Free GIS Data: 50 Best Sources to Download Geospatial Data (2026)
Last reviewed: October 22, 2026.
Whether you are a student, a researcher or a GIS professional, finding free GIS data you can trust is harder than it looks. Portals move, services shut down, and “free” sometimes hides a registration form or a licence condition. This guide brings together the 50 best free GIS data sources to download geospatial data, from free satellite imagery and elevation data (DEM and lidar) to OpenStreetMap data, climate data, shapefile downloads and administrative boundaries.
Most of these sources deliver open GIS data in formats such as shapefile, GeoTIFF, NetCDF and PBF that load straight into QGIS, ArcGIS and other GIS software. Entries were reviewed in October 2026 for current access, registration and licence conditions, so you can pick the right free GIS data download without wasting time on dead links. Use the comparison table to jump straight to the source you need.
Table of contents
- Quick comparison table
- Base maps, boundaries and administrative areas (sources 1–6)
- OpenStreetMap and open map data (sources 7–13)
- Satellite and aerial imagery (sources 14–22)
- Elevation and bathymetry (sources 23–26)
- Land cover, forests, water and soil (sources 27–32)
- Climate, weather and energy (sources 33–38)
- People, biodiversity and environment (sources 39–46)
- Agriculture and open data portals (sources 47–50)
- Choosing the right source
- A quick guide to file formats
- Licences, citation and data quality
Quick comparison
| # | Source | Best for | Typical data | Registration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Natural Earth | World and continent maps | Vector, raster | No |
| 2 | DIVA-GIS | Quick country-level starter data | Shapefile, grid | No |
| 3 | GADM | Detailed admin boundaries (non-commercial) | Vector | No |
| 4 | geoBoundaries | Open boundaries, commercial use allowed | Vector | No |
| 5 | Eurostat GISCO | EU and NUTS boundaries | Vector | No |
| 6 | INSPIRE Geoportal | European national datasets | Mixed | Varies by country |
| 7 | OpenStreetMap | Local detail: roads, buildings, services | Vector | No |
| 8 | Geofabrik | OSM extracts by country or region | PBF, shapefile | No |
| 9 | Overpass Turbo | Custom OSM queries and exports | Vector (GeoJSON) | No |
| 10 | Overture Maps | Global buildings, places, transportation | GeoParquet | No |
| 11 | Google Open Buildings | Building footprints | Vector | No |
| 12 | OpenAddresses | Address points | Vector, CSV | Varies by source |
| 13 | GeoNames | Place names with coordinates | Tables | No |
| 14 | USGS EarthExplorer | Landsat, MODIS, DEMs, lidar | Raster | Free account |
| 15 | Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem | Sentinel satellite imagery | Raster | Free account |
| 16 | NASA Earthdata | NASA Earth science data | Raster, gridded data | Free account |
| 17 | ASF Data Search (Vertex) | Radar (SAR) imagery | Raster | Free account |
| 18 | NASA Worldview | Daily imagery and quick visual checks | Image layers | No |
| 19 | OpenAerialMap | Drone and aerial imagery | Raster | No |
| 20 | Google Earth Engine | Cloud analysis of imagery and climate data | Raster, vector | Free account (billing on file) |
| 21 | Microsoft Planetary Computer | Cloud-optimized imagery via STAC | Raster | Free (token for some assets) |
| 22 | Registry of Open Data on AWS | Public datasets hosted on AWS | Mixed | Often none |
| 23 | OpenTopography | Lidar and elevation models | Point cloud, DEM | Optional (some data restricted) |
| 24 | Copernicus DEM | Global 30 m and 90 m surface model | DEM | Varies by access route |
| 25 | GEBCO | Global elevation and ocean depth | Grid | No |
| 26 | NOAA ETOPO | Global relief, land and seafloor | Grid | No |
| 27 | ESA WorldCover | 10 m global land cover | Raster | No |
| 28 | CORINE Land Cover | European land cover | Raster, vector | Free account |
| 29 | Global Forest Watch | Forest loss, fires, land use | Raster, vector | Varies by dataset |
| 30 | JRC Global Surface Water | Surface water since 1984 | Raster | No |
| 31 | HydroSHEDS | Rivers and drainage basins | Vector, raster | No |
| 32 | SoilGrids | Global soil properties | Raster | No |
| 33 | WorldClim | Climate surfaces and projections | GeoTIFF | No |
| 34 | CHELSA | High-resolution climate | Raster | No |
| 35 | Copernicus Climate Data Store | ERA5 reanalysis and climate data | NetCDF, GRIB | Free account |
| 36 | NASA POWER | Solar and weather data for energy and agriculture | Gridded, API | No |
| 37 | Global Climate Monitor | Exploring global climate patterns | Gridded climate data | Not stated |
| 38 | Global Solar and Wind Atlas | Solar and wind resource maps | Raster | No |
| 39 | WorldPop | Gridded population | Raster | No |
| 40 | GHSL | Built-up areas and population over time | Raster | No |
| 41 | NASA SEDAC data | Socioeconomic and environmental grids | Raster, tables | Free Earthdata Login |
| 42 | GRID3 | Settlements, infrastructure, boundaries | Vector | Varies |
| 43 | GBIF | Species occurrence records | Tables | Free account (downloads) |
| 44 | Protected Planet (WDPA) | Protected areas (non-commercial) | Vector | Accept terms |
| 45 | NASA FIRMS | Active fire detections | Vector, CSV | No (key for some API use) |
| 46 | UNEP WESR | Environmental indicators and monitoring | Mixed | Varies by platform |
| 47 | FAO Agro-Informatic Data Catalog | Agriculture, land and water | Mixed | No (most data) |
| 48 | ArcGIS Hub | Open data from governments and organizations | Mixed | Varies by publisher |
| 49 | ArcGIS Living Atlas | Curated ready-to-use maps and layers | Mixed | Varies by item |
| 50 | Humanitarian Data Exchange | Humanitarian and crisis data | Tables, vector | No |
Base maps, boundaries and administrative areas
1. Natural Earth
Natural Earth is a public domain dataset built for small-scale mapping, available at 1:10m, 1:50m and 1:110m. It pairs vector layers (countries, first-order administrative boundaries, rivers, disputed areas) with raster backgrounds such as shaded relief. The layers are designed to line up with each other, so shared borders and rivers match.
Good to know: no permission or credit is required. It suits world, continent and country maps, not detailed local analysis.
2. DIVA-GIS
DIVA-GIS lets you download data country by country: administrative boundaries, roads, railroads, altitude, land cover and population density, plus climate data derived from WorldClim. Vector layers are shapefiles and rasters are DIVA grid files, which can be exported to other formats. It is popular for biodiversity and agricultural work.
Good to know: several layers are old (elevation from SRTM at 30 arc-seconds, land cover derived from GLC2000, a 2011 global boundaries file). It is handy for teaching and quick prototypes, but get current versions from the original providers for serious work, and check the site’s terms of use.
3. GADM
GADM maps the administrative areas of every country, from national borders down to provinces, districts and municipalities, with consistent names and level hierarchies. You can download a single country or the whole world, in formats including shapefile and GeoPackage (current version 4.1).
Good to know: GADM is free for academic and other non-commercial use, but commercial use is not allowed without permission. For commercial projects, use geoBoundaries instead.
4. geoBoundaries
geoBoundaries provides open political boundary data for every country, from national borders to subnational levels, in standard GIS formats.
Good to know: its open CC BY licence allows commercial use with attribution, which makes it the safer choice when GADM’s non-commercial terms are a problem.
5. Eurostat GISCO
ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/gisco
GISCO is the geographic information service of Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office. It publishes EU reference data such as country boundaries and administrative units, including the NUTS statistical regions, designed to be joined with Eurostat statistics.
Good to know: check the licence and attribution conditions on each dataset, because some boundary data comes from third-party providers.
6. INSPIRE Geoportal
inspire-geoportal.ec.europa.eu
The INSPIRE Geoportal is the European entry point to standardized geospatial data published under the EU’s INSPIRE framework, with themes such as administrative boundaries, environmental monitoring and transport networks.
Good to know: it is a gateway to datasets and services published by EU member states, so availability, formats and licences differ from country to country.
OpenStreetMap and open map data
7. OpenStreetMap (OSM)
A crowdsourced map of the world built by volunteers, with detailed local data on roads, buildings and services. In QGIS, the QuickOSM plugin lets you pull data through the Overpass API using simple key/value queries, or open local .osm and .pbf files.
Good to know: OSM data is licensed under the ODbL, which requires crediting OpenStreetMap contributors and sharing derived databases under the same terms. Completeness and accuracy vary from place to place, so check your area before relying on it.
8. Geofabrik (OSM data extracts)
Geofabrik’s free download server offers OpenStreetMap extracts by continent, country and many sub-regions, normally refreshed every day. Files come as .osm.pbf (the recommended format) and .osm.bz2, with simple free shapefiles also available. Daily update files let you keep a local PBF current.
Good to know: the free public files omit some metadata fields, and Geofabrik’s richer shapefile exports are a paid service. All derived data is under the ODbL.
9. Overpass Turbo
Overpass Turbo is a web front-end for the Overpass API. You write a query for specific OpenStreetMap features (for example, all hospitals in a city), preview them on a map and export the result, including as GeoJSON. The QGIS plugin QuickOSM does the same thing inside QGIS.
Good to know: queries over very large areas can time out. For bulk regional data, download an extract from Geofabrik instead.
10. Overture Maps
Overture Maps is a collaborative project that publishes open global map data in standardized themes: base layers, buildings, places of interest, transportation and administrative divisions. Its building footprints combine OpenStreetMap, Esri Community Maps, Microsoft and Google Open Buildings data. Releases are monthly, and the data is distributed as cloud-native GeoParquet files.
Good to know: licensing depends on the theme. Overture data is under the CDLA Permissive 2.0 licence unless it derives from OpenStreetMap, in which case the ODbL applies (this covers the buildings theme). GeoParquet needs reasonably recent GIS or data tools to read.
11. Google Open Buildings
sites.research.google/gr/open-buildings
Open Buildings is a dataset of building footprints detected from satellite imagery with machine learning, with a confidence score for each footprint. It is also one of the sources that feed Overture’s buildings theme.
Good to know: footprint quality varies with the confidence score, so filter by it for sensitive analyses, and check the dataset terms and the regions covered before you plan around it.
12. OpenAddresses
OpenAddresses collects address data that governments and other organizations have released openly and makes it available as a global collection for download, with an API and a download tool. It is used to build geocoders and for address-level analysis.
Good to know: the data is not relicensed. Each source keeps its own licence (most only require attribution), and coverage is uneven, strongest where governments publish open address data.
13. GeoNames
GeoNames is a gazetteer: a large database of place names with coordinates, available as downloadable tables by country or for the whole world, plus web services.
Good to know: the data is shared under a Creative Commons Attribution licence and is community-edited, so quality varies by place.
Satellite and aerial imagery
14. USGS EarthExplorer
EarthExplorer is the USGS search and download portal for satellite images, aerial photographs and cartographic products. It covers the Landsat archive (which reaches back to 1972), MODIS land products from NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites, ASTER Level-1B data over the U.S. and its territories, digital elevation models and lidar. You can narrow searches by date range and other criteria.
Good to know: you need a free account to download. For large orders, USGS provides a bulk download application and APIs.
15. Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem
This is now the main access point for Copernicus Sentinel data. It replaced the Copernicus Open Access Hub, which stopped operating on November 2, 2023. It provides the full archive and new acquisitions from Sentinel-1 (radar), Sentinel-2 (optical), Sentinel-3 (land products) and Sentinel-5P (atmosphere). The Copernicus Browser handles search and visualization, and APIs such as Sentinel Hub and openEO support automation.
Good to know: registration is free but required, and old Open Access Hub accounts do not carry over. Basic use is free under a fair-use policy, while some contributing-mission data and extra services are paid. Tools built for the old Hub, such as the sentinelsat Python library, no longer work.
16. NASA Earthdata
earthdata.nasa.gov · Earthdata Search
NASA’s Earth science archive holds more than 100 petabytes of open data. Earthdata Search lets you discover and access over 50,000 Earth observation data collections, including products such as MODIS and ASTER. The earthaccess Python library can search, download or stream NASA data in a few lines of code.
Good to know: data is free, but you need an Earthdata Login account to download it.
17. ASF Data Search (Vertex)
Vertex is the search portal of the Alaska Satellite Facility, a NASA data center that specializes in radar (SAR) imagery, including Sentinel-1. Radar sees through clouds, which makes it valuable for floods, ice and ground deformation.
Good to know: downloads need a free NASA Earthdata Login account. SAR data takes some learning before it is analysis-ready.
18. NASA Worldview
Worldview is a browser-based viewer for daily satellite imagery layers. You can compare dates, overlay layers such as fires or aerosols, and save image snapshots.
Good to know: it is best for quick visual checks (storms, fires, smoke) rather than analysis. For analysis-ready data, use Earthdata Search (see NASA Earthdata).
19. OpenAerialMap
OpenAerialMap is a set of tools for searching, sharing and using openly licensed satellite and drone imagery, run on the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team’s Open Imagery Network. It is especially useful for disaster response and humanitarian mapping, and all imagery can be traced in OpenStreetMap.
Good to know: imagery is licensed CC-BY 4.0, so attribution is required. New imagery appears as contributors upload it, so coverage depends on what has been shared for your area.
20. Google Earth Engine
Earth Engine combines a multi-petabyte catalog of satellite imagery and geospatial datasets (Landsat, Sentinel, MODIS, climate, terrain and more) with cloud computing. You analyze data through the Code Editor or Python and JavaScript APIs instead of downloading whole archives.
Good to know: noncommercial use is free, with a monthly compute quota (EECU-hours) since April 27, 2026. You need a Google Cloud project with a billing account on file (it is not charged for noncommercial use), and noncommercial projects must be re-verified every year. Commercial use requires a paid plan.
21. Microsoft Planetary Computer
planetarycomputer.microsoft.com
The Planetary Computer provides a free data catalog of petabytes of cloud-optimized geospatial data on Azure, searchable through a STAC API by place, date and other metadata. You can stream just the tiles and bands you need from Python, R or QGIS.
Good to know: the free interactive Hub was retired on June 6, 2024, so you now work from your own environment. Some assets need a token or signed URL, which the API provides.
22. Registry of Open Data on AWS
A searchable catalog of public datasets hosted on AWS, including geospatial collections such as OpenAerialMap and Overture Maps. Many datasets sit in public buckets you can browse and download from the command line.
Good to know: for many datasets no AWS account is needed (use the CLI’s no-sign-request option), but licences and update schedules are set by each dataset’s publisher.
Elevation and bathymetry
23. OpenTopography
OpenTopography distributes high-resolution topographic data (meter to sub-meter) and regional to global datasets (roughly 1 to 500 m) derived from lidar, radar and photogrammetry. It also offers on-demand processing, so you can turn lidar into a DEM without handling raw point clouds yourself. This makes it useful for hydrology, infrastructure and geomorphology work.
Good to know: you can access and process many lidar datasets without an account, though registering has advantages. Some collections, including USGS 3DEP and NOAA coastal lidar services, are restricted: they are free for the U.S. academic community, and non-academic users can apply through the OpenTopography+ (OT+) pilot.
24. Copernicus DEM
The Copernicus DEM is a global digital elevation model at 30 m (GLO-30) and 90 m (GLO-90) resolution, derived from TanDEM-X radar data. It can be reached through several routes, including the Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem and OpenTopography.
Good to know: it is a surface model, so it includes buildings and vegetation canopy rather than bare ground. Access terms depend on the platform you use.
25. GEBCO
GEBCO publishes a global grid of elevation and seafloor depth (bathymetry) covering land and ocean, released in periodic versions.
Good to know: much of the ocean floor is estimated from sparse soundings and satellite gravity data, so detail varies a lot by area.
26. NOAA ETOPO Global Relief Model
ncei.noaa.gov/products/etopo-global-relief-model
ETOPO is NOAA’s global relief model, integrating land topography and ocean bathymetry in a single grid offered at several resolutions.
Good to know: it overlaps with GEBCO. Pick one, note the version, and cite it consistently.
Land cover, forests, water and soil
27. ESA WorldCover
WorldCover is a free global land cover map at 10 m resolution, built from Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 data and classifying 11 land cover types. It is available for 2020 and 2021.
Good to know: the data is openly licensed (CC BY 4.0). With only two reference years, it is not a long time series for change analysis.
28. CORINE Land Cover
CORINE Land Cover is the standard European land cover inventory from the Copernicus Land Monitoring Service, covering 39 countries with change tracking since 1990.
Good to know: its minimum mapping unit is 25 hectares, so it suits regional studies rather than local detail. A free EU Login account is needed to download.
29. Global Forest Watch
Global Forest Watch is a forest monitoring platform that provides satellite-based data and alerts on tree cover loss, deforestation, fires and land use, with interactive maps.
Good to know: each dataset has its own resolution, time span and licence, so read the metadata before combining layers.
30. JRC Global Surface Water
global-surface-water.appspot.com
The Global Surface Water Explorer maps where and when surface water has occurred worldwide since 1984, based on Landsat imagery, and lets you download the data.
Good to know: Landsat’s 30 m resolution means small streams and ponds can be missed.
31. HydroSHEDS
HydroSHEDS provides hydrographic data derived from elevation models: river networks, flow direction and drainage basins, at global and regional scales.
Good to know: the data is free to use under HydroSHEDS licence terms, so read them before redistributing. Related products such as HydroBASINS and HydroRIVERS are available.
32. SoilGrids
SoilGrids, from ISRIC, offers global maps of soil properties at 250 m resolution and several standard depths, produced with machine learning.
Good to know: these are modelled predictions with uncertainty layers, good for regional estimates but not a substitute for field measurements.
Climate, weather and energy
33. WorldClim
WorldClim 2.1 provides global climate surfaces for the 1970–2000 period: monthly minimum, mean and maximum temperature, precipitation, solar radiation, wind speed and water vapor pressure, plus 19 bioclimatic variables. Resolutions run from 30 arc-seconds (about 1 km) to 10 arc-minutes, and downloads are GeoTIFF files. Future projections are downscaled CMIP6 data from 23 climate models and four emissions pathways (SSP 126, 245, 370 and 585), averaged over 20-year periods through 2100.
Good to know: the baseline is a 1970–2000 average, not current conditions. Cite Fick and Hijmans (2017) when you use it.
34. CHELSA
CHELSA provides high-resolution (about 1 km) global climate data, including temperature, precipitation, bioclimatic variables and future projections. It is a common alternative to WorldClim.
Good to know: its downscaling method differs from WorldClim’s, so results can differ. State which one you used.
35. Copernicus Climate Data Store (ERA5)
The Climate Data Store gives free access to climate and weather datasets, including the ERA5 and ERA5-Land reanalyses, in GRIB and NetCDF. You can use the web form or the cdsapi Python client.
Good to know: you need a free account and a personal access token, and you must accept the licence of each dataset. The legacy CDS has been shut down, so older tutorials and API keys no longer work.
36. NASA POWER
POWER provides global meteorological and solar data prepared for energy, building and agricultural applications, available through a web interface and an API.
Good to know: the data is gridded at a coarse resolution, so it suits regional estimates rather than microclimate work.
37. Global Climate Monitor
Global Climate Monitor is a web mapping viewer developed at the University of Seville that makes global climate data and indicators easy to explore. Its published description says it was built on CRU TS data (half-degree resolution, monthly, 1901–2012) and, from 2013, on the GHCN-CAMS temperature and GPCC precipitation datasets.
Good to know: at half-degree resolution it is better for understanding global patterns and teaching than for local analysis. Check the site for the download options and data coverage currently offered.
38. Global Solar Atlas and Global Wind Atlas
Two free web tools for renewable energy mapping: the Global Solar Atlas (globalsolaratlas.info) and the Global Wind Atlas (globalwindatlas.info). Both let you explore resource maps and download GIS layers.
Good to know: check each tool’s terms and attribution requirements before using the layers in publications.
People, biodiversity and environment
39. WorldPop
WorldPop publishes open, high-resolution gridded population data and related demographic datasets, usually downloadable country by country.
Good to know: these are modelled estimates. Check each dataset’s metadata for its reference year, method and licence.
40. Global Human Settlement Layer (GHSL)
human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu
The GHSL, produced by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, maps built-up areas, population and settlement types from satellite imagery for several time epochs.
Good to know: it is free and open, and the multi-year layers make it useful for urban growth studies. Pick the product and epoch that match your question.
41. NASA SEDAC data (now in Earthdata Search)
NASA announcement on SEDAC data
SEDAC curated socioeconomic and environmental datasets such as gridded population, urban extent and climate-risk layers. Its contract was terminated on April 30, 2025, and all its datasets (over 350 collections) have since been relocated to NASA’s Earthdata Cloud and can be found in Earthdata Search.
Good to know: an Earthdata Login is required, and the datasets are complete but will no longer be updated. A CIESIN subcollection is also available on the Harvard Dataverse.
42. GRID3
GRID3 works with countries to generate, validate and publish geospatial data on population, settlements, infrastructure and boundaries, mainly to support development and humanitarian planning.
Good to know: coverage depends on the countries GRID3 works in, so check your area before planning around it.
43. GBIF
GBIF is the largest open network for biodiversity data, with species occurrence records that include coordinates, which you can map in any GIS.
Good to know: downloads require a free account. Records carry different licences (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-NC), and each download gets a DOI you should cite. Sampling is uneven, since observations cluster where people look.
44. Protected Planet (WDPA)
Protected Planet hosts the World Database on Protected Areas, the most comprehensive global dataset of marine and terrestrial protected areas, managed by UNEP-WCMC with IUCN and updated monthly.
Good to know: the terms prohibit commercial use without permission, and you must cite the dataset and the version you downloaded. Download only after accepting the terms.
45. NASA FIRMS
FIRMS (Fire Information for Resource Management System) provides near-real-time active fire detections from satellite sensors such as MODIS and VIIRS, with archives you can download for GIS use.
Good to know: detections are thermal anomalies, not confirmed fires. Some API access requires a free key.
46. UNEP World Environment Situation Room (WESR)
WESR is UNEP’s environmental data and knowledge platform. It works as a federated system, linking specialized platforms for areas such as air quality, water, chemicals and waste, climate, oceans and mountains, and it supports tracking of environment-related Sustainable Development Goals.
Good to know: this replaces the older UNEP GeoData portal (geodata.grid.unep.ch, also called the Environmental Data Explorer), which was shut down in June 2016. Access terms depend on each linked platform.
Agriculture and open data portals
47. FAO Agro-Informatic Data Catalog (formerly GeoNetwork)
FAO Geospatial Unit: data catalog
The Food and Agriculture Organization’s catalog of national, regional and global thematic datasets covers agriculture, fisheries, forestry, land and water resources and climate-related topics. Each dataset has ISO-compliant metadata, and many can be viewed dynamically through Web Map Service (WMS) links.
Good to know: the platform was previously known as GeoNetwork or the FAO Map Catalog, so older tutorials may use those names. Read each dataset’s metadata for its terms of use.
48. ArcGIS Hub
ArcGIS Hub aggregates open data published by governments, universities and other organizations worldwide, with search, downloads and APIs. You can filter results by data type (dataset, feature layer, table, file) and by licence, which is handy when you need data that is clearly open.
Good to know: Hub is a catalog, not a single dataset, so quality, currency and licensing are set by each publisher. It works best for niche or local data that larger portals do not carry.
49. ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World
Living Atlas is a collection of ready-to-use geographic information from Esri, its partners and the user community, including maps, layers and apps that you can add straight to ArcGIS projects.
Good to know: access and reuse terms vary by item, and some content needs an ArcGIS subscription. Check each item’s terms.
50. Humanitarian Data Exchange (HDX)
HDX is an open platform run by the UN’s OCHA for sharing humanitarian data, including administrative boundaries, population statistics and datasets about specific crises.
Good to know: licences and update frequency vary by dataset, so read each dataset’s metadata.
Choosing the right source
- A clean world or country map: Natural Earth.
- Administrative boundaries: geoBoundaries (commercial use allowed) or GADM (more detail, non-commercial).
- Roads, buildings and places: OpenStreetMap, Geofabrik for bulk extracts, Overture Maps for standardized global themes.
- Satellite imagery: Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem for Sentinel, USGS EarthExplorer for Landsat, NASA Earthdata for the wider NASA archive, ASF Vertex for radar.
- Analysis without downloading: Google Earth Engine or Planetary Computer.
- Terrain and ocean depth: OpenTopography, Copernicus DEM and GEBCO.
- Land cover, forests, water and soil: ESA WorldCover, Global Forest Watch, JRC Global Surface Water and SoilGrids.
- Climate and weather: WorldClim or CHELSA for climate surfaces, the Climate Data Store for ERA5 reanalysis.
- People and settlements: WorldPop and GHSL.
- Biodiversity and protected areas: GBIF and Protected Planet.
- Humanitarian and crisis mapping: HDX, GRID3 and OpenAerialMap.
A quick guide to file formats
- Shapefile: a widely supported vector format stored as several files that must stay together.
- GeoPackage: a modern single-file alternative for vector (and some raster) data.
- GeoTIFF: the standard raster format for imagery, elevation and climate surfaces.
- PBF: a compact binary format used for OpenStreetMap extracts, which QGIS can open directly.
- NetCDF and GRIB: multi-dimensional gridded formats used for climate and weather data such as ERA5.
- GeoParquet: a cloud-native columnar format used for large vector datasets such as Overture Maps.
Licences, citation and data quality
Free does not mean unconditional. Natural Earth is public domain, OpenStreetMap data (and Overture’s building footprints) carries the ODbL with attribution and share-alike, OpenAerialMap imagery is CC-BY 4.0, and several well-known datasets restrict commercial use, including GADM and Protected Planet, while Earth Engine’s free tier is for noncommercial work only. Catalogs such as ArcGIS Hub, HDX and OpenAddresses leave licensing to each publisher. Registration is a separate matter: NASA, USGS, Copernicus and GBIF are free but need an account.
Also watch the age, resolution and nature of what you download. A 1970–2000 climate baseline, a half-degree climate grid or a 2011 boundaries file may be fine for a classroom map and wrong for a planning decision, and population grids, soil maps and reanalyses are modelled estimates, not direct observations. Record the source, version and download date, and cite the original publication where one exists.
Final thoughts
Good spatial analysis starts with good data, and the best source depends on your question, your area and your tolerance for registration and licence conditions. Bookmark the sources you use most, and re-check them from time to time, because portals change faster than most tutorials.
