Local Authority District Boundaries for Great Britain, December 2009

Five versions of digital vector boundaries for Local Authority Districts in Great Britain, ranging from full-resolution to ultra-generalized. The dataset includes boundaries extending to the Mean Low Water mark and versions clipped to the Mean High Water mark, with file sizes from 367 KB to 49 MB. It contains intellectual property from both Ordnance Survey and the Office for National Statistics.

Use Cases

• Create historical maps of UK local government areas based on the 2009 boundaries.
• Perform spatial joins with other datasets using the generalised boundary files for faster processing.
• Analyze coastal administrative jurisdictions using the full-extent boundaries that include offshore islands.
• Serve boundary data via web mapping applications using the provided ArcGIS REST feature service URLs.

Strengths

• Offers five boundary resolutions, from 45 MB full-extent to 367 KB ultra-generalised, catering to different performance needs.
• Provides specific download sizes for each file version, allowing for precise bandwidth planning.
• Includes direct REST service URLs for programmatic access and integration.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality and attribute completeness require manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data reflects a specific snapshot from December 2009 and may not reflect current administrative boundaries.

Provenance

Source

Office for National Statistics

Collection Method

Digital vector boundaries produced by Ordnance Survey and the ONS.

Time Range

December 2009

Freshness

Last updated 2026-07-08 13:32:22.696782; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Great Britain