Access the valuable relationships between property, location, and mapping data. Combine datasets that are using multiple identifiers of our addressing data.
As well as an internet browser and an email address, you'll need Geographic Information System software (GIS) - such as QGIS (this is free, open source software).
Find out more about getting the most from GIS on our GIS support pages.
OS OpenData has been designed to be as easy to use as possible.
Access through OS's mapping APIs (Application Programming Interface) to create interactive web maps.
Directly download from the OS Data Hub. Use this part of OS OpenData if you want to manipulate data in a geographical information system (GIS). You can download free GIS software from a range of sources online.
When you order OS Open Map-Local or OS VectorMap District, you choose 100km areas. When you receive your data, it is broken down further into 10km tiles for OS VectorMap District and 5km tiles for OS Open Map-Local. This can make it difficult to work out which tiles of data contain your area of interest.
Download a PDF for each 100km square of data you want to order. The PDFs each show a grid on a map of the 100km area, so you can see exactly which data files in the download show your target area.
The government launched a public consultation around access to map data from OS, which included a list of potentially free datasets.
There has been strong support for making some data free, but as a result of the consultation feedback the government decided to make some revisions to the products released in order better to meet the requirements of users.
OS OpenData was made freely available for the first time in 2010, when 12 OpenData mapping products were released. And ever since, OS has updated and added to its open data sets.
Over the past eight years we’ve seen our open data downloaded 1.9 million times. On average, 150 people download OS OpenData every day. That’s 54,750 people a year.
In 2015 we released OS Open Map - Local, OS Open Names, OS Open Rivers, and OS Open Roads.
In 2017 OS Open Greenspace was launched.
Enabling data exploration
Licensing was simplified through the Open Government Licence (OGL), which made it easier for customers to do more. And we created a Data Exploration Licence for products which are not included in the open data portfolio. This gave anybody free access to premium OS data, such as OS MasterMap, to explore how it could benefit their own products or business.
Our desire to be part of the open data revolution saw the birth of Geovation in 2010, with a series of annual challenges designed to get entrepreneurs working with open data and geography.
And in 2015, we opened the Geovation Hub in Clerkenwell, London. The Hub runs the Geovation Programme to help start-ups using third-party property or location data accelerate and grow.
We toured the country with OS OpenData masterclasses, showing people how to work with open data and put it into their own products and services. We launched a software development kit to make it easier for people to plug the data into apps and mobile.
We’ve also released open data in alternative formats, including the creation of a Minecraft map of Great Britain which had more than 250,000 downloads.