geoBoundaries global administrative boundaries

geoBoundaries global administrative boundaries

An open database of political administrative boundaries from William & Mary geoLab, with a keyless JSON API that returns per-country metadata and direct GeoJSON, TopoJSON and shapefile download links. This entry covers the gbOpen release.

Coverage

geoBoundaries' homepage says: "Since 2016, we have tracked approximately 1 million boundaries within over 200 entities, including all UN member states." The API path is /api/current/[RELEASE-TYPE]/[3-LETTER-ISO-CODE]/[BOUNDARY-TYPE]/, with boundary types ADM0 to ADM5 and the special code ALL; records carry boundaryYearRepresented, boundarySource, boundaryLicense and build dates. Yearly archival releases are listed back to 2018. Update frequency and delay: Not stated.

Verdict

A citable source of admin-0 through admin-5 polygons for every country, with an API that hands you the download URL rather than a tiling service. The homepage says: "geoBoundaries datasets are provided under the CC BY 4.0 license, which allows for most commmercial, noncommercial, and academic uses. Our license requires an acknowledgement in any products you produce which use this data." (the spelling "commmercial" is the provider's). Stick to the gbOpen release this entry covers: the API page says "For most users, we suggest using gbOpen, as it is CC-BY 4.0 compliant, and can be used for most purposes so long as attribution is provided.", while "gbHumanitarian files are mirrored from UN OCHA, but may have less open licensure." and "gbAuthoritative files are mirrored from UN SALB, and cannot be used for commerical purposes, but are verified through in-country processes." Individual records also name their own upstream licence; the checked Canada ADM1 record reported boundaryLicense "Open Government Canada 2.0". Signal Lab links only.