OS Open Built Up Areas

OS Open Built Up Areas | Data Products | OSOrdnance Survey

A dataset representing Built Up Areas of Great Britain designed to underpin statistical analysis and contribute to policy enablement across the public sector. OS Open Built Up Areas is released and maintained as an OS OpenData product with Open Government Licensing (OGL), which means that anyone can use this data for a wide range of purposes.

This product is updated every two years

A representation of OS Open Built Up Area data

Features

Statistical analysis underpinning delivery of government policy

Built Up Areas are used to analyse census data to understand their characteristics and output a range of statistics, informing government policy.

GSS codes deliver value across government departments

GSS codes enable you to link statistics across government departments to Built Up Areas, improving consistency and accuracy for decision making and planning.

Monitoring change over time

Monitor your data related to Built Up Areas over time to improve your understanding of economic, social and environmental factors. You can also track changes or policy delivery to improve your planning and services.

Unique and interoperable

Built Up Areas contains three unique datasets, each linked using the GSS code and name, offering maximum flexibility to meet your needs.

Informative

Built Up Areas allow policy makers and analysts, both nationally and locally, to conduct analysis corresponding to actual urban extents such as those of towns, cities and villages. They allow economic, social and environmental issues to be understood on the basis of the actual settlements that most people in Great Britain live in and in doing so aide in the design and implementation of policy areas such as levelling-up and net-zero.

Accessible

A new product available from the OS Data Hub means it's available to anyone interested in Built Up Areas, maximising accessibility and delivering huge value. The data will be maintained and updated every two years and you can link your data using the GSS codes which are recognised and widely used across Government.

Use cases

Improved decision making from better insights

OS Open Built Up Areas enables policymakers and analysts, both nationally and locally, to conduct analysis corresponding to actual urban extents, for example, at a town, city, and village level.

The product can also be used to:

• Monitor changes related to built-up areas over time.

• Support demographic population density statistics.

• Provide insights into non-built-up areas that can be used to inform and calculate statistics, such as the impact of natural capital on house prices.

Summary

• Access: Download

• Data themes: Address, Land Use

• Data structure: Vector - Polygons

• Coverage: Great Britain

• Scale: 1:1 250 to 1:250 000

• Format: CSV, GeoPackage

• Ordering area: All of Great Britain

• Publication months: April

• OS Data Hub plan: Energy & Infrastructure Plan, OS OpenData Plan (FREE), Premium Plan, Public Sector Plan

Guides

You can find further information about the product and how to use it in the overview guide.

We recommend you read the following:

• Getting Started with GeoPackage

How to get this product

Access to OS OpenData is free through the OS Data Hub.