Atlas Registry
An open registry of the world's governments, and an open standard identifier for them.
Sample Atlas IDs
| Government | Atlas ID & UnGovr page |
|---|---|
| Point Dume Community Services District Los Angeles County, California |
ungovr:us/ca/los-angeles/spd/point-dume-community-services-districtungovr.org/us/ca/los-angeles/spd/point-dume-community-services-district |
| Cayucos Sanitary District San Luis Obispo County, California |
ungovr:us/ca/san-luis-obispo/spd/cayucos-sanitary-districtungovr.org/us/ca/san-luis-obispo/spd/cayucos-sanitary-district |
| Chiriaco Summit Water District Riverside County, California |
ungovr:us/ca/riverside/spd/chiriaco-summitungovr.org/us/ca/riverside/spd/chiriaco-summit |
| Sangre de Cristo School District RE-22J Alamosa County, Colorado |
ungovr:us/co/alamosa/scd/sangre-de-cristo-school-district-re-22jungovr.org/us/co/alamosa/scd/sangre-de-cristo-school-district-re-22j |
| Soledad Community Healthcare District Monterey County, California |
ungovr:us/ca/monterey/spd/soledad-community-healthcare-districtungovr.org/us/ca/monterey/spd/soledad-community-healthcare-district |
What We Track
The Atlas Registry catalogs government entities at every level:
Entity Information
- Identity – Official names, abbreviations, and aliases
- Hierarchy – Parent-child relationships (state → county → city → district)
- Contact – Addresses, phone numbers, websites, email addresses
- Boundaries – Geographic service areas and jurisdictions
- Classification – Entity type, function, and legal status
Entity Types
- Federal agencies
- State agencies
- Counties
- Cities and towns
- Communes (FR, BE, LU)
- Municipalities
- Provinces and regions
- Departments (FR)
- Prefectures (JP)
- School districts
- Special districts
- Courts
- Elected offices
- Tribal nations
- Local authorities (IE, UK)
- Councils (UK, AU)
- National parks & monuments
- National forests
- Wildlife refuges
- Military installations
Data Sources
Entity data comes from authoritative sources across 200+ countries:
- US Census Bureau – TIGER boundaries, population data
- Statistics Canada – Census subdivisions, municipal boundaries
- European national registers – INSEE (France), Destatis (Germany), INE (Spain), ISTAT (Italy), and other national statistical offices
- State and provincial databases – Official entity registries (e.g., California State Controller, NY OSC)
- Federal registers – Agency listings, tribal nation recognition
- Official websites – Contact information, service areas
We continuously update and verify entity information across all jurisdictions to maintain accuracy.
Cross-referenced identifiers
Where an Atlas ID is cross-referenced to an identifier system you already use, the crosswalk is published with it, so adopting the Atlas ID connects datasets that don't otherwise talk to each other. Coverage varies by system and by country. Counts are entities carrying that identifier, out of 332,913:
- US Census GEOID / FIPS (Census and TIGER geography) – 56,703 entities
- OCD-IDs (Open Civic Data divisions) – 54,973 entities
- Wikidata (QIDs) – 49,609 entities
- FBI ORI codes (the join key for UCR and NIBRS crime reporting) – 11,154 entities
- ISO 3166-2 (subdivision codes) – 2,452 entities
- SAM.gov UEI (federal award registrations) – 270 entities
- ISO 3166-1 (country codes) – 198 entities
91,879 of our 332,913 entities carry at least one external identifier. The rest have an Atlas ID and nothing else on record yet, which is itself part of why the Atlas ID exists: for most of the world's governments there is no other stable identifier to cite.
Being built, not yet published: GeoNames, Eurostat NUTS / LAU, UK ONS / GSS codes.
Use Cases
Jurisdiction Lookup
Given an address, find all government entities that serve that location.
Entity Discovery
Find government agencies by name, type, or location.
Hierarchy Navigation
Explore relationships between entities at different levels.
What counts as an entity? (entity vs. facility)
Entity
An organization or jurisdiction with independent public records obligations and its own designated leadership with decision-making authority.
Test: Does this body independently respond to public records requests and have a designated leader with decision-making authority? If yes, it's an entity.
Facility
A physical location operated by an entity. It has staff but no independent governance or public records obligations.
Test: If someone filed a public records request here, would it be redirected to the parent entity? If yes, it's a facility.