Local Administrative Unit Boundaries for England and Wales, December 2015

Local Administrative Units Level 1 (December 2015) Full Extent Boundaries in England and Wales contains digital vector boundaries for LAU1 units. The dataset from the Office for National Statistics includes five boundary versions at different resolutions, from full extent to ultra generalised (500m). It was last updated on the platform in July 2026.

Use Cases

• Create regional maps for policy analysis based on the provided full-resolution boundaries.
• Perform spatial joins for demographic data using the generalised (20m) coastline-clipped boundaries.
• Develop lightweight web mapping applications using the ultra generalised (500m) boundary files.
• Analyze coastal administrative jurisdictions based on the distinction between 'extent of the realm' and 'clipped to coastline' boundaries.

Strengths

• Provides five distinct boundary versions, including file sizes ranging from 225 KB to 30 MB for different use cases.
• Contains boundaries from December 2015, offering a specific historical snapshot of administrative units.
• Includes both Ordnance Survey and ONS Intellectual Property Rights, indicating authoritative source data.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data is from December 2015; administrative boundaries may have changed since that date.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale statistical modeling.

Provenance

Source

Office for National Statistics

Collection Method

Digital vector boundaries derived from authoritative sources, likely for Eurostat reporting.

Time Range

December 2015

Freshness

Last updated 2026-07-08 13:33:19.373962; freshness should be verified

Geography

England and Wales