Local Authority District Boundaries for Great Britain, December 2009

Digital vector boundaries for Local Authority Districts in Great Britain as at December 2009. The dataset contains five boundary versions at different resolutions, from full resolution to ultra generalised (500m), each clipped to the coastline. It is provided by the Office for National Statistics and contains both Ordnance Survey and ONS Intellectual Property Rights.

Use Cases

• Create historical maps of UK local government areas based on the December 2009 boundaries.
• Perform spatial analysis on administrative units using the generalised (20m) or super generalised (200m) versions for faster processing.
• Integrate boundary data into historical demographic or economic studies for Great Britain.
• Serve boundary layers via web mapping services using the provided ArcGIS REST endpoints.

Strengths

• Provides five distinct boundary versions with specific resolutions (20m, 200m, 500m) and file sizes (e.g., 6 MB for 20m generalised).
• Includes both full-resolution boundaries extending to the realm and versions clipped to the Mean High Water mark coastline.
• Sourced from authoritative organizations: the Office for National Statistics and Ordnance Survey.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data is specific to a single snapshot date (December 2009) and may not reflect current boundaries.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale joins.

Provenance

Source

Office for National Statistics

Collection Method

Digital vector boundaries derived from Ordnance Survey data.

Time Range

December 2009

Freshness

Last updated 2026-07-08 13:31:58.529874; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Great Britain