U.S. Government International Boundaries with Policy Attributes

Large Scale International Boundaries (LSIB) version 11.4 is a geospatial dataset produced by the U.S. Department of State's Office of the Geographer and Global Issues, published on 24 February 2025. It contains core attributes like COUNTRY1, COUNTRY2, STATUS, and RANK to define boundary alignment, political recognition, and dispute status according to U.S. Government policy. The dataset is the only international boundary line data approved for official U.S. Government use.

Use Cases

• Map international boundaries using the STATUS and RANK attributes to visualize recognized borders and disputed areas.
• Join boundary segments to country lists using the COUNTRY1 and COUNTRY2 core attributes for geopolitical analysis.
• Analyze boundary evolution by tracking changes through the PREVIDS and ANTECIDS extension attributes.
• Style cartographic representations of boundaries guided by embedded information in the dataset's attribute table.

Strengths

• Officially approved for U.S. Government use, reflecting authoritative policy on international boundaries.
• Includes 18 defined attributes divided into Core and Extension categories, such as STATUS, RANK, and LSIB_ID.
• Sourced from treaties, boundary commissions, national mapping agencies, and analysis of satellite imagery.
• Current edition is version 11.4, published on 24 February 2025, indicating recent updates.

Limitations

• Boundary lines reflect U.S. Government policy and may not represent de facto limits of control on the ground.
• Most boundary lines have a positional accuracy within 100 meters due to source material and processing limitations.
• Key attributes like CC1 and COUNTRY1 rely on external data sources (GENC, DoS Lists) that update separately.

Provenance

Source

Office of the Geographer and Global Issues at the U.S. Department of State.

Collection Method

Compiled from treaties, maps, boundary commission data, national mapping agencies, court rulings, and analysis of satellite imagery and elevation data.

Freshness

Last updated on the platform on 2026-03-13; dataset version 11.4 was published 24 February 2025.

Geography

Global coverage of international boundaries.