Major Towns and Cities Boundaries for England and Wales, 2015

112 Major Towns and Cities (TCITY) boundaries for England and Wales, created by the Office for National Statistics in December 2015. The digital vector boundaries are based on the Built-Up Areas geography from the 2011 Census and were generalised using an automated approach based on 50m grid squares. The dataset is intended for the production and analysis of statistics.

Use Cases

• Map urban extents for demographic analysis based on the defined TCITY statistical geography.
• Conduct spatial joins with census or economic data based on the 112 town and city boundaries.
• Analyze urban form and growth patterns using boundaries derived from 2011 Census Built-Up Areas.
• Create choropleth maps for policy or planning based on the official major town and city definitions.

Strengths

• Contains 112 precisely defined Major Towns and Cities (TCITY) boundaries.
• Based on the official Built-Up Areas geography from the 2011 Census.
• Boundaries are generalised from a detailed 50m grid square foundation.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data reflects a snapshot from December 2015; urban boundaries may have changed since.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for some analyses.

Provenance

Source

Office for National Statistics

Collection Method

Derived from the Built-Up Areas geography created for the 2011 Census, generalised using an automated approach based on 50m grid squares.

Time Range

December 2015

Freshness

Last updated 2026-07-08 13:33:09.598500; freshness should be verified.

Geography

England and Wales