Skip To Content

World Boundaries and Places

World Boundaries and Places reference layer

Map Service Name: World_Boundaries_and_Places

Description:This map presents country boundaries, first-order (state/province) internal administrative boundaries for most countries, second-order administrative boundaries for the United States (counties) and some countries in Europe, and place-names for the world. Alignment of boundaries is a presentation of the features provided by our data vendors and does not imply endorsement by Esri or any governing authority.

The map was developed by Esri using administrative and cities data from Esri; Garmin basemap layers for the world; HERE data for North America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, South America and Central America, Africa, India, and most of the Middle East; OpenStreetMap data for some features in select African countries and Pacific Islands; and feature names from the GIS user community. Specific country list and documentation of Esri's process for including OSM data is in OSM Data Usage in Esri's ArcGIS Online Basemaps (PDF).

Select data for the World Boundaries and Places Map is provided by the GIS community. For details on data sources in this map service, view the list of Contributors for the World Boundaries and Places Map (PDF).

As illustrated in the coverage map below, limited worldwide coverage is provided in World Standard and Advanced (down to ~1:1k) and World Basic (down to ~1:72k); regional coverage is provided in North America Standard and Advanced (down to ~1:1k). The map includes similar coverage to World Transportation. View the coverage map to learn more about the levels of detail.

World Boundaries and Places 6.4 coverage map

Attribution: Sources: Esri, Garmin, HERE, © OpenStreetMap contributors, and the GIS user community

Coordinate System: Web Mercator Auxiliary Sphere (WKID 102100)

Tiling Scheme: Web Mercator Auxiliary Sphere

Map Service Data Format: Map server cache in PNG32 format