Download Administrative Boundaries
Download country and administrative boundaries for any country in the world via the geoBoundaries dataset. Choose your country, administrative level, and export format.
Boundary data provided by geoBoundaries (Runfola et al., 2020), licensed CC-BY 4.0. Please provide attribution when using this data.
About This Tool
This tool lets you download administrative boundary data for almost every country in the world, from national borders (ADM0) down to municipalities and sub-municipal units (ADM2–ADM5). Data is sourced from geoBoundaries, an open, peer-reviewed dataset of political administrative boundaries maintained by the College of William & Mary.
Administrative Levels Explained
ADM0 — Country Boundary
The national outline of a country. Useful for global maps, country-level analysis, and choropleth mapping.
ADM1 — State / Province
First-level subnational divisions. States in the US, provinces in Canada, regions in France, Bundesländer in Germany.
ADM2 — County / District
Second-level divisions. Counties in the US, departments in France, districts in the UK.
ADM3 — Municipality
Third-level divisions, typically cities and municipalities. Availability varies by country.
ADM4–ADM5 — Sub-municipal
Finer administrative units where available. Not every country has data at these levels.
Export Formats
GeoJSON
The most widely used open vector format. Works directly in QGIS, Mapbox, Leaflet, and most web mapping tools.
GeoJSON (Simplified)
A pre-simplified version with reduced vertex count. Much smaller file — ideal for web maps where exact precision is not required.
Shapefile (ZIP)
The standard format for desktop GIS software. Opens in QGIS, ArcGIS, MapInfo, and other applications.
TopoJSON
A compact topology-encoding format popular in D3.js data visualisations. Smaller than GeoJSON for complex boundaries.
KML
Compatible with Google Earth, Google Maps, and other geospatial viewers. Converted in your browser using GDAL.
GeoPackage
An OGC-standard SQLite-based format. A single portable file that supports multiple layers and is well-supported in modern GIS tools.
FlatGeobuf
A high-performance binary format designed for fast streaming in web GIS applications.
How to Use the Downloaded Data
Once downloaded, you can open the boundaries in QGIS, ArcGIS, or any GIS desktop application. For web projects, GeoJSON and FlatGeobuf work well with Leaflet or Mapbox GL JS. If you need to convert the downloaded file to another format, use QuickMapTools' own vector format converters.
Data Source & License
Boundary data is sourced from geoBoundaries (Runfola et al., 2020), an open dataset of political administrative boundaries released under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY) license. You are free to use, share, and adapt this data for any purpose, including commercial use, as long as you provide appropriate attribution to geoBoundaries.