Microproduct data guideintermediate

Natural Earth

Public-domain vector and raster layers at multiple scales for building maps, comparing regions, and learning practical geospatial analysis.

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At a glance

Difficulty
Intermediate — some data preparation helps
Size
Medium · ≤1 GB
Formats
Shapefile, SQLite, GeoPackage, GeoTIFF
Access
Download
API key
Not required
Provider
Natural Earth
Updates
Occasional
Data terms
Public Domain

From source to product signal

Test a product idea in four steps

Natural Earth provides compact, public-domain layers designed for clear small-scale maps. Start with the 1:110m country boundaries to learn attributes, coordinate systems, and thematic mapping. These generalized boundaries are not authoritative for precise local or legal analysis.

1

Check the setup

  • Python 3.10 or newer
  • A notebook environment such as Jupyter or Google Colab
  • A Python environment where GeoPandas and Matplotlib can be installed
2

Access the data

  1. 1.Open the official Natural Earth site and select the 1:110m Admin 0 Countries layer.
  2. 2.Download the layer and extract the shapefile beside your notebook.
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3

Run the Python example

Install the packages, then run the notebook cell.

python -m pip install geopandas matplotlib

import geopandas as gpd
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

countries = gpd.read_file("ne_110m_admin_0_countries.shp")
print(countries[["ADMIN", "CONTINENT", "geometry"]].head())
countries.plot(column="CONTINENT", legend=True, figsize=(12, 6))
plt.axis("off")
plt.show()
4

Test a useful signal

Compare world regions on one map

Build a continent map and explain how geometry and projection choices affect its interpretation.

  1. 01Inspect the layer's geometry type and coordinate reference system.
  2. 02Check for missing continent or geometry values.
  3. 03Create the map and explain how generalized boundaries and the chosen projection limit its use.

Dataset details

Natural Earth is a community source. Last verified 2026-08-10. Temporal coverage: not applicable.

Domains

GeographyCartography

Data types

Geospatial

Tasks

GISVisualizationSpatial Analysis

Geography

Global

Formats

ShapefileSQLiteGeoPackageGeoTIFF

Provider

Natural Earth

Data terms

Public Domain