GeoNames Forum

First level administrative divisions are available for all countries. Lower level administrative divisions are not yet complete in GeoNames.

Here a list of countries where lower level administrative divisions are available and up-to-date:

Brazil
Bulgaria
Czech Republic
Denmark
France
Germany
Italy
Morocco
Netherlands
Norway
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
United States of America
United Kingdom

The codes for ADM1 one the FIPS codes, except for the US and Switzerland where ISO codes are used. It is planned to change to ISO codes for more countries.
Lower level ADM codes are using the national code, usually assigned by the national statistical office. (INSEE in France, etc)

Are the first level (Admin1) codes for the countries, mentioned in your posting, the ISO 3166-2 codes or are they mostly the FIPS codes?

Thank you.

Dan

I have updated the first posting in this thread with the phrase :

The codes for ADM1 one the FIPS codes, except for the US and Switzerland where ISO codes are used. It is planned to change to ISO codes for more countries.
Lower level ADM codes are using the national code, usually assigned by the national statistical office. (INSEE in France, etc)

I have just discovered Geonames this weekend.... Very impressive service indeed. We are very excited about it here in Casablanca.

Haven't done much reading on the DB Architecture yet, but I'd like to help updating the Administrative Divisions list in the country ...

ADM1 = Regions
ADM2 = Provinces
ADM3 = Communes

I have WGS84 Polygon files for all of these...

Where do I need to send them to get the system updated ?

Also, Is there a web service allowing reverse geocoding on the lower level divisions (ie. Lon/Lat >>> ADM2 and/or ADM3)

Thanks in advance

Karim

Hi Karim

This would be a fantastic contribution, assuming we are allowed to use the files. Do you know the source and licence of the files?
You can send the polygon files to marc@geonames.org or you can attach them to the forum thread.
I will then update the administrative divisions and also update the web service 'country subdivision' : http://www.geonames.org/export/#countrysubdiv

Cheers

Marc

Marc,

I just forwarded 4 Megs worth of data and comments to your e-mail address.

I'll look forwards to seeing the updates.

Karim

"First level administrative divisions are available for all countries."

Although Antarctica is not a country, but is listed as one, why isn't there: AQ.00 Antarctica (general)

??

I will add it for you.

Marc

Geonamers unite,
I have gathered the information from listed countries and posted them here:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pKwJrX69sM5bk02vtxgKFOw

If you email me, I can add you as collaborator/editor to this google spreadsheet: admin name info about countries not yet listed - edits to existing - notes and other suggestions ...

Jakob

Sweden
ADM1_NATIVE = Län
ADM2_NATIVE = Kommun

Hi GeoNames-Team,
Congrats to this really great site. While I tried to add some markers at least for all the villages and towns in my home region, Kanton Schaffhausen, Switzerland, I noticed that in a first step all the tags are issued with country "Germany". Is there any way to fix this?
Cheers, simisa

Hi Simisa

In border regions the reverse geocoding may use simplified vector information and sometimes locate a place in a neighbouring country. As you have seen you can manually fix it, there is no better solution at this moment.

Best

Marc

After reviewing the administrative level 1 codes, I assume that all countries should have a 00 code that represents objects not found within the other administrative divisions. While I disagree with this strategy (IMHO a "null" should be used), I want to make sure that it is correct.

If so I will provide a list of countries that have 00 encoded admin1 attributes but no ADM1 record with a 00 code.

Claude

The '00' stands for 'not applicable' where it does not make sense to speak of a admin1 code and 'null' for 'the code is missing or not known'.
However, it is not consequently implemented. Another problem is that some databases (like oracle) don't allow nullable fields in key columns and they need a not-null value to be used with the meaning of 'null'.

I certainly don't need any list as I can do a query on the database myself. If this poses a problem for you then I suggest you convert everything to the value you prefer ('00' or 'null).

I will put a consistency check on the todo list, but it does not have high priority right now.

Best

Marc

Finland in geonames.org is as I understand it at the moment:

Admin 1 = Lääni (fin) / Län (swe)
Admin 2 = Maakunta (fin) / Landskap (swe)
Admin 3 = Kunta (fin) / Kommun (swe)

But these are wrong since 1 january 2010.

I'll send an e-mail. Hard to explain in the forum.

Hi Marc,

I saw that 2008 you decided not to include the GOV in the hierarchy for England. Could you revisit that? It would make the hierarchy underneath England a lot more readable plus it is actually used for statistical purposes. Also, my impression is people are using this logic by referring to the "South East" or "North West".

BTW, I found Geonames only today, fantastic work.

Thanks!

Martin

Hi Martin

You are the first to show interest in GOV in many years. I still have the impression that the GOV are hardly used anywhere.
The ceremonial counties, in contrast, are used far more often and have higher priority to be included in GeoNames.

Best Regards

Marc

Hi

I'd like to put some more historical countries into geonames, see below

Kingdom of Sardinia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Sardinia

Kingdom of Sicily
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Sicily

Republic of Venice
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Venice

Byzantine Empire
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_Empire

/Johnny

Hi, everyone!
I am a new member from Georgia and I found lots of misspellings/wrong names regarding of Administrative Divisions of my country. Unfortunately, I can not change, because of my 1 level. Can anybody help me?

Hi cqwito

Thanks a lot for your contributions. I have increased your userlevel.

Marc