gisco_get_countries: Countries dataset

In giscoR: Download Map Data from GISCO API - Eurostat

Countries dataset

Description

This dataset contains the administrative boundaries at country level of the world. This dataset consists of 2 feature classes (regions, boundaries) per scale level and there are 5 different scale levels (1M, 3M, 10M, 20M and 60M).

Please note that this function gets data from the aggregated GISCO country file. If you prefer to download individual country files, please use gisco_get_unit_country().

Usage

gisco_get_countries(
  year = 2024,
  epsg = 4326,
  cache = TRUE,
  update_cache = FALSE,
  cache_dir = NULL,
  verbose = FALSE,
  resolution = 20,
  spatialtype = "RG",
  country = NULL,
  region = NULL,
  ext = "gpkg"
)

Arguments

year	character string or number. Release year of the file. One of \Sexpr[stage=render,results=rd]{giscoR:::db_values("countries", "year",TRUE)}.
epsg	character string or number. Projection of the map: 4-digit EPSG code. One of: "4326": WGS84. "3035": ETRS89 / ETRS-LAEA. "3857": Pseudo-Mercator.
cache	logical. Whether to do caching. Default is TRUE. See Caching strategies section in gisco_set_cache_dir().
update_cache	logical. Should the cached file be refreshed?. Default is FALSE. When set to TRUE it would force a new download.
cache_dir	character string. A path to a cache directory. See Caching strategies section in gisco_set_cache_dir().
verbose	logical. If TRUE displays informational messages.
resolution	character string or number. Resolution of the geospatial data. One of: "60": 1:60 million. "20": 1:20 million. "10": 1:10 million. "03": 1:3 million. "01": 1:1 million.
spatialtype	character string. Type of geometry to be returned. Options available are: "RG": Regions - MULTIPOLYGON/POLYGON object. "LB": Labels - POINT object. "BN": Boundaries - LINESTRING object. "COASTL": coastlines - LINESTRING object. "INLAND": inland boundaries - LINESTRING object. Note that arguments country and region would be only applied when spatialtype is "RG" or "LB".
country	character vector of country codes. It could be either a vector of country names, a vector of ISO3 country codes or a vector of Eurostat country codes. See also countrycode::countrycode().
region	Optional. A character vector of UN M49 region codes or European Union membership. Possible values are "Africa", "Americas", "Asia", "Europe", "Oceania" or "EU" for countries belonging to the European Union (as per 2021). See World Regions and gisco_countrycode.
ext	character. Extension of the file (default "gpkg"). One of \Sexpr[stage=render,results=rd]{giscoR:::db_values("countries", "ext",TRUE)}.

Value

A sf object.

World Regions

Regions are defined as per the geographic regions defined by the UN (see https://unstats.un.org/unsd/methodology/m49/. Under this scheme Cyprus is assigned to Asia.

Note

Please check the download and usage provisions on gisco_attributions().

Source

https://gisco-services.ec.europa.eu/distribution/v2/.

Copyright: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/gisco/geodata/administrative-units.

See Also

gisco_countrycode, gisco_countries_2024, gisco_get_metadata(), countrycode::countrycode().

See gisco_bulk_download() to perform a bulk download of datasets.

See gisco_get_unit_country() to download single files.

See gisco_id_api_country() to download via GISCO ID service API.

Other administrative units datasets: gisco_get_communes(), gisco_get_postal_codes()

Examples

cntries <- gisco_get_countries()

library(ggplot2)
ggplot(cntries) +
  geom_sf()

# Get a region

africa <- gisco_get_countries(region = "Africa")
ggplot(africa) +
  geom_sf(fill = "#078930", col = "white") +
  theme_minimal()

giscoR documentation built on Dec. 10, 2025, 9:08 a.m.