This dataset is from the Ordnance Survey and it provides a representation of the hierarchy of administrative and electoral boundaries for GB (England, Scotland and Wales). The product is part of the new OS Open products suite and is designed to be used with other OpenData sets.The dataset is made up of 18 layers which are grouped in their respective categories. It contains all levels of electoral and administrative boundaries, from district, wards, civil parishes (or communities) up to parliamentary and assembly constituencies. The layers can be grouped as followed:Administrative Boundaries• Mean high water (GB)• Country (GB)• Historic European regions (GB)• Historic counties (GB)• Ceremonial counties (GB)• District, Metropolitan district, Unitary authority (GB)• Civil parish and community (GB)• Ward (district, unitary, metropolitan, London borough) (England, Scotland)• English region (England)• County (England)• Community (Wales)Electoral Boundaries• Westminster constituencies (GB)• Scottish and Welsh constituency• Scottish and Welsh electoral region• Polling districts (England)• County electoral division (England)• Unitary electoral division (England and Wales)• Greater London Authority Assembly constituenciesThe currency of this data is 04/2022 and the coverage of this service is GB.The map projection is British National Grid.

Important Note: This item is in mature support as of November 2021 and will be retired. A NEW VERSION of this item is available for your use. We recommend updating your maps and apps to use the new version.Boundary-Line is a specialist 1:10 000 scale boundaries dataset. It contains all levels of electoral and administrative boundaries, from district, wards and civil parishes (or communities) up to parliamentary, assembly and European constituencies. The currency of this data is 10/2019.

The coverage of the map service is GB. The map projection is British National Grid. The service is appropriate for viewing down to a scale of approximately 1:20,000. Updated by Esri UK: 22/01/2020To download this dataset use the link here.Ever wondered how Boundary-Line data could be used in analysis? Take a look at our police or supermarket story map.

From Parliamentary constituencies to council wards, Boundary-Line™ maps every administrative boundary in detail for you. And what's more, it's completely free to download and use.

Bring statistics to life For academics or policy-makers, Boundary-Line brings the statistics in your reports to life. It lets you show differences between regions or councils using easy-to-read shaded maps.

A robust framework Monitoring outcomes by area is key for public bodies. Boundary-Line gives you a robust analytical framework to ensure the right communities get the right resources.

Individual properties When you're consulting on updating boundaries to take account of population change, Boundary-Line lets you show on a map where the line's being drawn, right down to the level of individual properties.

Boundary-Line is a specialist 1:10 000 scale boundaries dataset. It contains all levels of electoral and administrative boundaries, from district, wards and civil parishes (or communities) up to parliamentary, assembly and European constituencies. The information is represented as vector digital data. The boundary information is updated twice a year, in May and October. The May release contains the boundaries that have become live in the first week of May, in the year of release. The October release contains the May boundaries plus additional information. Boundary-Line files and sub-levels includes: County - The named county, district, district ward, civil parish, county electoral division (ED); European constituencies - The named European region; Greater London Authority - The Greater London Authority, Greater London Authority Assembly constituency, London borough, London borough ward; Metropolitan districts - The named metropolitan district, metropolitan district ward, civil parish where appropriate; Scottish parliamentary electoral region - The named Scottish Parliamentary electoral region, Scottish parliamentary constituency; Unitary authorities- The named unitary authority, unitary authority ward or unitary authority ED as appropriate, civil parish where appropriate, together with community in Wales; Welsh Assembly Electoral Region - The named Welsh Assembly electoral region, Welsh assembly constituency; Westminster constituencies - The named Westminster constituency; Extent of the realm - Low water mark or seaward boundary extension. Other attribution includes: High water mark; Unique identifiers - For administrative areas, polygons and links; Area measurements; Definitive names; Census codes

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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Parlamentin vaalipiireistä valtuuston johtajille kartoitetaan kaikki hallinnolliset rajat yksityiskohtaisesti. Lisäksi se on täysin vapaasti ladattavissa ja käytössä.

Tilastojen tuominen elämään Tutkijoiden tai päätöksentekijöiden osalta Boundary-Line tuo raportteihin sisältyvät tilastot elämään. Sen avulla voidaan osoittaa alueiden tai valtuustojen välisiä eroja helppolukuisten karttojen avulla.

Vankka kehys Tulosten seuranta alueittain on keskeistä julkisille elimille. Raja antaa sinulle vankan analyyttisen kehyksen, jolla varmistetaan, että oikeat yhteisöt saavat oikeat resurssit.

Yksittäiset ominaisuudet Kun olet tutustunut rajojen päivittämiseen väestönmuutoksen huomioon ottamiseksi, Boundary-Line näyttää kartalla, jossa radan piirustus tapahtuu, oikealla korkeudella yksittäisten ominaisuuksien tasosta.

Polygon dataset showing each English and Welsh Fire and Rescue Authority area. Boundaries are based on OS Boundaryline. This data is released under Ordnance Survey Open Data Licence http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/business-and-government/licensing/using-creating-data-with-os-products/os-opendata.html

Official Ordnance Survey polygons showing Borough boundaries and reference code to link to national statistics.2018. Data is an extract from Ordnance Survey Boundary-Line product which is a specialist 1:10 000 scale boundaries dataset. It contains all levels of electoral and administrative boundaries, from district, wards and civil parishes (or communities) up to parliamentary, assembly and European constituencies. The information is represented as vector digital data. The boundary information is updated twice a year, in May and October. The May release contains the boundaries that have become live in the first week of May, in the year of release. The October release contains the May boundaries plus additional information. Ordnance Survey Open Data - Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0

Counties were formerly administrative units across the whole UK. Due to various administrative restructurings however, the only administrative areas still referred to as counties are the nonmetropolitan (shire) counties of England. The English metropolitan counties, although no longer administrative units, are also used for statistical purposes.

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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/

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.
Main Topics:

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.

Polygon dataset showing each current English County as definied by the Lord Lieutenancies Act 1997. Boundaries are mostly based on OS Boundaryline. This data is released under Ordnance Survey Open Data Licence http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/business-and-government/licensing/using-creating-data-with-os-products/os-opendata.html

This data shows the counties and unitary authorities of Great Britain for 2012. The attached Layer File can be used to symbolise the different types of boundaries (Non-Metropolitan Counties/Metropolitan Counties/Unitary Authorities/Council Areas/Greater London). A JPEG image of the map is also contained in the download. This dataset was made from the OS OpenData Boundary Line product: http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/products/boundary-line/index.html. GIS vector data. This dataset was first accessioned in the EDINA ShareGeo Open repository on 2012-05-10 and migrated to Edinburgh DataShare on 2017-02-21.

This dataset is refreshed on a weekly basis from the datasets the team works on daily.Last update date: 06 March 2025.National Highways Operational Highway Boundary (RedLine) maps out the land belonging to the highway for the whole Strategic Road Network (SRN). It comprises two layers; one being the an outline and another showing the registration status / category of land of land that makes up the boundary. Due to the process involved in creating junctions with local highway authority (LHA) roads, land in this dataset may represent LHA highway (owned by National Highways but the responsibility of the LHA to maintain). Surplus land or land held for future projects does not form part of this dataset.The highway boundary is derived from:Ordnance Survey Mastermap Topography,HM Land Registry National Polygon Service (National Highway titles only), andplots researched and digitised during the course of the RedLine Boundary Project.The boundary is split into categories describing the decisions made for particular plots of land. These categories are as follows:Auto-RedLine category is for plots created from an automated process using Ordnance Survey MasterMap Topography as a base. Land is not registered under National Highways' name. For example, but not limited to, unregistered ‘ancient’ highway vested in Highways England, or bridge carrying highways over a rail line.NH Title within RedLine category is for plots created from Land Registry Cadastral parcels whose proprietor is National Highways or a predecessor. Land in this category is within the highway boundary (audited) or meets a certain threshold by the algorithm.NH Title outside RedLine category is for plots created in the same way as above but these areas are thought to be outside the highway boundary. Where the Confidence is Low, land in this category is yet to be audited. Where the Confidence is High, land in this category has been reviewed and audited as outside our operational boundary.National Highways (Technician) Data category is for plots created by National Highways, digitised land parcels relating to highway land that is not registered, not yet registered or un-registerable.Road in Tunnel category, created using tunnel outlines from Ordnance Survey MasterMap Topography data. These represent tunnels on Highways England’s network. Land is not registered under National Highways' name, but land above the tunnel may be in National Highways’ title. Please refer to the definitive land ownership records held at HM Land Registry.The process attribute details how the decision was made for the particular plot of land. These are as follows:Automated category denotes data produced by an automated process. These areas are yet to be audited by the company.Audited category denotes data that has been audited by the company.Technician Data (Awaiting Audit) category denotes data that was created by National Highways but is yet to be audited and confirmed as final.The confidence attribute details how confident you can be in the decision. This attribute is derived from both the decisions made during the building of the underlying automated dataset as well as whether the section has been researched and/or audited by National Highways staff. These are as follows:High category denotes land that has a high probability of being within the RedLine boundary. These areas typically are audited or are features that are close to or on the highway.Moderate category denotes land that is likely to be within the highway boundary but is subject to change once the area has been audited.Low category denotes land that is less likely to be within the highway boundary. These plots typically represent Highways England registered land that the automated process has marked as outside the highway boundary.Please note that this dataset is indicative only. For queries about this dataset please contact the GIS and Research Team.

In the OS NGD Boundaries Collection, the mean high water (springs) mark is shown to the normal tidal limit (NTL). Areas of salt marsh, mudflats and so on often have extremely complicated tide lines. For ease of digitising and to reduce data volumes, mean high water may be generalised in these areas (not Scotland). The mean high water (springs) mark is represented in the OS NGD Boundaries Collection by a polyline feature. The mean high water (springs) mark is subject to continuous change, but the captured alignment of a tide line is a snapshot on one day. It is not practical to revise tide lines frequently.

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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/

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For further information about the Parliamentary Constituencies and Members of Parliament in the York area, see the City of York Council website. The electoral divisions are derived from Ordnance Survey Boundary-Line data which is an OS OpenData product.

This dataset details the new NatureScot National Operations Areas, as of April 2023. These new areas replace the previous NatureScot SNH Areas (Post April 2011) boundaries. This dataset was digitised using the Ordnance Survey Boundary-Line open data, using the local authorities geometries.

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.

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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/

This file contains the digital vector boundaries for Wards in United Kingdom as at May 2023. The May version is based on the draft release of Ordnance Survey's BoundaryLine product and are therefore potentially subject to change. 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 WFS Server – https://dservices1.arcgis.com/ESMARspQHYMw9BZ9/arcgis/services/WD_MAY_2023_UK_BFC/WFSServer?service=wfs&request=getcapabilities

REST URL of Map Server – https://services1.arcgis.com/ESMARspQHYMw9BZ9/arcgis/rest/services/WD_MAY_2023_UK_BFC/MapServer

REST URL of Feature Access Service – https://services1.arcgis.com/ESMARspQHYMw9BZ9/arcgis/rest/services/WD_MAY_2023_UK_BFC/FeatureServer