OpenHistoricalMap/Tags/Key/border_type

border_type
Description
Distinguishes a boundary by its formal designation in the real world.
Group: boundaries
Used on these elements
Documented values: 2
See also
border_type=*
Status: de facto
border_type=* More details at taginfo
Tools for this tag
overpass-turbo

This key distinguishes a boundary by its formal designation in the real world (sometimes known as the generic in toponymy). This key is especially useful in countries where two peer boundaries can have different real-world designations, despite sharing a common parent and admin_level=*. The values are not harmonized across international borders. A given value can refer to multiple very different kinds of borders.

In general, the values of this key follow feature naming conventions: lowercase, snake_case, English words, in British English spelling when possible. The value is what the local administration would use in English. There is no attempt to "translate" these terms to analogous terms in the United Kingdom's official administrative hierarchy. Note that English often borrows jurisdictional terms from other languages, especially European languages. For example, "arrondissement" is the usual English word for the French arrondissement.

Common values

Administrative boundaries

Value	English term	Prevalent jurisdictions
arrondissement	Arrondissement	France, Morocco
audiencia	Audiencia
borough	Borough	United States (Alaska, Connecticut, New York [New York City], Pennsylvania)
caliphate	Caliphate
canton	Canton
captaincy_general	Captaincy general
cercle	Cercle	Mali
chiefdom	Chiefdom
city	City	Turkey, United States
city-state	City-State
colony	Colony	List of colonies
comarca	Comarca	Spain
commonwealth	Commonwealth	Member states of the Commonwealth of Nations
commune	Commune
condominium	Condominium
confederation	Confederation
county	County	United States
department	Department	Burkina Faso, France
district	District	Bangladesh, Brazil, Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti, Portugal, Russia, Sierra Leone, Sweden, Turkey, Uganda, U.S. Virgin Islands
dominion	Dominion	Sweden, United Kingdom (Canada, Ceylon, Fiji, Ghana, India, Ireland, New England, Newfoundland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Virginia)
emirate	Emirate
empire	Empire
eyalet	Eyalet
federation	Federation
freguesia	Freguesia	Portugal
ghetto	Ghetto
governorate	Governorate
intendancy	Intendancy
kingdom	Kingdom
local_authority	Local authority	Malaysia
major_division	Major Division	Antigua and Barbuda
markaz	Markaz
municipality	Municipality	Lebanon, United States (Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands), Portugal, Qatar, Spain (Catalonia)
nation	Nation	N/A
national	Nation	N/A
neighbourhood	Neighborhood	United States
oblast	Oblast
occupation	Occupation
overseas_collectivity	Overseas collectivity
overseas_department	Overseas department
overseas_territory	Overseas territory
parish	Parish	Bermuda, Uganda, Dominica, United States (Louisiana)
possession	Possession
prefecture	Prefecture
principate	Principate
protectorate	Protectorate
province	Province	Canada, Dominican Republic, Italy, Morocco, Pakistan, Spain, Uzbekistan
rancho	Rancho
realm	Realm
region	Region	Cameroon, Dominican Republic, France, Guyana, Mali, Russia, Tanzania, Uganda
reichsgau	Reichsgau
republic	Republic
sanjak	Sanjak
sector	Sector
shire	Shire
sultanate	Sultanate
state	State	Brazil, Cyprus, Germany, Malaysia, United States
subdistrict	Subdistrict
territory	Territory
town	Town	United States (Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Dakota, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming)
township	Township	United States (Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania)
viceroyalty	Viceroyalty
village	Village	United States (Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, South Dakota, Texas, Vermont, Wisconsin)
viyalet	Viyalet
voivodeship	Voivodeship
ward	Ward
zone	Zone

Other tags requested: union, personal union

Ecclesiastical boundaries

Value	English term
archdiocese	Archdiocese
diocese	Diocese
parish	Parish

Statistical boundaries

Value	English term
census_area	Census area

Software support

Nominatim exposes the value of border_type=* so that applications can choose to label a place by it instead of by admin_level=* or place=*. openstreetmap-website (the openstreetmap.org website) prioritizes border_type=* over admin_level=* or place=* on a boundary result.