Local Administrative Units Level 1 Boundaries for England and Wales, December 2015

Digital vector boundaries for Local Administrative Units Level 1 (LAU1) in England and Wales as of December 2015. The dataset contains five boundary versions, from full resolution to ultra generalised (500m), and is provided by the Office for National Statistics. File sizes range from 225 KB to 30 MB.

Use Cases

• Create thematic maps of England and Wales based on the generalised (20m) clipped boundaries.
• Perform spatial joins with socio-economic data using the LAU1 boundaries as a geographic key.
• Develop web mapping applications using the ultra generalised (500m) boundaries for faster rendering.
• Analyze coastal administrative extents by comparing the full-resolution 'extent of the realm' and 'clipped to coastline' versions.

Strengths

• Provides five distinct boundary versions with specific generalization levels (20m, 200m, 500m).
• Includes explicit file sizes for each version, ranging from 225 KB to 30 MB.
• Contains boundaries for a specific, documented snapshot in time (December 2015).

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data is from 2015; administrative boundaries may have changed, requiring verification of freshness.

Provenance

Source

Office for National Statistics

Collection Method

Likely derived from Ordnance Survey and ONS data.

Time Range

December 2015

Freshness

Last updated 2026-07-08 13:32:07.095636; freshness should be verified

Geography

England and Wales