intellectual property.

Use Cases

• Create national-scale maps of Great Britain based on ultra generalised (500m) boundaries for fast rendering.
• Perform spatial analysis of country-level administrative units based on full-resolution boundaries.
• Integrate country boundaries into a Geographic Information System (GIS) for regional planning based on the provided ArcGIS service URLs.
• Compare different coastline representations (e.g., Mean High Water vs. extent of the realm) for cartographic studies.

Strengths

• Provides five distinct boundary versions, from full resolution (24-29 MB files) to ultra generalised (168 KB file).
• Specific snapshot date of 31 December 2015 provides a consistent temporal reference.
• Contains intellectual property from both Ordnance Survey and the Office for National Statistics, indicating authoritative sources.

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 Great Britain.

Provenance

Source

Office for National Statistics and Ordnance Survey

Collection Method

Likely digitized from official cartographic sources.

Time Range

As of 31 December 2015

Freshness

Last updated 2026-07-08 13:33:09.728749; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Great Britain