A PDF map that shows the Regions in England, as at December 2017. (File Size - 226 KB)

Health geography hierarchy boundaries, December 2023, England and Wales.Boundaries used (BGC) for geographies in England and Wales are generalised (20m) and are clipped to the coastline for England and Wales.

Health geography hierarchy boundaries, December 2020, England and Wales.Boundaries used (BGC) for geographies in England and Wales are generalised (20m) and are clipped to the coastline for England and Wales.

How would you define the boundaries of a town or city in England and Wales in 2016?

Maybe your definition would be based on its population size, geographic extent or where the industry and services are located. This was a question the ONS had to consider when creating a new statistical geography called Towns and Cities.

In reality, the ability to delimit the boundaries of a city or town is difficult!

Major Towns and Cities

The new statistical geography, Towns and Cities has been created based on population size and the extent of the built environment. It contains 112 towns and cities in England and Wales, where the residential and/or workday population > 75,000 people at the 2011 Census. It has been constructed using the existing Built-Up Area boundary set produced by Ordnance Survey in 2011.

This swipe map shows where the towns and cities and built-up areas are different. Just swipe the bar from left to right.

The blue polygons are the towns and cities and the purple polygons are the built-up areas.

A web map showing administrative geography hierarchy boundaries in the UK as at 31 December 2022.Boundaries used (BGC) for geographies in Great Britain are generalised (20m) and are clipped to the coastline for Great BritainBoundaries used (BGE) for geographies in Northern Ireland are generalised (20m) and are extent of the realm and are not clipped to the coastline for Northern Ireland.

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Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

This research project aimed to fill a major lacuna militating against the effective exploitation of many post-medieval to mid-Victorian historical sources collected by local administrative areas: the lack of information on the boundaries of those administrative areas, the so-called 'historic' or 'ancient' parishes of England and Wales. It is known that these districts came into being during the Middle Ages, that the map of these ecclesiastical parishes was essentially complete by the fifteenth century, that these ecclesiastical boundaries were adopted during the early modern period for secular and judicial purposes, and that boundaries remained essentially unchanged until a number of reforms from the mid-nineteenth century onwards reorganised the local administrative geography of the country. The project aimed to reconstruct those boundaries as they were before the post-nineteenth century changes.
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The digitised maps cover the whole of England and Wales, and are organised by Ordnance Survey Sheet number. The maps contain a scanned bitmap image of the Ordnance Survey one inch to one mile (1:63,360) New Popular Edition maps (1945-8) with National Grid. They contain the boundaries of some 18,233 places, and are arranged as three electronic 'layers'. The first is a scan of the Ordnance Survey maps stored as grey tone sheet images. This enables Ordnance Survey physical, cultural and place-name content to be readily visible in the background for orientation and general location purposes, while not obscuring the added boundary and reference number material. The second layer consists of the boundaries, stored as solid red lines; and the third layer contains the reference numbers that link places on the map to the gazetteer/metadata dataset that accompanies the maps.

The maps are available on CD-ROM in Adobe Illustrator (ISBN:0-9540032-2-5) or Adobe Acrobat (ISBN:0-9540032-1-7) PDF formats. We recommend using the Adobe Illustrator format if you already have the software (as it enables you to edit the maps and select the layers to view). However, the Adobe Acrobat PDF format is perfectly suitable for viewing the maps, and we will supply the necessary reader software.

An accompanying book Historic Parishes of England and Wales: An Electronic Map of Boundaries before 1850 with a Gazetteer and Metadata by Roger Kain and Richard Oliver (ISBN:0-9540032-0-9) provides an introduction to the provenance of the maps. It also includes an abbreviated version of the gazetteer/metadata dataset, and a discussion of historical boundaries.

This unique combination publication is set to become a standard reference resource and is an invaluable tool for all those interested in plotting local area-based data from the past (population, agricultural, statistics, tax data etc.) from the fourteenth to the nineteenth centuries.

Please note: this study does not include information on named individuals and would therefore not be useful for personal family history research.

Census statistical geography hierarchy boundaries, December 2021, England and Wales.Boundaries include Output Areas (OAs), Lower layer Super Output Areas (LSOAs) and Middle layer Super Output Areas (MSOAs).Boundaries used (BGC) are generalised (20m) and are clipped to the coastline for England and Wales.

Background maps for the pollutants NOx for the year 2019. Geography used in the background maps is based on a 1x1km grid file of Glasgow. Coordinates given are for the centre of centre of each 1x1Km grid. Further information regarding pollutant and emissions modelling can be found at http://laqm.defra.gov.uk/review-and-assessment/tools/background-maps.html accessed on 2014-04-25T14:26:00.

With the historic maps in the Geography Visualiser we can make comparisons of the coastline between 1900, the 1940's and present day.This video will show you how.

LCM2007 is a parcel-based thematic classification of satellite image data covering the entire United Kingdom. The map updates and upgrades the Land Cover Map of Great Britain (LCMGB) 1990 and LCM2000. Like the earlier 1990 and 2000 products, LCM2007 is derived from a computer classification of satellite scenes obtained mainly from Landsat, IRS and SPOT sensors. It also covers Northern Ireland and incorporates information derived from other ancillary datasets. LCM2007 was classified using a nomenclature corresponding to the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) Broad Habitats, which encompasses the entire range of UK habitats. In addition, it recorded further detail where possible, incorporating land cover classes sought by other users. LCM2007 is produced in both vector and raster formats, with a number of different versions containing varying levels of detail and at different spatial resolutions. Dataset consists of vector version, with polygons as classified (Northern Ireland only).

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

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 Registration Districts in England and Wales as in use at the date of each Census of Population between 1851 and 1911, 1911 being the last census to report extensively on these units.

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These digital boundaries can be used to map economic, social and demographic statistics from the Censuses of Population, 1851 to 1911, the Registrar-General's reports from the same period, and other relevant statistical sources. They can also be used as reference maps for these administrative units.

Note that these Registration Districts were mostly identical to the Poor Law Unions which existed in the same period, but there are significant exceptions, most often where one Registration District was divided into multiple Poor Law Unions. These differences have been recorded by the Great Britain Historical GIS.

The boundary data contain the same numerical identifiers as are included in the GBHD transcriptions of census and vital registration statistics for Registration Districts, making statistical mapping straightforward.

Use our election maps for Great Britain and Northern Ireland to find out the electoral geography of the UK.

You will find the web apps particularly useful if you are an elected representative, candidate or party worker, as they clearly show the electoral constituencies against various scales of mapping background.

You can choose from a variety of administrative and electoral boundaries that can be overlaid on the mapping.

Electoral boundaries shown for Great Britain and Northern Ireland are those in effect at 1 October 2020.

This file contains the digital vector boundaries for NHS Region (Geography) (NHSRG) in England as at April 2016. The boundaries are Full resolution - 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). Contains both Ordnance Survey and ONS Intellectual Property Rights. REST URL of ArcGIS for INSPIRE View Service – https://services1.arcgis.com/ESMARspQHYMw9BZ9/arcgis/rest/services/NHS_Regions_(Geography)_(April_2016)_FEB_in_England/MapServerREST URL of ArcGIS for INSPIRE Feature DownloadService – https://dservices1.arcgis.com/ESMARspQHYMw9BZ9/arcgis/services/NHS_Regions_Geography_April_2016_Full_Extent_Boundaries_in_England/WFSServer?service=wfs&request=getcapabilitiesREST URL of Feature Access Service – https://services1.arcgis.com/ESMARspQHYMw9BZ9/arcgis/rest/services/NHS_Regions_Geography_April_2016_FEB_in_England_2022/FeatureServer

Super Output Areas are a geographic hierarchy designed to improve the reporting of small-area statistics.

The Middle Super Output Areas and Intermediate Zones area list contains 8,660 areas of the following constituent geographies:

• 6,791 Middle Super Output Areas Set in England
• 1,279 Intermediate Zones in Scotland
• 410 Middle Super Output Areas Set 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).

A PDF map that shows the counties and unitary authorities in the United Kingdom as at 1 April 2023. (File Size - 583 KB)

This file contains the digital vector boundaries for Countries, in the United Kingdom, as at December 2022.The boundaries available are: (BGC) Generalised (20m) - clipped to the coastline (Mean High Water mark).Contains both Ordnance Survey and ONS Intellectual Property Rights.

REST URL of Feature Access Service – https://services1.arcgis.com/ESMARspQHYMw9BZ9/arcgis/rest/services/Countries_December_2022_UK_BGC/FeatureServerREST URL of WFS Server –https://dservices1.arcgis.com/ESMARspQHYMw9BZ9/arcgis/services/Countries_December_2022_UK_BGC/WFSServer?service=wfs&request=getcapabilitiesREST URL of Map Server –https://services1.arcgis.com/ESMARspQHYMw9BZ9/arcgis/rest/services/Countries_December_2022_UK_BGC/MapServer

Coal resource maps for the whole of the UK have been produced by the British Geological Survey as a result of joint work with Department of Trade and Industry and the Coal Authority. The Coal Resources Map is a Map of Britain depicting the spatial extent of the principal coal resources. The map shows the areas where coal and lignite are present at the surface and also where coal is buried at depth beneath younger rocks. The maps are intended to be used for resource development, energy policy, strategic planning, land-use planning, the indication of hazard in mined areas, environment assessment and as a teaching aid. In addition to a general map of coal resources for Britain data also exists for the six inset maps: Scotland; North-East; North-West; East Pennines; Lancashire, North Wales and the West Midlands; South Wales, Forest of Dean and Bristol. Available as a paper map, flat or folded, from BGS Sales or as a pdf on a CD if requested.

Output Area is the lowest geographical level at which census estimates are provided. Output Areas were introduced in Scotland at the 1981 Census and in all the countries of the UK at the 2001 Census.

The Output Areas and Small Areas list contains 232,296 areas of the following constituent geographies:

• 171,372 Output Areas in England
• 46,351 Output Areas in Scotland
• 4,537 Small Areas in Northern Ireland
• 10,036 Output Areas 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 file contains the digital vector boundaries for Covid Infection Survey Geography, in the United Kingdom, as at December 2020.The boundaries available are: (BFC) Full resolution - clipped to the coastline (Mean High Water mark).Contains both Ordnance Survey and ONS Intellectual Property Rights.

REST URL of Feature Access Service – https://services1.arcgis.com/ESMARspQHYMw9BZ9/arcgis/rest/services/Covid_Infection_Survey_Dec_2020_UK_BFC/FeatureServerREST URL of WFS Server –https://dservices1.arcgis.com/ESMARspQHYMw9BZ9/arcgis/services/Covid_Infection_Survey_Dec_2020_UK_BFC/WFSServer?service=wfs&request=getcapabilitiesREST URL of Map Server –https://services1.arcgis.com/ESMARspQHYMw9BZ9/arcgis/rest/services/Covid_Infection_Survey_Dec_2020_UK_BFC/MapServer