Natural Earth
Verified working Sep 17, 2026
Public-domain GIS layers for clean small-scale world maps.
Natural Earth provides curated vector and raster map datasets for building world and regional maps in GIS or cartography software. Its layers are generalized for 1:10m, 1:50m, and 1:110m scales, with aligned boundaries, physical features, populated places, transport layers, and shaded-relief-style raster backgrounds.
Why it stands out
- Public-domain licensing makes the data usable in commercial, academic, nonprofit, and personal projects.
- Layers are designed to align with one another, reducing common cleanup work when combining boundaries, rivers, lakes, and coastlines.
- Multiple generalized scales let mapmakers avoid using overly detailed data for global or continental maps.
- Includes cartography-oriented attributes such as name rankings and river width cues, not just raw geometry.
- Boundary handling includes de facto defaults and point-of-view/worldview attributes for disputed areas.
Good to know
- Designed for small-scale cartography, not parcel, street-level, or high-precision local analysis.
- Political boundary choices may require review for projects with strict legal, diplomatic, or regional requirements.
- Users need GIS or cartographic software to make practical use of the datasets.
Under the radar: For most country-outline maps, start with the Admin 0 Countries layer rather than Sovereign States; the latter is better when legal sovereignty is the focus, while Countries better matches common cartographic expectations.
Photos
Cartographers and GIS analysts can quickly assemble publication-ready small-scale basemaps without cleaning raw boundary and feature data. Build a world map with countries, rivers, lakes, cities, roads, and shaded relief. Choose between country, sovereign-state, disputed-area, and administrative-division layers for different map purposes. Use ranked names and feature attributes to control labeling and symbol styling. Prototype regional thematic maps before moving to more detailed local datasets.
Downloadable vector and raster datasets; three map scales: 1:10m, 1:50m, and 1:110m; administrative boundaries, disputed areas, populated places, rivers, lakes, roads, railroads, bathymetry, reefs, glaciers, parks, and urban areas; raster relief and land-cover-style backgrounds; GIS attributes for names, rankings, and cartographic styling.
Technical Notes
- Provides downloadable structured map datasets as vector and raster data across 1:10m, 1:50m, and 1:110m scales.
- Data is public domain and downloadable from the site without an indicated authentication requirement.
Alternative listings
A USGS portal for finding satellite, aerial, and map imagery.
Open Data & Research PortalsEarthExplorer is the U.S. Geological Survey’s search interface for satellite scenes, aerial photographs, and cartographic products. Users can define an area of interest, choose dates and datasets, refine metadata, and review matching results for ordering or access.
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Open Data & Research PortalsData.gov is the U.S. federal government’s public catalog for open datasets, tools, and related resources. It helps researchers, journalists, developers, policymakers, and the public find government data for analysis, apps, visualizations, and civic transparency work.
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Similar sites elsewhere
- GADM — gadm.org
- OpenStreetMap — openstreetmap.org
- geoBoundaries — geoboundaries.org
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