gadm

is a Data Source.

GADM (Database of Global Administrative Areas) provides maps and spatial data of administrative boundaries for all countries and their sub-divisions. The current version (4.1) delimits over 400,000 administrative areas across multiple levels, from countries down to local divisions. The polygons are distributed for download by country or for the entire world in several geospatial formats. GADM is used as an upstream source of administrative boundary data by projects such as KnowWhereGraph.

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Domains

environment, general, information technology

License

GADM license (free for academic/non-commercial use)

Homepage

gadm

Repository

Unknown

Infores ID

Unknown

FAIRsharing ID

Unknown

Product Summary

Products

From this Resource
ID Name URL Category Format Description
gadm.download_country GADM Data Download (by country) download_country.html Product ❔ Download page for GADM administrative...
gadm.download_world GADM Data Download (world) download_world.html Product ❔ Download page for GADM administrative...
gadm.metadata GADM Metadata metadata.html DocumentationProduct ❔ Metadata documentation describing the...
From other Resources
ID Name URL Category Format Relation Description
knowwheregraph.graph KnowWhereGraph RDF Knowledge Graph knowwheregraph.org GraphProduct rdfxml had primary source KnowWhereGraph knowledge graph with 2...

Details

GADM (Database of Global Administrative Areas)

Overview

GADM provides maps and spatial data for all countries and their sub-divisions. Users can browse the maps online or download the underlying data to make their own maps and analyses. The data describe administrative boundary polygons (countries, states/provinces, districts, and lower-level divisions) at multiple administrative levels.

Data Content

  • The current version (4.1) delimits 400,276 administrative areas; version 5 is slated for release in January 2026.
  • Data are available for download by country (the recommended approach) or for the entire world.
  • Multiple geospatial formats are offered for download.

Use Cases

  • Joining administrative boundaries to tabular data for mapping and spatial analysis.
  • Serving as an authoritative source of administrative regions for knowledge graphs and geospatial knowledge bases such as KnowWhereGraph.

License

The data are freely available for academic use and other non-commercial use. Redistribution or commercial use is not allowed without prior permission. Using the data to create maps for figures in academic research articles is permitted. A small number of countries (e.g., Austria) are covered by a different license. See https://gadm.org/license.html for full details.

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Created: June 18, 2026 | Last modified: June 18, 2026