Geographic Names Server

The Geographic Names Server (GNS) offers complete files of geographic names for geopolitical areas, provided by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and the U.S. Board on Geographic Names (BGN). These files are available in a tab-delimited text format, which is compliant with ISO/IEC 10646 (Unicode UTF-8) and is designed for easy download and integration into various systems.

This data is highly amenable to input into geographic information systems (GIS), databases, and spreadsheets, empowering end users with robust capabilities for data analysis, manipulation, and display. The GNS provides data in several formats, including a comprehensive single global dataset (Whole_world), files segmented by feature classification (e.g., Spot_features), or individual country files (e.g., Afghanistan).

Additionally, a convenient zip archive containing all individual country files (All_countries) is available. Each individual country file includes the entire country's dataset, along with separate files for each feature classification within that country. This structured approach allows for versatile access and utilization of crucial geographic names information for a wide range of applications.