The international boundary data featured in this shapefile consists of the boundary between the United States and Canada and the United States and Mexico. Each country's section is administered independently. The United States and Canada border data was provided by the International Boundary Commission, United States and Canada (IBC). The International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) provided the United States and Mexico section of the border data. Geospatial data files provided individually by the IBC and IBWC were used to re-align the Census Bureau's MAF/TIGER System data for the agency's representation of the international boundaries of United States with Canada and Mexico. The Census Bureau's MAF/TIGER System and the IBWC source file data for the portion of the United States and Mexico border featured a gap between Cameron County, Texas and the three-mile limit in the Gulf of Mexico. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Coast Survey Office's representation of the United States and Mexico boundary used to fill this gap.

World Countries provides a detailed basemap layer for the country boundaries of the world as they existed in January 2024. It has been designed to be used as a basemap and includes fields for local and official names and country codes, along with fields for capital, continent, and display. Particularly useful are the fields LAND_TYPE and LAND_RANK that separate polygons based on their size. These fields are helpful for rendering at different scales by providing the ability to turn off small islands that may clutter small-scale views.The data is sourced from Garmin International, Inc. and was published here in October 2024. This layer is updated every 12-18 months or as significant changes occur.

This file contains European countries in a shapefile format that can be used in python, R or matlab. The file has been created by Drin Marmullaku based on GADM version 4.1 (https://gadm.org/) and distributed according to their license (https://gadm.org/license.html).

Please cite as: Sevdari, Kristian; Marmullaku, Drin (2023). Shapefile of European countries. Technical University of Denmark. Dataset. https://doi.org/10.11583/DTU.23686383 This dataset is distributed under a CCBY-NC-SA 4.0 license

Using the data to create maps for publishing of academic research articles is allowed. Thus you can use the maps you made with GADM data for figures in articles published by PLoS, Springer Nature, Elsevier, MDPI, etc. You are allowed (but not required) to publish these articles (and the maps they contain) under an open license such as CC-BY as is the case with PLoS journals and may be the case with other open access articles. Data for the following countries is covered by a a different license Austria: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 (source: Government of Austria)

The 2019 cartographic boundary shapefiles are simplified representations of selected geographic areas from the U.S. Census Bureau's Master Address File / Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (MAF/TIGER) Database (MTDB). These boundary files are specifically designed for small-scale thematic mapping. When possible, generalization is performed with the intent to maintain the hierarchical relationships among geographies and to maintain the alignment of geographies within a file set for a given year. Geographic areas may not align with the same areas from another year. Some geographies are available as nation-based files while others are available only as state-based files. Regions are four groupings of states (Northeast, South, Midwest, and West) established by the Census Bureau in 1942 for the presentation of census data.

Important Note: This item is in mature support as of May 2023 and will retire in December 2025. A new version of this item is available for your use.World First Order Administrative Boundaries provides 2022 boundaries for the first order divisions of the countries of the world. The layer is designed to be used for mapping and analysis. It can be enriched with additional attributes using data enrichment tools in ArcGIS Online.World First Order Administrative Boundaries use December 2021 source from Garmin International, Inc and were published in October 2022. A new layer will be published in 12-18 months. Other administrative boundaries for this country are also available:RegionCountryFirst Order Administrative Division

The 2022 cartographic boundary shapefiles are simplified representations of selected geographic areas from the U.S. Census Bureau's Master Address File / Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing (MAF/TIGER) Database (MTDB). These boundary files are specifically designed for small-scale thematic mapping. When possible, generalization is performed with the intent to maintain the hierarchical relationships among geographies and to maintain the alignment of geographies within a file set for a given year. Geographic areas may not align with the same areas from another year. Some geographies are available as nation-based files while others are available only as state-based files. This file depicts the shape of the United States clipped back to a generalized coastline. This nation layer covers the extent of the fifty states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and each of the Island Areas (American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands) when scale appropriate.

Indonesia Country Boundary provides a 2022 boundary with a total population count. The layer is designed to be used for mapping and analysis. It can be enriched with additional attributes using data enrichment tools in ArcGIS Online.The 2022 boundaries are provided by Michael Bauer Research GmbH. They are sourced from Badan Pusat Statistik. These were published in December 2022. A new layer will be published in 12-18 months. Other administrative boundaries for this country are also available: Provinsi Kabupaten District Subdistrict

Overview

The Office of the Geographer and Global Issues at the U.S. Department of State produces the Large Scale International Boundaries (LSIB) dataset. The current edition is version 11.4 (published 24 February 2025). The 11.4 release contains updated boundary lines and data refinements designed to extend the functionality of the dataset. These data and generalized derivatives are the only international boundary lines approved for U.S. Government use. The contents of this dataset reflect U.S. Government policy on international boundary alignment, political recognition, and dispute status. They do not necessarily reflect de facto limits of control.

National Geospatial Data Asset

This dataset is a National Geospatial Data Asset (NGDAID 194) managed by the Department of State. It is a part of the International Boundaries Theme created by the Federal Geographic Data Committee.

Dataset Source Details

Sources for these data include treaties, relevant maps, and data from boundary commissions, as well as national mapping agencies. Where available and applicable, the dataset incorporates information from courts, tribunals, and international arbitrations. The research and recovery process includes analysis of satellite imagery and elevation data. Due to the limitations of source materials and processing techniques, most lines are within 100 meters of their true position on the ground.

Cartographic Visualization

The LSIB is a geospatial dataset that, when used for cartographic purposes, requires additional styling. The LSIB download package contains example style files for commonly used software applications. The attribute table also contains embedded information to guide the cartographic representation. Additional discussion of these considerations can be found in the Use of Core Attributes in Cartographic Visualization section below.

Additional cartographic information pertaining to the depiction and description of international boundaries or areas of special sovereignty can be found in Guidance Bulletins published by the Office of the Geographer and Global Issues: https://data.geodata.state.gov/guidance/index.html

Contact

Direct inquiries to internationalboundaries@state.gov. Direct download: https://data.geodata.state.gov/LSIB.zip

Attribute Structure

The dataset uses the following attributes divided into two categories: ATTRIBUTE NAME | ATTRIBUTE STATUS CC1 | Core CC1_GENC3 | Extension CC1_WPID | Extension COUNTRY1 | Core CC2 | Core CC2_GENC3 | Extension CC2_WPID | Extension COUNTRY2 | Core RANK | Core LABEL | Core STATUS | Core NOTES | Core LSIB_ID | Extension ANTECIDS | Extension PREVIDS | Extension PARENTID | Extension PARENTSEG | Extension

These attributes have external data sources that update separately from the LSIB: ATTRIBUTE NAME | ATTRIBUTE STATUS CC1 | GENC CC1_GENC3 | GENC CC1_WPID | World Polygons COUNTRY1 | DoS Lists CC2 | GENC CC2_GENC3 | GENC CC2_WPID | World Polygons COUNTRY2 | DoS Lists LSIB_ID | BASE ANTECIDS | BASE PREVIDS | BASE PARENTID | BASE PARENTSEG | BASE

The core attributes listed above describe the boundary lines contained within the LSIB dataset. Removal of core attributes from the dataset will change the meaning of the lines. An attribute status of “Extension” represents a field containing data interoperability information. Other attributes not listed above include “FID”, “Shape_length” and “Shape.” These are components of the shapefile format and do not form an intrinsic part of the LSIB.

Core Attributes

The eight core attributes listed above contain unique information which, when combined with the line geometry, comprise the LSIB dataset. These Core Attributes are further divided into Country Code and Name Fields and Descriptive Fields.

County Code and Country Name Fields

“CC1” and “CC2” fields are machine readable fields that contain political entity codes. These are two-character codes derived from the Geopolitical Entities, Names, and Codes Standard (GENC), Edition 3 Update 18. “CC1_GENC3” and “CC2_GENC3” fields contain the corresponding three-character GENC codes and are extension attributes discussed below. The codes “Q2” or “QX2” denote a line in the LSIB representing a boundary associated with areas not contained within the GENC standard.

The “COUNTRY1” and “COUNTRY2” fields contain the names of corresponding political entities. These fields contain names approved by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names (BGN) as incorporated in the ‘"Independent States in the World" and "Dependencies and Areas of Special Sovereignty" lists maintained by the Department of State. To ensure maximum compatibility, names are presented without diacritics and certain names are rendered using common cartographic abbreviations. Names for lines associated with the code "Q2" are descriptive and not necessarily BGN-approved. Names rendered in all CAPITAL LETTERS denote independent states. Names rendered in normal text represent dependencies, areas of special sovereignty, or are otherwise presented for the convenience of the user.

Descriptive Fields

The following text fields are a part of the core attributes of the LSIB dataset and do not update from external sources. They provide additional information about each of the lines and are as follows: ATTRIBUTE NAME | CONTAINS NULLS RANK | No STATUS | No LABEL | Yes NOTES | Yes

Neither the "RANK" nor "STATUS" fields contain null values; the "LABEL" and "NOTES" fields do. The "RANK" field is a numeric expression of the "STATUS" field. Combined with the line geometry, these fields encode the views of the United States Government on the political status of the boundary line.

ATTRIBUTE NAME | | VALUE | RANK | 1 | 2 | 3 STATUS | International Boundary | Other Line of International Separation | Special Line

A value of “1” in the “RANK” field corresponds to an "International Boundary" value in the “STATUS” field. Values of ”2” and “3” correspond to “Other Line of International Separation” and “Special Line,” respectively.

The “LABEL” field contains required text to describe the line segment on all finished cartographic products, including but not limited to print and interactive maps.

The “NOTES” field contains an explanation of special circumstances modifying the lines. This information can pertain to the origins of the boundary lines, limitations regarding the purpose of the lines, or the original source of the line.

Use of Core Attributes in Cartographic Visualization

Several of the Core Attributes provide information required for the proper cartographic representation of the LSIB dataset. The cartographic usage of the LSIB requires a visual differentiation between the three categories of boundary lines. Specifically, this differentiation must be between:

• International Boundaries (Rank 1);
• Other Lines of International Separation (Rank 2); and
• Special Lines (Rank 3).

Rank 1 lines must be the most visually prominent. Rank 2 lines must be less visually prominent than Rank 1 lines. Rank 3 lines must be shown in a manner visually subordinate to Ranks 1 and 2. Where scale permits, Rank 2 and 3 lines must be labeled in accordance with the “Label” field. Data marked with a Rank 2 or 3 designation does not necessarily correspond to a disputed boundary. Please consult the style files in the download package for examples of this depiction.

The requirement to incorporate the contents of the "LABEL" field on cartographic products is scale dependent. If a label is legible at the scale of a given static product, a proper use of this dataset would encourage the application of that label. Using the contents of the "COUNTRY1" and "COUNTRY2" fields in the generation of a line segment label is not required. The "STATUS" field contains the preferred description for the three LSIB line types when they are incorporated into a map legend but is otherwise not to be used for labeling.

Use of

This dataset contains shapefile boundaries for CA State, counties and places from the US Census Bureau's 2023 MAF/TIGER database. Current geography in the 2023 TIGER/Line Shapefiles generally reflects the boundaries of governmental units in effect as of January 1, 2023.

This dataset contains the White Mountain National Forest Boundary. The boundary was extracted from the National Forest boundaries coverage for the lower 48 states, including Puerto Rico developed by the USDA Forest Service - Geospatial Service and Technology Center. The coverage was projected from decimal degrees to UTM zone 19. This dataset includes administrative unit boundaries, derived primarily from the GSTC SOC data system, comprised of Cartographic Feature Files (CFFs), using ESRI Spatial Data Engine (SDE) and an Oracle database. The data that was available in SOC was extracted on November 10, 1999. Some of the data that had been entered into SOC was outdated, and some national forest boundaries had never been entered for a variety of reasons. The USDA Forest Service, Geospatial Service and Technology Center has edited this data in places where it was questionable or missing, to match the National Forest Inventoried Roadless Area data submitted for the President's Roadless Area Initiative. Data distributed as shapefile in Coordinate system EPSG:26919 - NAD83 / UTM zone 19N.

Mozambique Country Boundary provides a 2023 boundary with a total population count. The layer is designed to be used for mapping and analysis. It can be enriched with additional attributes using data enrichment tools in ArcGIS Online.The 2023 boundaries are provided by Michael Bauer Research GmbH. These were published in October 2023. A new layer will be published in 12-18 months. Other administrative boundaries for this country are also available: Province

Map of National Boundaries for Africa. This data was compiled from public domain source material, specifically from the GADM (Database of Global Administrative Areas). GADM is a high-resolution database of country administrative areas, with a goal of "all countries, at all levels, at any time period." The GADM's data is available for public download, and was the source of this layer published through ArcGIS Online. The GADM data was extracted and processed for publishing through ArcGIS Online during 2014 and lightly updated in 2016.

New political and administrative boundaries Shapefile of Nepal. Downloaded and republished from the Survey Department website.

The FGGD coastal and country boundaries of the world is a global datalayer that is available in both vector and raster formats, with a vector scale of 1:5 000 000 and a raster resolution of 5 arc-minutes. It contains coastal and country boundaries from Digital Soil Map of the World, updated to 2005 according to internationally-recognised changes reported by the UN Geographic Information Working Group (DPKO/UNCS).

Please note this dataset is the most recent version of the Administrative Boundaries (AB). For previous versions of the AB please go to this url: https://data.gov.au/dataset/ds-dga-b4ad5702-ea2b-4f04-833c-d0229bfd689e/details?q=previous

Geoscape Administrative Boundaries is Australia’s most comprehensive national collection of boundaries, including government, statistical and electoral boundaries. It is built and maintained by Geoscape Australia using authoritative government data. Further information about contributors to Administrative Boundaries is available here.

This dataset comprises seven Geoscape products:

• Localities
• Local Government Areas (LGAs)
• Wards
• Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Boundaries
• Electoral Boundaries
• State Boundaries and
• Town Points

Updated versions of Administrative Boundaries are published on a quarterly basis.

Users have the option to download datasets with feature coordinates referencing either GDA94 or GDA2020 datums.

Notable changes in the May 2025 release

• Victorian Wards have seen almost half of the dataset change now reflecting the boundaries from the 2024 subdivision review. https://www.vec.vic.gov.au/electoral-boundaries/council-reviews/ subdivision-reviews.

  • There have been spatial changes (area) greater than 1 km2 to 66 wards in Victoria.

• One new locality ‘Kenwick Island’ has been added to the local Government area ‘Mackay Regional’ in Queensland.

  • There have been spatial changes(area) greater than 1 km2 to the local government areas 'Burke Shire' and 'Mount Isa City' in Queensland.

• There have been spatial changes(area) greater than 1 km2 to the localities ‘Nicholson’, ‘Lawn Hill’ and ‘Coral Sea’ in Queensland and ‘Calguna’, ‘Israelite Bay’ and ‘Balladonia’ in Western Australia.

• An update to the NT Commonwealth Electoral Boundaries has been applied to reflect the redistribution of the boundaries gazetted on 4 March 2025.

• Geoscape has become aware that the DATE_CREATED and DATE_RETIRED attributes in the commonwealth_electoral_polygon MapInfo TAB tables were incorrectly ordered and did not match the product data model. These attributes have been re-ordered to match the data model for the May 2025 release.

IMPORTANT NOTE: correction of issues with the 22 November 2022 release

• On 28 November 2022, the Administrative Boundaries dataset originally released on 22 November 2022 was amended and re-uploaded after Geoscape identified some issues with the original data for 'Electoral Boundaries'.
• As a result of the error, some shapefiles were published in 3D rather than 2D, which may affect some users when importing data into GIS applications.
• The error affected the Electoral Boundaries dataset, specifically the Commonwealth boundary data for Victoria and Western Australia, including 'All States'.
• Only the ESRI Shapefile formats were affected (both GDA94 and GDA2020). The MapInfo TAB format was not affected.
• Because the datasets are zipped into a single file, once the error was fixed by Geoscape all of Administrative Boundaries shapefiles had to be re-uploaded, rather than only the affected files.
• If you downloaded either of the two Administrative Boundary ESRI Shapefiles between 22 November and 28 November 2022 and plan to use the Electoral Boundary component, you are advised to download the revised version dated 28 November 2022. Apologies for any inconvenience.

Further information on Administrative Boundaries, including FAQs on the data, is available here or through Geoscape Australia’s network of partners. They provide a range of commercial products based on Administrative Boundaries, including software solutions, consultancy and support.

Note: On 1 October 2020, PSMA Australia Limited began trading as Geoscape Australia.

The Australian Government has negotiated the release of Administrative Boundaries to the whole economy under an open CCBY 4.0 licence.

Users must only use the data in ways that are consistent with the Australian Privacy Principles issued under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).

Users must also note the following attribution requirements:

Preferred attribution for the Licensed Material:

Administrative Boundaries © Geoscape Australia licensed by the Commonwealth of Australia under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0).

Preferred attribution for Adapted Material:

Incorporates or developed using Administrative Boundaries © Geoscape Australia licensed by the Commonwealth of Australia under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence (CC BY 4.0).

What to Expect When You Download Administrative Boundaries

Administrative Boundaries is large dataset (around 1.5GB unpacked), made up of seven themes each containing multiple layers.

Users are advised to read the technical documentation including the product change notices and the individual product descriptions before downloading and using the product.

Please note this dataset is the most recent version of the Administrative Boundaries (AB). For previous versions of the AB please go to this url: https://data.gov.au/dataset/ds-dga-b4ad5702-ea2b-4f04-833c-d0229bfd689e/details?q=previous

License Information

World Continents represents the boundaries for the continents of the world. It provides a basemap layer of the continents, delivering a straightforward method of selecting a small multicountry area for display or study.This layer is best viewed out beyond a scale of 1:3,000,000. The original source was extracted from the ArcWorld Supplement database in 2001 and updated as country boundaries coincident to regional boundaries change. To download the data for this layer as a layer package for use in ArcGIS desktop applications, refer to World Continents.

The USGS Governmental Unit Boundaries dataset from The National Map (TNM) represents major civil areas for the Nation, including States or Territories, counties (or equivalents), Federal and Native American areas, congressional districts, minor civil divisions, incorporated places (such as cities and towns), and unincorporated places. Boundaries data are useful for understanding the extent of jurisdictional or administrative areas for a wide range of applications, including mapping or managing resources, and responding to natural disasters. Boundaries data also include extents of forest, grassland, park, wilderness, wildlife, and other reserve areas useful for recreational activities, such as hiking and backpacking. Boundaries data are acquired from a variety of government sources. The data represents the source data with minimal editing or review by USGS. Please refer to the feature-level metadata ...

Excellent world shapefile maps with national boundaries, first order admin (provinces, states, etc.), disputed areas, coastlines, populated areas and more at various scale levels.

World Countries (Generalized) is a generalized layer of country level boundaries which can be used at small to medium scales (e.g. down to 1:2m scale). The boundaries have been generalized to support faster rendering at small scales. Included are attributes for name and ISO codes, along with country affiliation information.

Kenya Country Boundary provides a 2023 boundary with a total population count. The layer is designed to be used for mapping and analysis. It can be enriched with additional attributes using data enrichment tools in ArcGIS Online.The 2023 boundaries are provided by Michael Bauer Research GmbH. These were published in October 2023. A new layer will be published in 12-18 months. Other administrative boundaries for this country are also available: Wilaya

Geospatial data about World Bank Country Boundaries. Export to CAD, GIS, PDF, CSV and access via API.