Great Britain Country Boundaries at December 2016 with Multiple Resolutions

Office for National Statistics provides digital vector boundaries for Countries in Great Britain, as at December 2016. The dataset contains five boundary versions, including full resolution and generalised versions clipped to the coastline. It is available in formats like GEOJSON and KML and is licensed under OGL-UK-3.0.

Use Cases

• Create detailed maps of Great Britain based on full-resolution boundaries extending to the Mean Low Water mark.
• Perform spatial joins and analysis using coastline-clipped boundaries at the Mean High Water mark.
• Develop web mapping applications using generalised (20m, 200m, 500m) boundary files for faster rendering.
• Integrate administrative country boundaries into geographic information systems for regional planning.

Strengths

• Provides five distinct boundary versions, including full resolution (24-29 MB files) and multiple generalised options (3 MB to 150 KB files).
• Contains boundaries for Countries in Great Britain with a specific temporal snapshot as of December 2016.
• Includes both Ordnance Survey and ONS Intellectual Property Rights, indicating authoritative sourcing.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Last updated 2026-07-08 13:33:13.380181; freshness should be verified as the data represents a 2016 snapshot.

Provenance

Source

Office for National Statistics, containing Ordnance Survey and ONS Intellectual Property Rights.

Collection Method

Digital vector boundaries created for administrative geography.

Time Range

December 2016

Freshness

The data represents a snapshot as of December 2016. The metadata was last updated on 2026-07-08 13:33:13.380181.

Geography

Great Britain