MapPalette
MapPalette
Every map on this site is drawn from public-domain boundary data. This page says exactly where it comes from, what the numbers printed alongside it do and do not mean, and what you are free to do with a map you export.
Country outlines and internal subdivisions both come from Natural Earth, a public-domain cartographic dataset maintained by volunteers from the mapping community. The site uses its cultural vector layers — Admin 0 for countries and Admin 1 for states, provinces and their equivalents — simplified further so that a whole country downloads and redraws quickly in a browser.
| Layer | Source | License |
|---|---|---|
| World & continent country outlines | Natural Earth, Admin 0 | Public domain |
| States, provinces, regions (250+ countries) | Natural Earth, Admin 1 | Public domain |
| India states & union territories | Natural Earth, with corrections (see below) | Public domain |
| Satellite / streets / terrain imagery | Esri ArcGIS Location Platform | Attribution required |
Each country page colors that country's first-level divisions as the dataset defines them. Usually that matches the official first level — Japan's 47 prefectures, Switzerland's 26 cantons, Brazil's 26 states plus the Federal District. Sometimes it does not: the dataset cuts the United Kingdom into 232 districts and unitary authorities rather than four countries, Malta into 68 local councils, and Slovenia into 193 municipalities.
Because of that, a country page only calls its divisions by name — "cantons", "prefectures", "voivodeships" — when the number of shapes in the data matches the expected number for that type. Where they disagree, the page says "regions" instead of asserting a division type that would be wrong. If you spot a country where the wording is still off, please tell us.
Where a country page names its largest or smallest region and gives a size, that number is measured from the same simplified outline the browser draws — not quoted from an official statistic. Generalized coastlines cut corners, so these figures run a few percent below published land areas, and further off for small or intricate territories. They are there to tell you what the map looks like, and they are labelled "mapped area" throughout for that reason. Do not cite them as official areas.
The same caveat applies to the count of separate outlines a page mentions: an archipelago's smallest islets may be simplified away entirely at this scale.
No rendering of a contested border is neutral, and a generic world dataset makes choices that not every reader will accept. Two things are worth stating plainly:
If a boundary is wrong for your use, the exported SVG is fully editable in any vector editor, and corrections sent through the contact page are looked at.
The optional Satellite, Streets and Terrain backgrounds are raster tiles served by the Esri ArcGIS Location Platform, not by this site. When a base layer is switched on, the required attribution is drawn on the map and travels with your export — please keep it there. Imagery is © Esri and its data providers, including Maxar, Earthstar Geographics, TomTom, Garmin, FAO, NOAA and USGS.
Tiles are fetched against a shared quota. If it runs out, you can paste your own free ArcGIS key into the Map Layers panel; it is stored only in your browser and is never included in share links or saved configs.
Maps you export are yours to use, including commercially, with no watermark and no attribution to MapPalette required. Natural Earth is public domain and asks for none either, though crediting it is good practice in published work. The one exception is imagery: a map exported with a satellite, streets or terrain layer must keep its Esri attribution.
A suggested credit line for a published map: Boundaries: Natural Earth (public domain). Made with mappalette.com.
Wrong boundary, missing region, misnamed division, or a size figure that looks implausible? Send it through the contact page with the country and what you expected — data fixes go to the front of the queue. More about the project on the about page.