Great Britain Country Boundaries at December 2016 with Multiple Resolutions

Five vector boundary resolutions for Great Britain's countries, from full detail to 500-meter generalization, are provided by the Office for National Statistics. The dataset captures the administrative geography as of December 2016, with boundaries clipped to the Mean High Water mark. It contains both Ordnance Survey and ONS Intellectual Property Rights.

Use Cases

• Create detailed reference maps based on full-resolution boundaries clipped to the coastline.
• Perform spatial joins or analysis using generalised (20m) boundaries for computational efficiency.
• Develop web mapping applications with super generalised (200m) or ultra generalised (500m) boundaries for faster loading.
• Analyze the extent of the realm versus the coastline-clipped area based on the different boundary types provided.

Strengths

• Offers five distinct boundary resolutions, with file sizes ranging from 150 KB to 29 MB, catering to different use cases.
• Contains boundaries for Countries in Great Britain as at a specific date (December 2016), providing a historical snapshot.
• Includes both full realm extent and coastline-clipped versions, clarifying the legal versus physical land boundary.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale statistical analysis.
• Last updated 2026-07-08 13:32:46.356746; freshness should be verified as the boundaries reflect a 2016 snapshot.

Provenance

Source

Office for National Statistics (UK), Ordnance Survey

Collection Method

Digital vector boundaries produced by the national mapping and statistical agencies.

Time Range

December 2016

Freshness

Data reflects boundaries as of December 2016. Metadata was last updated on 2026-07-08.

Geography

Great Britain (England, Scotland, Wales)