TechnicalGIS

New Zealand GIS data sources

Region
Australia and New Zealand
ISO 3166
NZ · NZL
Sources
24
Themes
17
Last verified

Where to download GIS data for New Zealand: 24 sources across 17 themes, led by Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand and Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research. 15 offer vector downloads such as Shapefile, GeoPackage or GeoJSON, 4 cover elevation including LiDAR. 20 are under an open licence. Every link was last checked on 18 Oct 2026.

Country atlases

National and OpenStreetMap sources for New Zealand

Boundaries & admin 3

Administrative boundary data for every country

  • Stats NZ Geographic Data Service (opens in a new tab)

    API Cost: Free

    Stats NZ

    • Boundaries & admin
    • Census & statistics
    Licence
    CC BY 4.0
    Formats
    GeoPackage, Shapefile, WFS
    Link
    datafinder.stats.govt.nz

    Verified

  • NZ Addresses (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free with registration

    Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand

    Authoritative address points for New Zealand, updated weekly.

    • Boundaries & admin
    • Buildings
    Licence
    CC BY 4.0
    Formats
    Shapefile, GeoPackage, CSV, WFS
    Link
    data.linz.govt.nz

    Verified

  • geoBoundaries administrative boundaries (opens in a new tab)

    API Cost: Free

    William & Mary geoLab

    JSON API listing every available admin level with direct download links.

    • Boundaries & admin
    Licence
    Varies (open; see metadata)
    Formats
    GeoJSON, Shapefile, TopoJSON
    Link
    geoboundaries.org

    Verified

Elevation / DEM 3

Free DEM, LiDAR and elevation data for every country

  • LINZ Data Service (opens in a new tab)

    API Cost: Free with registration

    Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand

    • Elevation / DEM
    • Imagery
    • Addresses & cadastre
    • Transport
    • Hydrology
    Licence
    CC BY 4.0
    Formats
    GeoPackage, GeoTIFF, Shapefile, WFS
    Link
    data.linz.govt.nz

    Verified

  • NZ LiDAR and elevation data (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand

    National 1 m DEM/DSM programme from regional LiDAR surveys, downloadable from the LINZ Data Service.

    • Elevation / DEM
    Licence
    CC BY 4.0
    Formats
    GeoTIFF, LAZ
    Link
    linz.govt.nz

    Verified

  • NZ Elevation on AWS (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand

    All LINZ DEMs as Cloud-Optimised GeoTIFFs with STAC metadata, good for bulk or cloud-native access.

    • Elevation / DEM
    Licence
    CC BY 4.0
    Formats
    COG, STAC
    Link
    registry.opendata.aws

    Verified

Imagery 2

Satellite and aerial imagery for every country

  • NZ Imagery on AWS (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand

    National aerial imagery archive (down to 7.5 cm urban) as COGs with STAC metadata.

    • Imagery
    Licence
    CC BY 4.0
    Formats
    COG, STAC
    Link
    registry.opendata.aws

    Verified

  • LINZ Basemaps (opens in a new tab)

    API Cost: Free

    Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand

    Free national aerial imagery, hillshade and topographic basemap tiles; API key available on the site.

    • Imagery
    • Elevation / DEM
    Licence
    CC BY 4.0
    Formats
    WMTS, XYZ
    Link
    basemaps.linz.govt.nz

    Verified

Land cover 2

Land cover datasets for every country

  • LRIS Portal (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research

    • Land cover
    • Environment
    Licence
    Varies by dataset
    Formats
    GeoPackage, Shapefile
    Link
    lris.scinfo.org.nz

    Verified

  • Land Cover Database (LCDB) (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free with registration

    Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research

    Multi-temporal national land cover (1996–2018) with 33 classes; free account needed to download.

    • Land cover
    Licence
    CC BY 4.0
    Formats
    Shapefile, GeoPackage
    Link
    lris.scinfo.org.nz

    Verified

Buildings 1

Building footprint data for every country

  • NZ Building Outlines (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free with registration

    Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand

    Building footprints captured from aerial imagery for the whole country.

    • Buildings
    Licence
    CC BY 4.0
    Formats
    Shapefile, GeoPackage, WFS
    Link
    data.linz.govt.nz

    Verified

Census & statistics 1

Census and statistics data for every country

  • Aotearoa Data Explorer (Stats NZ) (opens in a new tab)

    API Cost: Free

    Statistics New Zealand

    Census and official statistics by SA2, territorial authority and region; joins to Datafinder boundaries.

    • Census & statistics
    • Population
    Licence
    See publisher terms
    Formats
    CSV, API
    Link
    stats.govt.nz

    Verified

Addresses & cadastre 1

Address and cadastral data for every country

  • NZ Primary Parcels (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free with registration

    Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand

    Current cadastral parcel polygons from Landonline, updated weekly.

    • Addresses & cadastre
    Licence
    CC BY 4.0
    Formats
    Shapefile, GeoPackage, WFS
    Link
    data.linz.govt.nz

    Verified

Transport 2

Road, rail and transport data for every country

  • NZ Transport Agency open data (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi

    State highway network, traffic counts and crash data.

    • Transport
    Licence
    CC BY 4.0
    Formats
    Shapefile, GeoJSON, CSV
    Link
    opendata-nzta.opendata.arcgis.com

    Verified

  • OpenStreetMap extract – New Zealand (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    Geofabrik / OpenStreetMap contributors

    Daily OSM extract.

    • Transport
    • Boundaries & admin
    • Hydrology
    Licence
    ODbL 1.0
    Formats
    PBF, Shapefile
    Link
    download.geofabrik.de

    Verified

Climate & weather 1

Climate and weather data for every country

  • CliFlo – National Climate Database (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free with registration

    NIWA (Earth Sciences New Zealand)

    Station climate observations from the National Climate Database (formerly CliFlo), now on NIWA DataHub; free account required.

    • Climate & weather
    Licence
    Free with registration; see terms
    Formats
    CSV
    Link
    data.niwa.co.nz

    Verified

Natural hazards 1

Natural hazard data for every country

  • GeoNet data (opens in a new tab)

    API Cost: Free

    GeoNet (GNS Science / EQC)

    Earthquake catalogue, volcano monitoring, GNSS and landslide data via open APIs.

    • Natural hazards
    Licence
    CC BY 3.0 NZ
    Formats
    API, CSV, QuakeML
    Link
    geonet.org.nz

    Verified

Geology 2

Geology data for every country

Agriculture & soils 1

Agriculture and soil data for every country

Marine & coastal 1

Marine, coastal and bathymetry data for every country

Environment 2

Environmental and protected area data for every country

  • Ministry for the Environment Data Service (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    Ministry for the Environment

    Environmental reporting data: river networks (REC), land use, freshwater quality and climate projections.

    • Environment
    • Hydrology
    • Climate & weather
    • Land cover
    Licence
    CC BY 4.0
    Formats
    Shapefile, GeoPackage, CSV, WFS
    Link
    data.mfe.govt.nz

    Verified

  • Department of Conservation open data (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    Department of Conservation

    Public conservation land, marine reserves, tracks and huts.

    • Environment
    Licence
    CC BY 4.0
    Formats
    Shapefile, GeoJSON, CSV
    Link
    doc-deptconservation.opendata.arcgis.com

    Verified

Open data portal 1

Open geospatial data portals for every country

Global datasets that cover New Zealand

Worldwide and continental layers that include New Zealand, useful where national data is missing, restricted or inconsistent across borders.

Boundaries & admin
Elevation / DEM
Imagery
Land cover
Buildings
Population
Census & statistics
Addresses & cadastre
Transport
Hydrology
Climate & weather
Natural hazards
Geology
Agriculture & soils
Marine & coastal
Environment
Open data portal

Browse all 127 global datasets

Tutorials that use this kind of data

Neighbouring countries