South Sudan Administrative Boundaries for 10 States, 79 Counties, and 512 Payams

South Sudan administrative boundaries structured into three levels: 10 states, 79 counties, and 512 payams. The dataset was contributed by OCHA South Sudan, quality assured by OCHA FIS and HDX, and is part of the Global Subnational Administrative Boundaries collection. Its boundaries were created on 01 November 2020, with a review for accuracy and completeness noted on 09 October 2024.

Use Cases

• Create thematic maps for humanitarian response based on the defined administrative hierarchy.
• Conduct spatial analysis of population or resource distribution across South Sudan's 10 states and 79 counties.
• Integrate administrative boundaries into GIS systems for planning and monitoring development projects.
• Analyze data aggregated at the payam level, the dataset's most granular administrative unit.

Strengths

• Provides a clear administrative hierarchy with specific counts: 10 states, 79 counties, and 512 payams.
• Quality assurance is explicitly noted, involving OCHA FIS and HDX, and the dataset was reviewed for accuracy in October 2024.
• Available in multiple geospatial formats (SHP, GEOJSON, GEODATABASE) and XLSX for accessibility.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for specific analytical tasks.
• The underlying boundaries were created in November 2020; changes in administrative divisions after this date are not reflected.

Provenance

Source

OCHA South Sudan, OCHA Field Information Services (FIS), HDX

Collection Method

Likely compiled from official government and humanitarian sources for the Common Operational Datasets - Administrative Boundaries (COD-AB) program.

Time Range

Boundaries created 01 November 2020; dataset valid for use noted as 19 December 2022.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-23 17:21:55.373549; freshness should be verified against recent administrative changes.

Geography

South Sudan