TechnicalGIS

Tanzania GIS data sources

Region
Eastern Africa
ISO 3166
TZ · TZA
Sources
20
Themes
13
Last verified

Where to download GIS data for Tanzania: 20 sources across 13 themes, led by National Bureau of Statistics and OCHA / Humanitarian Data Exchange. 9 offer vector downloads such as Shapefile, GeoPackage or GeoJSON. 12 are under an open licence. Every link was last checked on 18 Oct 2026.

Country atlases

National and OpenStreetMap sources for Tanzania

Boundaries & admin 4

Administrative boundary data for every country

  • Subnational administrative boundaries (COD-AB) (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    OCHA / Humanitarian Data Exchange · National

    Humanitarian common operational dataset of administrative boundaries for levels 0–3 with P-codes; source: Tanzania National Bureau of Statistics / UN OCHA ROSA.

    • Boundaries & admin
    Licence
    CC BY 3.0 IGO
    Formats
    Shapefile, XLSX
    Link
    data.humdata.org

    Verified

  • NBS census shapefiles (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    National Bureau of Statistics · National

    Census geography shapefiles for regions, districts, wards and villages from the census mapping programme.

    • Boundaries & admin
    • Census & statistics
    Licence
    See publisher terms
    Formats
    Shapefile
    Link
    nbs.go.tz

    Verified

  • NBS GIS portal (opens in a new tab)

    Web viewer Cost: Free

    National Bureau of Statistics · National

    Web map of census boundaries and 2022 census indicators.

    • Boundaries & admin
    • Population
    Licence
    See publisher terms
    Link
    gistz.nbs.go.tz

    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

Imagery 1

Satellite and aerial imagery for every country

  • Digital Earth Africa Map (opens in a new tab)

    Web viewer Cost: Free

    Digital Earth Africa · Africa

    Viewer for analysis-ready Landsat and Sentinel imagery and derived products such as water observations, cropland extent and coastlines; data are also open on AWS.

    • Imagery
    • Land cover
    • Hydrology
    Licence
    CC BY 4.0
    Formats
    GeoTIFF, WMS
    Link
    maps.digitalearth.africa

    Verified

Buildings 3

Building footprint data for every country

  • GRID3 settlement extents (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    GRID3 / CIESIN, Columbia University · National

    Settlement polygons classified as built-up areas, small settlement areas or hamlets, derived from building footprints and useful for microplanning.

    • Buildings
    • Population
    Licence
    CC BY-SA 4.0
    Formats
    GeoPackage
    Link
    data.humdata.org

    Verified

  • Copernicus Global Human Settlement Layer (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    European Commission JRC / Humanitarian Data Exchange · National

    Country clip of GHSL built-up surface, population and degree-of-urbanisation grids derived from satellite imagery.

    • Buildings
    • Population
    Licence
    CC BY 4.0
    Formats
    GeoTIFF
    Link
    data.humdata.org

    Verified

  • Google Open Buildings (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    Google Research · Africa, Asia and Latin America

    Building footprint polygons detected from high-resolution imagery, with confidence scores and a 2.5D temporal dataset; download by S2 tile.

    • Buildings
    Licence
    CC BY 4.0 or ODbL 1.0
    Formats
    CSV, GeoJSON
    Link
    sites.research.google

    Verified

Population 3

Gridded population data for every country

  • Subnational population statistics (COD-PS) (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    UNFPA / Humanitarian Data Exchange · National

    Sex- and age-disaggregated population statistics for levels 0–2 (reference year 2020), keyed to the COD-AB P-codes for joining to boundaries.

    • Population
    • Census & statistics
    Licence
    CC BY 3.0 IGO
    Formats
    CSV, XLSX
    Link
    data.humdata.org

    Verified

  • WorldPop population counts 2015–2030 (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    WorldPop, University of Southampton · National

    Annual gridded estimates of people per ~100 m cell from 2015 to 2030, modelled with random forest dasymetric mapping.

    • Population
    Licence
    CC BY 4.0
    Formats
    GeoTIFF
    Link
    data.humdata.org

    Verified

  • High Resolution Population Density Maps (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    Meta Data for Good / Humanitarian Data Exchange · National

    Roughly 30 m population density rasters derived from building detection in satellite imagery, with layers for women, men, children, youth and the elderly.

    • Population
    Licence
    CC BY 4.0
    Formats
    GeoTIFF, CSV
    Link
    data.humdata.org

    Verified

Census & statistics 1

Census and statistics data for every country

  • National Bureau of Statistics (opens in a new tab)

    Portal Cost: Free

    National Bureau of Statistics

    National statistical office (from the UN Statistics Division directory).

    • Census & statistics
    Licence
    See publisher terms
    Link
    nbs.go.tz

    Verified

Transport 1

Road, rail and transport data for every country

Climate & weather 2

Climate and weather data for every country

  • Rainfall indicators at subnational level (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    WFP / Humanitarian Data Exchange · National

    Dekadal CHIRPS rainfall totals and anomalies aggregated by administrative unit from 1981, updated regularly.

    • Climate & weather
    Licence
    CC BY 4.0
    Formats
    CSV
    Link
    data.humdata.org

    Verified

  • Tanzania Meteorological Authority (opens in a new tab)

    Portal Cost: Free

    Tanzania Meteorological Authority · National

    National weather service publishing forecasts, seasonal outlooks and climate statements.

    • Climate & weather
    Licence
    See publisher terms
    Formats
    PDF
    Link
    meteo.go.tz

    Verified

Natural hazards 1

Natural hazard data for every country

  • Tropical storm tracks (IBTrACS) (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    NOAA NCEI / Humanitarian Data Exchange · National

    Historical tropical cyclone tracks and intensities affecting the country, extracted from the IBTrACS archive.

    • Natural hazards
    • Climate & weather
    Licence
    CC BY 3.0 IGO
    Formats
    CSV, GeoJSON
    Link
    data.humdata.org

    Verified

Geology 1

Geology data for every country

  • Geological Survey of Tanzania (opens in a new tab)

    Portal Cost: Mixed

    Geological Survey of Tanzania · National

    National geological survey publishing geological and mineral maps, some for purchase.

    • Geology
    Licence
    See publisher terms
    Formats
    PDF
    Link
    gst.go.tz

    Verified

Agriculture & soils 2

Agriculture and soil data for every country

  • Livelihood zones (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    FEWS NET · National

    Livelihood zone map and shapefile describing how households obtain food and income, used for food security analysis.

    • Agriculture & soils
    Licence
    See publisher terms
    Formats
    Shapefile, PDF
    Link
    fews.net

    Verified

  • iSDAsoil (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    iSDA · Africa

    Predicted soil properties such as pH, carbon, nitrogen and texture at 30 m resolution for two depths, available as cloud-optimised GeoTIFFs and a map viewer.

    • Agriculture & soils
    • Environment
    Licence
    CC BY 4.0
    Formats
    GeoTIFF
    Link
    isda-africa.com

    Verified

Environment 1

Environmental and protected area data for every country

  • Protected and conserved areas (WDPCA) (opens in a new tab)

    Download Cost: Free

    UNEP-WCMC and IUCN / Humanitarian Data Exchange · National

    Country extract of the World Database on Protected and Conserved Areas, including OECMs, with designation and IUCN category.

    • Environment
    Licence
    Free for non-commercial use; see UNEP-WCMC terms
    Formats
    GeoJSON, GeoPackage, CSV
    Link
    data.humdata.org

    Verified

Global datasets that cover Tanzania

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

Boundaries & admin
Elevation / DEM
Imagery
Land cover
Buildings
Population
Census & statistics
Transport
Hydrology
Climate & weather
Natural hazards
Geology
Agriculture & soils
Environment

Browse all 127 global datasets

Tutorials that use this kind of data

Neighbouring countries