This data shows the local authority districts, council areas (Scotland) and unitary authorities for Great Britain. A JPEG image of the map is also contained in the download.

Local Authority is a generic term used to cover London Boroughs, Metropolitan Districts, Non-Metropolitan Districts, and Unitary Authorities in England; Unitary Authorities in Wales; Council Areas in Scotland; and Local Government Districts in Northern Ireland.

The Local Authorities area list contains 404 areas of the following constituent geographies:

• 36 Metropolitan Districts in England
• 201 Non-Metropolitan Districts in England
• 31 London Boroughs in England
• 54 Unitary Authorities in England
• 26 Local Government Districts in Northern Ireland
• 32 Council Areas in Scotland
• 22 Unitary Authorities in Wales
• 2 Census Merged Districts in England

Please visit ONS Beginner's Guide to UK Geography for more info.

The boundaries are available as either extent of the realm (usually this is the Mean Low Water mark but in some cases boundaries extend beyond this to include off shore islands) or

clipped to the coastline (Mean High Water mark).

A PDF map that shows the local authority districts, counties and unitary authorities in the United Kingdom as at April 2023. The map has been created to show the United Kingdom from country level down to local authority district level. (File Size - 1,909 KB)

community council boundaries simplified - open dataCommunity councils are required to be established by local authorities. They are the most local tier of statutory representation in Scotland. They bridge the gap between local authorities and communities and help to make public bodies aware of the opinions and needs of the communities they represent. Community councils are statutory consultees under various processes, such as for planning applications.There are many instances where polygons do not tessellate or snap to local authority boundaries. Such gaps in the dataset mean that it cannot potentially be used for some kinds of spatial analysis e.g. point in polygon, because some point locations may fall within the gaps.Schema;Local Authority CodeLocal AuthorityCommunity Council Name

Parishes are subdivisions of local authorities in many parts of England, and their councils are the most local level of government. Unlike electoral wards/divisions however, parishes are not found in all parts of England. The Welsh equivalents are communities. Note that the full term for administrative parishes is 'civil parishes', to distinguish them from the ecclesiastical parishes which are found in all parts of the UK.

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https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/products/boundary-line#technical

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Source:

https://osdatahub.os.uk/downloads/open/BoundaryLine

Licence:

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/

The OSNI Large-scale boundaries is a polygon dataset consisting of Local Government Districts set in 2012.The data has been extracted from OSNI Largescale database and has been topologically cleansed and attributed to create a seamless dataset. This service is published for OpenData. By download or use of this dataset you agree to abide by the LPS Open Government Data Licence. The OSNI Largescale LGDs 2012 is a polygon dataset consisting of Local Government Districts derived from OSNI Largescale. The boundaries were delineated in 2012 under the Local Government (Boundaries) Order (Northern Ireland) 2012 and used for the 2014 elections.Please Note for Open Data NI Users: Esri Rest API is not Broken, it will not open on its own in a Web Browser but can be copied and used in Desktop and Webmaps

The Great Britain Historical Database has been assembled as part of the ongoing Great Britain Historical GIS Project. The project aims to trace the emergence of the north-south divide in Britain and to provide a synoptic view of the human geography of Britain at sub-county scales. Further information about the project is available on A Vision of Britain webpages, where users can browse the database's documentation system online.

These digital boundaries were created by the Great Britain Historical GIS Project and form part of the Great Britain Historical Database, which contains a wide range of geographically-located statistics, selected to trace the emergence of the north-south divide in Britain and to provide a synoptic view of the human geography of Britain, generally at sub-county scales.

They represent the boundaries of Local Government Districts in England and Wales as in use at the date of each Census of Population between 1911 and 1971, 1911 being the first census to report extensively on these units. "Local Government Districts" cover Rural Districts, Urban Districts, Municipal Boroughs, County Boroughs and, within London only, Metropolitan Boroughs and, in 1971, London Boroughs.

https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/products/boundary-line#technical

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Source:

https://osdatahub.os.uk/downloads/open/BoundaryLine

Licence:

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/

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Electoral Wards/Divisions are the key building blocks of UK administrative geography. They are the spatial units used to elect local government councillors in metropolitan and non-metropolitan districts, unitary authorities and the London boroughs in England; unitary authorities in Wales; council areas in Scotland; and district council areas in Northern Ireland.

The Wards and Electoral Divisions list contains 9,481 areas of the following constituent geographies:

• 7,218 Census Wards in England
• 453 Census Electoral Divisions in England
• 7 Census Merged Wards in England
• 582 Census Wards in Northern Ireland
• 353 Census Wards in Scotland
• 856 Census Electoral Divisions in Wales
• 12 Census Merged Wards in Wales

Please visit ONS Beginner's Guide to UK Geography for more info.

The boundaries are available as either extent of the realm (usually this is the Mean Low Water mark but in some cases boundaries extend beyond this to include off shore islands) or

clipped to the coastline (Mean High Water mark).

This dataset is part of the Geographical repository maintained by Opendatasoft. This dataset contains data for counties and unitary authorities in the United Kingdom.In 1974 a two-tier administrative structure of (shire and metropolitan) counties and non-metropolitan districts was set up across England and Wales, except for the Isles of Scilly and Greater London. Council functions were divided according to the level at which they could be practised most efficiently. As a consequence, counties took on functions including education, transport, strategic planning, fire services, consumer protection, refuse disposal, smallholdings, social services and libraries, whereas each LAD had responsibility for local planning, housing, local highways, building, environmental health, refuse collection and cemeteries. Responsibility for recreation and cultural matters was divided between the two tiers. Following the Local Government Reorganisation in the 1990s, major changes were implemented to create administrations most appropriate to the needs of the area concerned. The key feature of this change was the introduction of unitary authorities: single-tier administrations with responsibility for all areas of local government. Between 1995 and 1998 these were established in a number of areas across the country, especially in medium-sized urban areas, whilst other areas retained a two-tier structure. Further local government reorganisation occurred in 2009 and there are currently 57 unitary authorities (UA) in England, and 25 shire counties split into 188 (non-metropolitan) districts. Note that due to the changes in Cornwall, the Isles of Scilly are considered a UA for coding purposes.Processors and tools are using this data.EnhancementsAdd ISO 3166-3 codes.Simplify geometries to provide better performance across the services.Add administrative hierarchy.

This dataset is part of the Geographical repository maintained by Opendatasoft. This dataset contains data for parishes/communities in the United Kingdom (England/Wales)The smallest type of administrative area in England is the civil parish (commonly called parish); the equivalent unit in Wales is the community.English parishes are a very old form of spatial unit which originally represented areas of both civil and ecclesiastical administration. They used to be significant local government areas but now have very limited functions. Modern parish councils (which may choose to call themselves a town council) can provide facilities such as village halls, war memorials, cemeteries, leisure facilities and playgrounds. They have duties such as maintenance of public footpaths and may also spend money on cultural projects, community transport initiatives and crime-prevention equipment. In addition they must be notified of all planning applications and consulted on the making of certain by-laws. However, not all parishes have a council – if there are fewer than 200 parishioners, or if the parishioners do not want one, decisions can instead be taken at parish meetings. The geography is further complicated by the fact that several smaller parishes may come together to elect a joint council. Parishes are confined within local authority district boundaries but are not contiguous with electoral wards. In some smaller urban areas, successor parishes have been created, but this is not universal. Non-civil parish areas (NCP) refer to the area in a local authority not comprised of parishes, i.e. unparished areas.The Welsh equivalents of parishes are communities, which fit into and change with UAs. Their councils have similar powers to English parish councils and may also choose to call themselves town councils. Unlike parishes in England, communities cover the whole of Wales, and this gives them greater potential as a statistical unit. There are 877 communities in Wales, over 730 of which currently have a council. Prior to 1974 Wales also had parishes, but these were technically abolished when communities were introduced, despite the new communities initially being aligned to the old parish boundaries.Processors and tools are using this data.EnhancementsAdd ISO 3166-3 codes.Simplify geometries to provide better performance across the services.Add administrative hierarchy.

Sourced from National Records of Scotland website the fact sheet brings together up-to-date statistics of the Angus area. https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/statistics/stats-at-a-glance/council-area-profiles

With the introduction of unitary authorities, there are now two- and three-tier local government hierarchies. The three-tier system remains unchanged. The two-tier system has unitary authorities replacing the county and district levels of administration. Unitary authorities may be divided into civil parishes or communities (except in Scotland), and unitary authority wards or unitary authority EDs for voting purposes. In Wales, the voting area is the unitary authority ED; in Scotland it is the unitary authority ward and in England it is the unitary authority ward or unitary authority ED.

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England also has metropolitan districts; these have no county administration. These districts are divided for voting purposes into metropolitan district wards.

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https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/products/boundary-line#technical

​

Source:

https://osdatahub.os.uk/downloads/open/BoundaryLine

Licence:

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/

A PDF map shows the Regions and their constituent counties, metropolitan counties, Greater London authority and unitary authorities in England, council areas in Scotland, unitary authorities in Wales and district council areas in Northern Ireland as at April 2011. (File Size - 638 KB).

The Local Government database covers all Councillors, Senior and Mid-Level Management Posts and key lower level functional positions across all UK Councils. This database also covers Police and Fire Services, plus Parks, Transport and Combined Authorities.

The structure of Local Authorities varies across England/Scotland/Wales and Northern Ireland and also in different areas of England. Following major re-organisation in 1995 Wales and Scotland merged all their District and County Councils creating a single Authority for each area; these are known as Unitary Authorities and provide all Council functions. In England, although some reorganisation took place, there continued to be a mixture of 'single tier' authorities - Unitary / Metropolitan / London Boroughs. With the rest of the Country covered by 'Two Tier' authorities - English Country Councils and District Councils; where functions are divided between the two authority types. Further re-organisation took place in 2007 with a number of County and District Councils being replaced with single Unitary Councils.

These are digital boundaries for the system of districts essentially created by the 1894 Local Government Act and continuing to exist until 1974. England and Wales were divided into County Boroughs, Municipal Boroughs, Urban Districts and Rural Districts. These generally functioned as sub-divisions of Administrative Counties with powers varying according to status, but County Boroughs were large cities with full independence from their County. The County of London was divided into Metropolitan Boroughs, plus the City of London which had the unique status of County Corporate. This file represents the system as it was used to report the 1911 Census of Population. To distinguish between identical place names with different administrative geographies, an Administrative County Boundaries layer may be used to add County name attributes to this layer. Statistical data and other information used in “A Vision of Britain through Time” can be accessed here: http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/data.

A PDF map shows the Regions and their constituent counties, metropolitan counties, Greater London authority and unitary authorities in England, council areas in Scotland, unitary authorities in Wales and district council areas in Northern Ireland as at April 2011. (File Size - 638 KB).

The town centre boundaries of Lichfield District Council. Captured as boundaries against open source base mapping. All data released is open source with all restricted data removed.