gisco_get_countries: Countries dataset

In giscoR: Download 'Eurostat' 'GISCO' Spatial Data

Countries dataset

Description

This dataset contains world administrative boundaries at the country level. It provides two feature classes, regions and boundaries, at five scale levels: 1M, 3M, 10M, 20M and 60M.

Downloads data from the aggregated GISCO country file. To download single-unit country files, 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	A character string or numeric value with the release year of the file. One of \Sexpr[stage=render,results=rd]{giscoR:::db_values("countries", "year",TRUE)}.
epsg	A character string or numeric value with the coordinate reference system as a 4-digit EPSG code. One of: "4326": WGS84. "3035": ETRS89 / ETRS-LAEA. "3857": Pseudo-Mercator.
cache	A logical value indicating whether to cache results. Defaults to TRUE. See Caching strategies section in gisco_set_cache_dir().
update_cache	A logical value indicating whether to refresh the cached file. Defaults to FALSE. When set to TRUE, it forces a new download.
cache_dir	A character string with a path to a cache directory. See Caching strategies section in gisco_set_cache_dir().
verbose	A logical value. If TRUE displays informational messages.
resolution	A character string or numeric value with the geospatial data resolution. One of: "60": 1:60 million. "20": 1:20 million. "10": 1:10 million. "03": 1:3 million. "01": 1:1 million.
spatialtype	A character string with the type of geometry to return. Options available are: "RG": Regions - MULTIPOLYGON/POLYGON object. "LB": Labels - POINT object. "BN": Boundaries - LINESTRING object. "COASTL": Coastal lines - LINESTRING object. "INLAND": Inland boundaries - LINESTRING object. Arguments country and region are only applied when spatialtype is "RG" or "LB".
country	A character vector of country codes. It can be either a vector of country names, a vector of ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 country codes or a vector of Eurostat country codes. See also countrycode::countrycode().
region	An optional 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 of 2021. See World Regions and gisco_countrycode.
ext	A character value with the 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 follow the UN geographic regions (see https://unstats.un.org/unsd/methodology/m49/). Under this scheme Cyprus is assigned to Asia.

Note

Check the download and usage provisions in 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-unit files.

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

Administrative unit 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 June 17, 2026, 9:10 a.m.