Data Sources
Graticule’s catalog draws from four curated public sources.
Natural Earth
Section titled “Natural Earth”Coverage: worldwide
License: public domain
Best for: world maps, continental maps, multi-country maps
Natural Earth is the most widely used source for world map basemap data, maintained by a community of cartographers. It comes at three scale levels:
- 10m — 1:10,000,000 scale. High detail, suitable for country-level and continental maps where you want visible geographic nuance.
- 50m — 1:50,000,000 scale. A good default for most world maps.
- 110m — 1:110,000,000 scale. Highly simplified. Useful for small multiples or maps where detail isn’t the goal.
Natural Earth covers countries, states/provinces, coastlines, rivers, lakes, ocean, land, and populated places. The admin boundaries are well-maintained and handle disputed territories thoughtfully.
US Census TIGER
Section titled “US Census TIGER”Coverage: United States
License: public domain
Best for: US-specific maps at state or county level
TIGER (Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing) is the authoritative source for US administrative boundaries, maintained by the US Census Bureau and updated regularly.
Graticule includes:
- States — the 50 states plus DC and territories
- Counties — all ~3,200 US counties and county-equivalents
TIGER is considerably more detailed than Natural Earth’s US boundaries and the right choice for any map focused on the US.
Eurostat NUTS
Section titled “Eurostat NUTS”Coverage: European Union member states
License: CC BY 4.0 (attribution required)
Best for: EU regional analysis, European administrative maps
NUTS (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics) is the EU’s hierarchical system for dividing member states into regions for statistical purposes. Three levels are available:
- NUTS 1 — major socioeconomic regions (e.g. East of England, Bayern, Île-de-France)
- NUTS 2 — basic regions for applying EU regional policies (~240 regions)
- NUTS 3 — small regions for specific diagnoses (~1,500 regions)
NUTS boundaries are administrative and statistical, not geographic, and cover only EU member states. For broader European coverage, use Natural Earth.
Project Linework
Section titled “Project Linework”Coverage: varies by dataset
License: varies by dataset (see projectlinework.org)
Best for: maps where aesthetics and craftsmanship matter
Project Linework is an open-source collection of hand-curated, stylized geographic linework. Unlike the programmatically generated datasets above, these are drawn and refined by hand with cartographic intent — designed to look good, not just to be accurate.
Use them for maps where linework quality matters: editorial illustration, print cartography, design work.
A note on geographic accuracy
Section titled “A note on geographic accuracy”All sources in Graticule’s catalog are reputable and widely used, but no boundary dataset is authoritative for every purpose. Boundaries are contested, updated over time, and defined differently by different organizations. For maps published in a professional context, verify that your chosen source matches the conventions of your audience.