Written and maintained by CASRAI Editorial Board
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Natural Earth is a free, public-domain collection of vector and raster map data published at naturalearthdata.com in three scales: 1:10m, 1:50m and 1:110m. If you need country outlines, coastlines, lakes or shaded-relief backgrounds for a figure, poster or GIS project and want no licence negotiation, this page tells you which scale to pick, what you do and do not have to credit, and how to load the data in R.
What is Natural Earth?
According to its About page, Natural Earth is a “free source of vector and raster map data” at 1:10m, 1:50m and 1:110m. It is led by Nathaniel Vaughn Kelso and Tom Patterson and built by volunteer cartographers, many of them members of NACIS (the North American Cartographic Information Society). A Map Update Committee is the final arbiter on features and attributes.
Natural Earth is a map dataset. It is a different thing from a statistical concept or from any map projection that shares the name.
Which scale should you use: 1:10m, 1:50m or 1:110m?
The Downloads page describes the three scales as follows. Pick the scale by how large an area your map shows, not by how much detail you want.
| Scale | Detail | Intended use (Natural Earth wording) | 1 cm on the map is about |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1:10m | Most detailed | Zoomed-in maps of countries and regions | 100 km |
| 1:50m | Medium | Zoomed-out maps | 500 km |
| 1:110m | Least detailed | Schematic world maps and small globes | 1,100 km |
Source: Natural Earth Downloads page, read 2026-11-08. As a rule of thumb, a coarse scale used for a single-country map gives visibly rough coastlines, and a fine scale used for a small world thumbnail adds file size without visible gain (editorial interpretation).
What themes and file formats does Natural Earth offer?
Data comes in two vector themes, Cultural and Physical, at all three scales. Raster data (for example shaded relief backgrounds) is offered at 1:10m and 1:50m only. The full vector set is distributed as Shapefile (SHP), SQLite or GeoPackage, and a quick start kit with layers pre-styled in QGIS is available for people who want a ready-made starting map.
Is Natural Earth free to use, and do I need to cite it?
Natural Earth states that all versions of its raster and vector map data are in the public domain. Its Terms of Use say you may modify, disseminate and print the data for any purpose and that “crediting the authors is unnecessary.” The project suggests, but does not require, this credit line: “Made with Natural Earth.” or the longer “Made with Natural Earth. Free vector and raster map data @ naturalearthdata.com.”
Two practical points for research use:
- No attribution is required, but reproducibility still matters. Naming the dataset, the scale and the date you downloaded it in your methods section or figure caption lets others reproduce the map. This is an editorial recommendation, not a Natural Earth requirement.
- No warranty. The Terms of Use state the authors are not responsible for the accuracy, content, design or use of the data, so checking that it suits your purpose is your job. Errors can be reported to the project for future updates.
Boundaries and disputed territories: what researchers should know
Natural Earth draws boundaries de facto and marks controversial boundaries as disputed. That is a cartographic convention chosen by the project, not a statement of legal status or of your institution’s or funder’s position. If a map will appear in a grant report, a policy document or a journal with its own rules on how territory is depicted, check those rules before publishing. Because the data is public domain, you may edit it yourself if you need a different depiction.
How do I load Natural Earth data in R and QGIS?
In R, the rnaturalearth package from rOpenSci downloads and returns Natural Earth layers. Its documentation lists ne_countries() for country polygons, ne_states() for subdivisions of a named country, and ne_download() for other layers, with scale set to 110 or 50, type naming the layer, category set to “physical” or “cultural”, and returnclass set to “sf” or “sv”. Higher-resolution data sits in the separate rnaturalearthhires package.
library(rnaturalearth)
world <- ne_countries(scale = 110, returnclass = "sf")
spain_regions <- ne_states(country = "spain", returnclass = "sf")
lakes <- ne_download(scale = 110, type = "lakes", category = "physical", returnclass = "sf")
plot(sf::st_geometry(world))In QGIS, download the Shapefile or GeoPackage versions from the Downloads page, or the quick start kit, and add them as vector layers. Any GIS software that reads these formats can use the same files.
FAQ
What is Natural Earth data?
Free vector and raster map data at 1:10m, 1:50m and 1:110m scales, released into the public domain by the Natural Earth project.
Is Natural Earth public domain?
Yes. The project states that all versions of its raster and vector data on its website are in the public domain, so you can modify, share and print them for any purpose.
How do I cite Natural Earth?
Credit is not required. If you want to give it, the project suggests “Made with Natural Earth. Free vector and raster map data @ naturalearthdata.com.” For a methods section, also record the scale and download date.
Which Natural Earth scale is best for a world map?
Natural Earth describes 1:110m as intended for schematic world maps and small globes, 1:50m for zoomed-out maps and 1:10m for zoomed-in country or regional maps.
Related CASRAI pages
- What is geography?
- Sentinel-2 satellite imagery
- NASA Worldview
- USGS ScienceBase research data repository
Sources
- Natural Earth, About: naturalearthdata.com/about (read 2026-11-08)
- Natural Earth, Terms of Use: naturalearthdata.com/about/terms-of-use (read 2026-11-08)
- Natural Earth, Downloads: naturalearthdata.com/downloads (read 2026-11-08)
- rOpenSci, rnaturalearth documentation: docs.ropensci.org/rnaturalearth (read 2026-11-08)
