[GIS] Need second-level subdivisions (Counties) for the United Kingdom

datashapefileunited-kingdom

I am working on a map that requires second-level subdivisions for the United Kingdom, looking for these in shapefile format. These would be county-level subdivisions. I've done a lot of searching at the data.gov.uk website and also at Ordnance Survey GIS data download website but I can' t seem to find the right shapefile.

Ideally the shapefile should have the second level subdivisions that match the current Wikipedia resource at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-2:GB#Second-level_subdivisions,
so Buckinghamshire should have the code GB-BKM in the shapefile, Cambridgshire should have the coding GB-CAM Cambridgeshire, and Cumbria should have the coding GB-CMA.

Does anyone know of a download link from data.gov.uk or another UK government website that has this? I've done numerous online and Google searches. I found this one one on ceremonial counties – https://data.gov.uk/dataset/ceremonial-county-boundaries-of-england but it doesn't seem like the right one. And I'm Canadian, so I'm confused by the different offerings out there such as Ceremonial counties, and historical counties, unary, etc.

Best Answer

Looking at the list you link to you will need several layers from the OS Boundary-line data set -

  1. two-tier county are in county_region
  2. London borough are in district_borough_unitary_region
  3. metropolitan district are in district_borough_unitary_region
  4. unitary authority are in district_borough_unitary_region
  5. council area are in district_borough_unitary_region

The only thing missing is Northern Ireland's districts which aren't part of GB.

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