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OS Open Built Up Areas is classified into three feature types:
Built Up Areas is the aggregation of Built Up Extents and Non Built Up Extents.
This is a multipart area feature with a single Government Statistical Service (GSS) code and name or names.
Built Up Extents is the representation of built-up areas only within the extent of Built Up Areas. This is the area that remains after Non Built Up Extents have been removed from Built Up Areas.
This is a multipart area feature with the same GSS code as the related Built Up Areas with the same name or names.
Non Built Up Extents is the representation of non-built-up areas within the extent of Built Up Areas.
This is a multipart area feature with the same GSS code as the related Built Up Areas with the same name or names.
Each feature type has associated attribution. You can find additional information in the OS Open Built Up Areas Technical Specification.
OS Open Built Up Areas is designed to conform to OGC standards.
OS Open Built Up Areas uses the British National Grid (BNG) coordinate reference system. BNG uses the OSGB36 geodetic datum and a single Transverse Mercator projection for the whole of Great Britain.
Positions on this projection are described using easting and northing coordinates in units of metres. The BNG is a horizontal spatial reference system only; it does not include a vertical (height) reference system.
OS Open Built Up Areas is supplied in GeoPackage and CSV formats.
OS Open Built Up Areas is supplied as an online download. You can download the GeoPackage or CSV formats from the OS Data Hub.
Coverage for OS Open Built Up Areas is all of Great Britain.
Delivered in a single compressed file (ZIP) containing all three feature types.
File size is approximately 278.9MB.
Data is not encrypted.
Delivered in three individual files, one for each feature type.
File size of each file is approximately 39.08MB.
Data is not encrypted.
The first release of OS Open Built Up Areas was in December 2022. After this, the product is scheduled to be released every two years. This schedule was agreed with ONS and Scottish Government.
Non Built Up Extents Notional polygons representing non-built up areas (for example, wooded strips, waterbodies, and roadside land) within the extent of a Built Up Area polygon, derived from a 25 m x 25 m grid of topographic data, and based on the classification of OS topographic area and land use features.
Polygon geometry for the feature with area in square metres. Type: MultiSurfaceWithAreaType Multiplicity: [1]
A reference to the GSS code for Built Up Areas provided by ONS and Scottish Government. Type: CharacterString Multiplicity: [1]
The name, including any language alternatives, of the highest classification of settlement that relates to a Built Up Area polygon or, if there are multiple settlements for the same classification, the names of the most significant settlements. Type: NameType Multiplicity: [1..2]
The area of each Non Built Up Extent polygon in hectares. Type: Measure Multiplicity: [1]
Notional polygons representing built-up areas, derived from a 25 m x 25 m grid of topographic data, and based on the classification of OS topographic area and land use features.
Polygon geometry for the feature with area in square metres.
Type: MultiSurfaceWithAreaType
Multiplicity: [1]
A GSS identifier for Built Up Areas provided by ONS and Scottish Government.
Type: CharacterString
Multiplicity: [1]
The name (including any language alternatives) of the highest classification of settlement that relates to a Built Up Area polygon or, if there are multiple settlements for the same classification, the name of the most significant settlement.
Type: NameType
Multiplicity: [1..2]
The area of each Built Up Area polygon in hectares.
Type: Measure
Multiplicity: [1]
Notional polygons representing built-up areas, excluding non-built up areas (for example, wooded strips, waterbodies, and roadside land), within the extent of a Built Up Area polygon, derived from a 25 m x 25 m grid of topographic data, and based on the classification of OS topographic area and land use features.
Polygon geometry for the feature with area in square metres.
Type: MultiSurfaceWithAreaType
Multiplicity: [1]
A reference to the GSS code for Built Up Areas provided by ONS and Scottish Government.
Type: CharacterString
Multiplicity: [1]
The name (including any language alternatives) of the highest classification of settlement that relates to a Built Up Area polygon or, if there are multiple settlements for the same classification, the name of the most significant settlement.
Type: NameType
Multiplicity: [1..2]
The area of each Built Up Extent polygon in hectares.
Type: Measure
Multiplicity: [1]
This overview introduces OS Open Built Up Areas, giving context for all users – highlighting key features, providing examples of uses, and listing details such as file sizes, supply formats, etc.
OS Open Built Up Areas is a dataset representing the built-up areas of Great Britain. It was designed primarily to underpin the statistical analysis that contributes to policy enablement across the public sector.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) and Scottish Government made significant contributions in the design of the dataset to ensure it is fit for purpose and focussed on the needs of the wider 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.
OS Open Built Up Areas is specifically designed for statistical analysis to support policy development. The product was co-designed with ONS and Scottish Government to fulfil their requirements. This collaboration allowed OS to create a customer-focussed product that is precisely suitable for its purpose.
Comprised of three feature types that enable a wide range of statistical analysis:
Built Up Areas is the aggregation of Built Up Extents and Non Built Up Extents.
Built Up Extents is the representation of built-up areas within the extent of Built Up Areas.
Non Built Up Extents is the representation of non-built-up areas within the extent of Built Up Areas.
Comprises only built-up areas of 200 000 m² (20 ha) or more, in accordance with customer requirements.
Area values are provided in square metres (m²) and hectares (ha) to support interoperability with other OS datasets.
Feature types contain (or reference) Government Statistical Service (GSS) codes to facilitate compatibility and interoperability with related public sector datasets referencing GSS codes.
Includes Built Up Area names in alternative languages (Gaelic and Welsh), where available.
Built Up Areas with the same name are easily distinguished by the lower-tier local authority or district name that is appended in brackets.
Supplied in two widely used formats, GeoPackage and CSV (comma-separated values), that are both easy to load into geographic information systems (GIS) and databases. GeoPackage is an Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) standard format.
Open Government Licensing (OGL) means the data is available to everyone free at the point of use, with no restrictions on use.
OS Open Built Up Areas enables policy makers and analysts, both nationally and locally, to conduct analysis corresponding to actual urban extents, for example, at a town, city, and village level. This allows economic, social, and environmental issues to be understood on the basis of the actual settlements in which most people in Great Britain live. These insights can be invaluable in the design and implementation of policies, such as, Levelling Up and Net Zero.
The product can be used to monitor changes related to Built Up Areas over time to improve understanding of economic, social, and environmental factors. It also provides a means to measure the effectiveness of policy delivery and to improve planning and services.
Built Up Extents can support demographic population density statistics because they represent the actual places in which people live and work.
Non Built Up Extents can 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.
The use of GSS codes enables linking to other statistics and datasets for better asset management in Built Up Areas. This improves consistency and accuracy in decision making and planning.
The dataset can be used to create thematic mapping and data visualisations linked to government-recognised Built Up Areas.
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
Built Up Areas are used to analyse census data to understand their characteristics and output a range of statistics, informing government policy.
GSS codes enable you to link statistics across government departments to Built Up Areas, improving consistency and accuracy for decision making and planning.
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.
Built Up Areas contains three unique datasets, each linked using the GSS code and name, offering maximum flexibility to meet your needs.
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.
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.
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.
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
You can find further information about the product and how to use it in the overview guide.
We recommend you read the following:
Access to OS OpenData is free through the OS Data Hub.
This technical specification provides detailed technical information about OS Open Built Up Areas. It is targeted at technical users and software developers.
OS Open Built Up Areas is a dataset representing the built-up areas of Great Britain. It was designed primarily to underpin the statistical analysis that contributes to policy enablement across the public sector.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) and Scottish Government made significant contributions in the design of the dataset to ensure it is fit for purpose and focussed on the needs of the wider 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.
OS Open Built Up Areas was co-designed with ONS and Scottish Government and is based on their requirements. This collaboration enabled OS to create a customer-focussed product that underpins statistical analysis and supports policy development.
OS Open Built Up Areas is classified into three feature types:
Built Up Areas is the aggregation of Built Up Extents and Non Built Up Extents.
This is a multipart area feature with a single Government Statistical Service (GSS) code and name or names.
Built Up Extents is the representation of built-up areas only within the extent of Built Up Areas. This is the area that remains after Non Built Up Extents have been removed from Built Up Areas.
This is a multipart area feature with the same GSS code as the related Built Up Areas with the same name or names.
Non Built Up Extents is the representation of non-built-up areas within the extent of Built Up Areas.
This is a multipart area feature with the same GSS code as the related Built Up Areas with the same name or names.
Each feature type has associated attribution that is detailed in this document.
The persistent managed identifier in OS Open Built Up Areas is the GSS code provided by ONS and Scottish Government. The GSS code is consistent across the three feature types and is prefixed with:
E63 for England.
S45 for Scotland.
W45 for Wales.
K08 for Built Up Areas that cross the Wales-England border.
OS Open Built Up Areas is created from the following Ordnance Survey data content stores:
Topographic Buildings, Roads, Residential Gardens and Made Surfaces.
Land Use Sites.
Settlement Named Areas.
The OS Open Built Up Areas dataset is created by following the methodology detailed below:
Identify built-up cells: 25m by 25m cells are flagged as built up based on the proportion of the cell that is classified as Building, Road, Residential Garden, Made Surface, or built-up types of Land Use Site.
Assign names: Each cell is assigned a name from the Settlement Named Area dataset.
Create initial built-up area polygons:
Adjacent, identically-named 25m x 25m cells are merged together.
Adjacent built-up areas that are not Cities or Towns are merged together.
Smaller built-up areas are merged into nearby larger built-up areas.
Filter to create final geometry:
Built-up areas >=200 000m2 are retained and become Built Up Extents.
Built Up Areas and Non Built Up Extents are then generated from the Built Up Extents.
Refine names: The name or names of the most significant constituent settlements are applied to Built Up Areas that are not Cities or Towns.
If two or more Built Up Areas have the same name, the name of the lowest-tier local authority in which the Built Up Area is located is appended in brackets.
If two or more Built Up Areas have the same name within a single local authority, the name of the parish in which the Built Up Areas is located is appended in brackets.
If two or more Built Up Areas have the same name within a single parish, the name of the nearest Built Up Area is appended in brackets.
Assign GSS codes: GSS codes, supplied by ONS (for England and Wales) and Scottish Government, are applied to the three feature types.
OS Open Built Up Areas is supplied in the following formats:
CSV (comma-separated values).
GeoPackage.
The first release of OS Open Built Up Areas was in December 2022. After this, the product is scheduled to be released every two years.
Feature types
Structured data types
Code list
Supply formats
This section describes the structured data types which make up OS Open Built Up Areas. The attributes associated with these data types are listed below along with a brief description of their data properties.
See for more information.
A code list or enumeration is a controlled set of values which can be used to populate a specific column.
An object that describes the proper nouns (and their language) that apply to the feature.
Name assigned to identify the feature.
Type: CharacterString
Size: 254
Multiplicity: [1]
The language type associated with the name. The valid values are defined in the LanguageValue code list.
Type: CharacterString
Size: 3
Multiplicity: [0..1]
This release note provides information about the April 2024 release of OS Open Built Up Areas.
As referred to in the OS Open Built Up Areas Overview, following the April 2024 release the product is scheduled to be released every two years.
Using customer feedback, improvements have been made in the 2024 release, by refining the definition of a Built Up Area.
All CSV file names and GeoPackage feature types are now formatted in all lowercase with underscores.
The 'geom' field in the GeoPackage has been changed to 'geometry'.
OS Built Up Areas now includes new GSS codes for all features.
The next release of OS Open Built Up Areas is scheduled for April 2026.
The name of the attribute and what it is describing.
The nature of the attribute, for example a numeric value or a code list value.
The length of the attribute provided (optional).
Describes how many times this element is expected to be populated in the data. An attribute may be optional or mandatory within the product. These are denoted by:
‘1’ – there must be a value.
‘0..1’ – population is optional but a maximum of one attribute will be returned These values may be used in combination.
OS Open Built Up Areas is classified into three feature types: Built Up Areas, Built Up Extents, and Non Built Up Extents. The attributes associated with these feature types are listed below along with a brief description of their data properties.
OS Open Built Up Areas is supplied as a single GeoPackage for Great Britain. GeoPackage (*.gpkg) is an open, non-proprietary, platform-independent, standards-based data format for geographic information systems (GIS), as defined by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). It is designed to be a lightweight format that can contain large amounts of varied and complex data in a single, easy-to-distribute and ready- to-use file. GeoPackage is natively supported by numerous software applications.
GeoPackage offers users the following benefits:
The single file is easy to transfer and offers the end user a rich experience.
Attribute names are not limited in length, making the format user friendly.
The file size limit is large at 140 TB.
A file size limit could be imposed by the file system to which the file is written.
It supports raster, vector and database formats, making it a highly versatile solution.
It is an OGC standard.
In most cases, it is a plug-and-play format.
A comma-separated values (CSV) file is a common interchange format for spreadsheets and databases that facilitates the simplistic use of data. Each field is either textual or numeric. Within the CSV, each field is separated from the next by a comma. CSV file format is universally supported for easy ingestion into all major database products.
CSV files are designed to be opened in a database or GIS application and opening them in other software applications might corrupt the data. In particular, Excel has a row limit that is easily exceeded by large CSV files. We recommend that you load CSV files directly into a database or GIS, rather than trying to open these files in Excel.
The CSV supply has the following features:
Geometry is provided as Well-Known Text (WKT).
Header rows are included in each file.
There is one record per line in each file.
Fields are separated by commas.
Where string fields contain commas, they are delimited by double quotes.
Double quotes inside strings are escaped by doubling.
Records are terminated by carriage returns and line feeds.
Files use UTF-8 character encoding.
The names of attributes in CSV and GeoPackage format are very similar. The following table maps CSV attribute names to GeoPackage attribute names:
This product is available to try out online using one of our three sets of sample data (Exeter, Newport and Inverness) through the OS MasterMap product viewer:
| CSV attributes | GeoPackage attribute |
|---|---|
*
fid1
gsscode2
gsscode2
relatedtogsscode3
relatedtogsscode3
name1_text
name1_text
name1_language
name1_language
name2_text
name2_text
name2_language
name2_language
areahectares
areahectares
geometry_area_m
geometry_area_m
geometry4
*5
* Indicates that the attribute is not mapped between the formats.
1 fid is an additional attribute. It is an INTEGER NOT NULL column that acts as a primary key. This attribute is a requirement of the OGC GeoPackage specification.
2 Present in the Built Up Areas Feature Type only.
3 Present in the Built Up Extents and Non-Built Up Extents Feature Types only.
4 CSV contains the Well-Known Text (WKT) data type that represents the vector geometry objects of the feature.
5 The geometry column is always the second column, but the attribute (or its value) is typically not visible in GIS software. GeoPackage is based on Well-Known Binary (WKB) as defined in ISO/IEC 13249-3:2011.
eng
ISO 639-2 code for English language.
gla
ISO 639-2 code for Gaelic; Scottish Gaelic language.
cym
ISO 639-2 code for Welsh language.
The name of the attribute and what it is describing.
The nature of the attribute, for example a numeric value or a code list value.
The length of the attribute provided (optional).
Describes how many times this element is expected to be populated in the data. An attribute may be optional or mandatory within the product. These are denoted by:
‘1’ – there must be a value.
‘0..1’ – population is optional but a maximum of one attribute will be returned These values may be used in combination.
For information on how to open, use and understand a GeoPackage dataset, please refer to our Getting Started with GeoPackage guide. For further information on GeoPackage, please see the GeoPackage website.
