Wards
Electoral wards, the areas that elect local councillors. They're redrawn often, so the Atlas holds a range of historical releases from 2011 onward.
Name in the API
wardCovers
UK
Areas in the latest release
8,413
Published by
Office for National Statistics
Boundary releases
The Atlas holds 17 releases of these boundaries, newest first. Use the release id wherever an endpoint asks for release.
| Release | Description | Areas | Map tiles |
|---|---|---|---|
2026-05-uk-bgc | Wards, May 2026 (United Kingdom, generalised, clipped) | 8,413 | Yes |
2025-12-uk-bgc | Wards, December 2025 (United Kingdom, generalised, clipped) | 8,405 | Yes |
2025-05-uk-bgc-v2 | Wards, May 2025 (United Kingdom, generalised, clipped, v2) | 8,405 | Yes |
2024-12-uk-bgc | Wards, December 2024 (United Kingdom, generalised, clipped) | 8,396 | Yes |
2024-05-uk-bgc | Wards, May 2024 (United Kingdom, generalised, clipped) | 8,396 | Yes |
2023-12-uk-bgc | Wards, December 2023 (United Kingdom, generalised, clipped) | 8,441 | Yes |
2023-05-uk-bgc | Wards, May 2023 (United Kingdom, generalised, clipped) | 8,441 | Yes |
2022-12-uk-bgc | Wards, December 2022 (United Kingdom, generalised, clipped) | 8,482 | Yes |
2021-12-uk-bgc | Wards, December 2021 (United Kingdom, generalised, clipped) | 8,694 | Yes |
2020-12-uk-bgc | Wards, December 2020 (United Kingdom, generalised, clipped) | 8,887 | Yes |
2019-12-uk-bgc | Wards, December 2019 (United Kingdom, generalised, clipped) | 8,887 | Yes |
2019-12-gb-bgc | Wards, December 2019 (Great Britain, generalised, clipped) | 8,425 | Yes |
2018-12-uk-bgc | Wards, December 2018 (United Kingdom, generalised, clipped) | 9,114 | Yes |
2017-12-gb-bgc | Wards, December 2017 (Great Britain, generalised, clipped) | 8,669 | – |
2016-12-gb-bgc | Wards, December 2016 (Great Britain, generalised, clipped) | 8,668 | Yes |
2015-12-gb-bgc | Wards, December 2015 (Great Britain, generalised, clipped) | 8,734 | Yes |
2011-12-ew-bgc | Wards, December 2011 (England and Wales, generalised, clipped) | 8,588 | Yes |
Boundaries are published by Office for National Statistics under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Get attribution text gives the credit line for a map.
Datasets on these areas
| Datasets | Code year | Periods | Covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Population | 2023 | 2022 | England and Wales |
| House prices | 2020 | 1995 to 2022 | England and Wales |
| Local elections | 2016 | 2016 | England and Wales |
2017 | 2017 | England and Wales | |
2018 | 2018 | England | |
2019 | 2019 | England | |
2021 | 2021 | England | |
2022 | 2022 | England and Wales | |
2023 | 2023 | England | |
2024 | 2024 | England | |
2025 | 2025 | England |
Request it
List the areas in the latest release:
curl "https://api.ukdataatlas.com/v1/areas?geography=ward&release=2026-05-uk-bgc&limit=5"Draw them on a map with vector tiles:
curl "https://api.ukdataatlas.com/v1/map-resources/ward/2026-05-uk-bgc/tiles.json"/areas/{geography}/{release}/{code}/geometryGet an area's shapeget/areas:containsFind areas at a pointget/boundary-releases:resolveFind boundaries for a dateDownloads
Every release has an area-code lookup table. Releases with map resources also have downloadable PMTiles and GeoParquet shapes. The source and licence information above applies to these files too; preserve the attribution and note any cleaning or reformatting when you redistribute one.
| Release | Area codes | Boundary files |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-05-uk-bgc | CSV | PMTilesGeoParquet |
| 2025-12-uk-bgc | CSV | PMTilesGeoParquet |
| 2025-05-uk-bgc-v2 | CSV | PMTilesGeoParquet |
| 2024-12-uk-bgc | CSV | PMTilesGeoParquet |
| 2024-05-uk-bgc | CSV | PMTilesGeoParquet |
| 2023-12-uk-bgc | CSV | PMTilesGeoParquet |
| 2023-05-uk-bgc | CSV | PMTilesGeoParquet |
| 2022-12-uk-bgc | CSV | PMTilesGeoParquet |
| 2021-12-uk-bgc | CSV | PMTilesGeoParquet |
| 2020-12-uk-bgc | CSV | PMTilesGeoParquet |
| 2019-12-uk-bgc | CSV | PMTilesGeoParquet |
| 2019-12-gb-bgc | CSV | PMTilesGeoParquet |
| 2018-12-uk-bgc | CSV | PMTilesGeoParquet |
| 2017-12-gb-bgc | CSV | — |
| 2016-12-gb-bgc | CSV | PMTilesGeoParquet |
| 2015-12-gb-bgc | CSV | PMTilesGeoParquet |
| 2011-12-ew-bgc | CSV | PMTilesGeoParquet |