Major Towns and Cities Boundaries in England and Wales, 2016

2016 boundaries for 112 towns and cities in England and Wales, created by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) as a new statistical geography. The dataset defines urban areas based on population size and the extent of the built environment. It was last updated on the platform on 2025-08-11.

Use Cases

• Analyze urban sprawl and settlement patterns based on the defined built-up area boundaries.
• Integrate town/city boundaries with population data for demographic modeling.
• Visualize the geographic distribution of major urban centers in England and Wales.
• Study the relationship between built environment extent and other socio-economic indicators.

Strengths

• Defines boundaries for 112 specific towns and cities.
• Created by the authoritative Office for National Statistics (ONS).
• Based on a defined methodology considering population size and built environment.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and specific data format details are unknown.
• Data reflects a specific 2016 snapshot; current conditions may differ.

Provenance

Source

Office for National Statistics (ONS), via the Government Digital Service.

Collection Method

Created as a statistical geography based on population size and built environment extent.

Time Range

2016

Freshness

Last updated on the platform on 2025-08-11 07:46:19; the underlying data is from 2016.

Geography

England and Wales