UK Data AtlasAPI

Concepts

Places and named locations

People ask about places by name, but a name is rarely one area. The API helps you get from a name to exactly the areas you mean, without guessing on your behalf.

Names mean many things

"Manchester" is a council, a major town, a travel to work area and a ward. "Newport" is thirteen different areas in Wales, the Isle of Wight and Shropshire. So when you search, you get every candidate, and you choose:

curl "https://api.ukdataatlas.com/v1/places?q=Bristol"
Response200
{
  "apiVersion": "v1",
  "atlasRelease": "sha256:24a500c55416bd7d58c28b1fc8cc4931d4a2fd831addafa3116556a91f2c4857",
  "data": {
    "query": "Bristol",
    "candidates": [
      {
        "place": "localAuthority/E06000023",
        "kind": "area",
        "name": "Bristol, City of",
        "geography": "localAuthority",
        "code": "E06000023",
        "match": "exact-without-title",
        "boundaryReleases": [
          "2025-12-uk-bgc",
          "2023-05-uk-bgc-v2"
        ]
      },
      {
        "place": "majorTownAndCity/J01000015",
        "kind": "area",
        "name": "Bristol",
        "geography": "majorTownAndCity",
        "code": "J01000015",
        "match": "exact",
        "boundaryReleases": [
          "2015-12-ew-bgc"
        ]
      }
    ]
  },
  "meta": {
    "nextCursor": null
  }
}

How names match

Searching ignores case, accents, punctuation and ampersands, and checks aliases such as Welsh names too. Each result says how it matched:

MatchMeaning
exactThe name is exactly what was published.
exact-without-titleThe name matched once an official title was set aside, so "Bristol" finds "Bristol, City of".
prefixThe published name starts with your search, so "Richmond" also finds Richmond upon Thames.

Place references

Each result has a place reference, such as localAuthority/E06000023. It pins down one place, so you can hand it back to the API without any ambiguity:

curl "https://api.ukdataatlas.com/v1/data/population/value?place=North%20West&period=2022"

If a name you pass could mean places with different answers, you'll get a 409 listing the choices, each with the place reference to use.

Named locations

Many places people care about aren't published as a geography, like "Kent", "Yorkshire" or "North Wales". Named locations fill that gap: each is a set of local authorities, and its kind says where that set comes from.

KindWhere its members come fromExample
country, region, combined-authority, countyAn official Office for National Statistics lookup, named in its source.Greater Manchester
ceremonial-countyOrdnance Survey's ceremonial county boundaries. Each council is counted in the county holding most of its area.Kent, including Medway
historic-countyOrdnance Survey's historic counties of around 1888, matched to councils the same way.Middlesex
editorial-groupingA set curated by the Atlas, which claims no official status.North Wales

Ceremonial and historic counties have no official code, and their edges follow council lines rather than the county's own. Scotland's lieutenancy areas don't follow council lines, so they aren't included. Members can change over time as councils are reorganised.

You can add up data over any named location, and list the wards or constituencies inside it through a crosswalk.

Useful endpoints

get/placesSearch places by nameget/locationsList named locationsget/locations/{location-id}/membersList a named location's areas