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/

The current counties of England are defined by the ceremonial counties, a collective name for the county areas to which are appointed a Lord Lieutenant. The office of Lord Lieutenant was created in the reign of Henry VIII. The Lord Lieutenant is the chief officer of the county and representative of the Crown. Whenever the Queen visits an area she will be accompanied by the Lord Lieutenant of that area. Legally the ceremonial counties are defined by the Lieutenancies Act 1997 as ‘Counties and areas for the purposes of the lieutenancies in Great Britain’ with reference to the areas used for local government.

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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/

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This file contains the digital vector boundaries for Counties and Unitary Authorities in the United Kingdom, as at December 2019. The boundaries available are: (BUC) Ultra Generalised (500m) - clipped to the coastline (Mean High Water mark). Contains both Ordnance Survey and ONS Intellectual Property Rights. Download File SizesUltra Generalised (500m) - clipped to the coastline (200 KB)Units for the following fields:St_length = metresSt_area = metres2REST URL of ArcGIS for INSPIRE View Service https://ons-inspire.esriuk.com/arcgis/rest/services/Administrative_Boundaries/Counties_and_Unitary_Authorities_December_2019_Boundaries_UK_BUC2/MapServer/exts/InspireView REST URL of ArcGIS for INSPIRE Feature Download Service https://ons-inspire.esriuk.com/arcgis/rest/services/Administrative_Boundaries/Counties_and_Unitary_Authorities_December_2019_Boundaries_UK_BUC2/MapServer/exts/InspireFeatureDownload REST URL of Feature Access Service https://ons-inspire.esriuk.com/arcgis/rest/services/Administrative_Boundaries/Counties_and_Unitary_Authorities_December_2019_Boundaries_UK_BUC2/FeatureServer

Counties were formerly administrative units across the whole of the UK. Due to various administrative restructurings, however, the only administrative areas still referred to as 'counties' are the Non-Metropolitan Districts of England. The English Metropolitan Districts, although no longer administrative units, are also used for statistical purposes.

The Counties area list contains 35 areas of the following constituent English geographies:

• 27 Shire counties
• 6 Metropolitan counties
• Inner London and Outer London

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).

The OSNI Large-scale boundaries is a polygon dataset consisting of County Boundaries.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.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

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

1:1,000,000 raster map showing the County boundaries of Northern Ireland. A raster map is a static image displayed on screen which is suitable as background mapping. 1:1 000,000 Raster is smallest scale OSNI raster product giving an excellent overview of Northern Ireland. Published here for OpenData. By download or use of this dataset you agree to abide by the Open Government Data Licence.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

No specific permission is required [to use or redistribute the data]. However, the Historic Counties Trust would appreciate an appropriate acknowledgement of the use of the data, along the lines of:

"This [project/mapping/website/publication etc.] made use of data provided by the Historic County Borders Project."

For web publications, this statement should contain a link to the Project web site, http://www.county-borders.co.uk.

Polygon dataset showing the 6 counties of Northern Ireland e.g. County Armagh, County Tyrone etc which were the primary local government geography of Northern Ireland before the introduction of unitary authorities in 1972. A PNG map showing the Northern Ireland county boundaries was downloaded from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Northern_Ireland_-_Counties.png The PNG was georeferenced in QGIS using control points with reference to an OGL dataset downloaded from the UK Data Service showing the Northern Ireland coastline. Internal county boundaries were digitised from the georeferenced PNG as a set of polylines. These polylines were then snapped to the coastline features and polygons were generated. A county name was then assigned to each polygon in the attribute table. GIS vector data. This dataset was first accessioned in the EDINA ShareGeo Open repository on 2014-02-24 and migrated to Edinburgh DataShare on 2017-02-22.

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/

​

This file contains the digital vector boundaries for the historical admin counties without associated county boroughs in England and Wales as at Census Day 1921.

The boundaries available are: (BGC) Generalised resolution - clipped to the coastline (Mean High Water mark).

Contains both Ordnance Survey and ONS Intellectual Property Rights.

The index shows the availability of county series geological maps, 1:10560 scale. The maps themselves were produced on OS County Series sheets between approximately 1860 and 1960. The list indicates whether the map has been revised or re-surveyed and gives details of any later versions that have been produced. It is advisable to discuss your requirements before ordering or travelling to view these maps.

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

The Vice County system for Great Britain was devised by an English botanist, Hewett Cottrell Watson, for the purposes of illustrating plant distributions These digitised boundaries are available free-of-charge as a download to recorders, mapping scheme organisers, local record centres and others. This download will contain 3 datasets, an outline of GB, a zip containing individual Vice Counties and a zip containing all Vice Counties as 1 shapefile. 3 and 12 mile offshore limits are included in each zip. Data sourced from http://www.nbn.org.uk/SpecialPages/WVCB-Download.aspx and released under an Open Government Licence. GIS vector data. This dataset was first accessioned in the EDINA ShareGeo Open repository on 2013-10-31 and migrated to Edinburgh DataShare on 2017-02-22.

This file contains the digital vector boundaries for Counties and Unitary Authorities, in the United Kingdom, as at December 2024.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/Counties_and_Unitary_Authorities_December_2024_Boundaries_UK_BGC/FeatureServerREST URL of WFS Server –https://dservices1.arcgis.com/ESMARspQHYMw9BZ9/arcgis/services/Counties_and_Unitary_Authorities_December_2024_Boundaries_UK_BGC/WFSServer?service=wfs&request=getcapabilitiesREST URL of Map Server –https://services1.arcgis.com/ESMARspQHYMw9BZ9/arcgis/rest/services/Counties_and_Unitary_Authorities_December_2024_Boundaries_UK_BGC/MapServer

1) County, Unitary Authority Area, Metropolitan and District ploygons from OS Opendata 2) merged into Counties and Districts polygons 3) in order to merge UK data keyed by County. OS_Counties_meta.pdf contains Ordnance Survey Data (c) Crown copyright and database right 2010. This dataset was first accessioned in the EDINA ShareGeo Open repository on 2013-04-01 and migrated to Edinburgh DataShare on 2017-02-22.

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.

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 Counties 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. Main Topics: These digital boundaries can be used to map economic, social and demograohic 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, which often differ substantially from both Ancient Counties and 20th century Administrative Counties. The boundary data contain the same numerical identifiers as are included in the GBHDB transcriptions of census and vital registration statistics for Registration Counties, making statistical mapping very straightforward.

1:1,000,000 raster map showing the County boundaries of Northern Ireland. A raster map is a static image displayed on screen which is suitable as background mapping. 1:1 000,000 Raster is smallest scale OSNI raster product giving an excellent overview of Northern Ireland. Published here for OpenData. By download or use of this dataset you agree to abide by the Open Government Data Licence.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

This is a spatial dataset containing the boundaries of the Watsonian Vice Counties across Wales. This is a 3rd Party dataset supplied to Natural Resources Wales (NRW) under an OS Open Data Licence.