geoBoundaries

The world's largest open, free and research-ready database of political administrative boundaries.

Produced and Maintained by the William & Mary Geospatial Evaluation and Observation Lab. Learn more about us here

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Data Retrieval Options

Download & View Past Versions & API We also offer a full download (v%MRV; %FULLDLSIZEGB), but it is not recommended for most users due to its large size.

All We Ask For is a Citation

Runfola, D., Seitz, L., Hobbs, L., Panginaban, J., Oberman, R. et al. geoBoundaries Global Administrative Database. http://www.geoboundaries.org.

Administrative Zone Coverage (v%MRV)

  • 100%
    Country Boundaries (ADM 0)
  • %ADM1PROG
    State Boundaries (ADM 1)
  • %ADM2PROG
    ADM 2
  • %ADM3PROG
    ADM 3+

About geoBoundaries

sample-image The geoBoundaries Global Administrative Database (geoBoundaries) is an online, open license resource of the geographic boundaries of political administrative divisions (i.e., state, county) for every country in the world. geoBoundaries provides detailed information on the legal open license for every boundary in its repository, and focuses on provisioning highly precise administrative boundary data to support accurate, replicable scientific inquiry. All data is released in a structured form, allowing for the integration of geoBoundaries with large-scale computational workflows. Our database has records for every country around the world, with up to 5 levels of administrative hierarchy.

All code used to produce geoBoundaries can be viewed (and contributed to!) on our github repository at https://github.com/wmgeolab/gbRelease, and you can learn more about the students and staff responsible for geoBoundaries at geolab.wm.edu.

Download and View Individual Country Data

Please note that, due to the precision of our raw data, boundaries can take a long time to render after "View" is clicked. It is recommended you use an open source software program such as QGIS to view our data.
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Using the geoBoundaries API & Retrieving Archived Versions

Archive Access
All archived versions of geoBoundaries can be browsed and retrieved through a simple web interface located at https://www.geoboundaries.org/data/. Versions before 2.0 are not standardized following the schema detailed on this page, but are kept for legacy users.
geoBoundaries API Usage
https://www.geoboundaries.org/gbRequest.html?ISO=[3-LETTER-ISO-CODE]&ADM=[ADM-LEVEL]
Users can also enter special phrases "ALL" for either "ADM" or "ISO" to get a multi-boundary return (within the element 'geoBoundaries').
Example Query & Response:
Query:
https://www.geoboundaries.org/gbRequest.html?ISO=USA&ADM=ADM1
Response:
{"STATUS": "Success",
"CODE": "None",
"boundaryID": "USA-ADM1-2_0_0-G592",
"boundaryISO": "USA",
"boundaryYear": 2017,
"boundaryType": "ADM1",
"boundarySource-1": "US Census",
"boundarySource-2": null,
"boundaryLicense": "Open Data Commons Attribution License 1.0",
"licenseDetail": null,
"licenseSource": "https://www.census.gov/about/policies/open-gov/open-data.html",
"boundarySourceURL": "https://www.census.gov/geographies/mapping-files/time-series/geo/carto-boundary-file.html",
"boundaryUpdate": "2020-01-16",
"downloadURL": "https://geoboundaries.org/data/geoBoundariesRelease_2_0_0/USA/ADM1/geoBoundariesRelease_2_0_0-USA-ADM1-all.zip" }

Contact Us

Found something wrong?
Just want to talk?
Let us know!

team@geoboundaries.org

540 Landrum Drive
Williamsburg, VA 23188

+1 (757) 221 1970