Version: 1.0.0 | Published: 3 Nov 2026 | Updated: 4 days ago
Open Charge Map UK Electric Vehicle Charge Point Locations
Dataset
Summary
Description:
This dataset provides point locations for electric vehicle charge points in the United Kingdom, derived from Open Charge Map's public data export.
Access Tier:
Open
Contact Point:
Documentation
Documentation:
This dataset provides point locations for electric vehicle charge points in the United Kingdom, derived from Open Charge Map's public data export. It supports mapping and spatial analysis of charging provision by network operator, connector type, charging speed, access model, and location.
[Open Charge Map](https://openchargemap.org/) publishes its export as one JSON file per point of interest. The 27,542 files in the GB folder of the export repository were parsed into a location table and a connector table. Integer reference identifiers for operator, connection type, usage type, status, charger level, current type, data provider, and country were decoded to names using the reference data file committed alongside the data in the same export, so identifiers and labels cannot drift apart. Connector records were summarised to one row per location to give connector counts, maximum rated power, and distinct connector and current types. Coordinates were checked against a United Kingdom bounding box of 49.15°N to 61.10°N and 8.75°W to 2.10°E, chosen to retain the Channel Islands. Four records where a single transform - latitude and longitude transposed, or a dropped minus sign on longitude - returned the point to that bounding box were corrected and flagged, and each was verified to within 150 m of its own postcode centroid. Ten records that could not be repaired were removed to a separate table with reasons. Point geometries were created in WGS84 (EPSG:4326). No other source values were altered.
## Content
The dataset contains 27,532 charge point locations, taken from the Open Charge Map export at commit `8e3bedca` dated 22 April 2026 and built on 30 August 2026. Source attributes identify the location and its address, the network operator, the access model, the reported operational status, the supplying data provider and its licence, and contributed comments, cost descriptions, and contact details. Decoded reference names, connector summaries, and quality assurance flags have been appended. Coordinates are as published by Open Charge Map apart from the four documented repairs.
Open Charge Map's `GB` country code covers the United Kingdom as a whole, not Great Britain alone. Alongside records for England, Wales, and Scotland, the dataset includes 494 records with Northern Ireland postcodes, 19 for the Isle of Man, and one for Guernsey.
The dataset is distributed as a GeoPackage of thirteen layers. `charge_points` is the point layer, in EPSG:4326, and holds 27,532 rows, one per charge point location; it is the layer described by the accompanying variable dictionary and data summary. `connections` is an attribute table of 47,306 rows, one per individual connector record, joined to `charge_points` on `poi_id`. Nine attribute tables named `ref_*` hold 1,345 rows between them and carry the decoded Open Charge Map lookup tables, so that every identifier in the data can be traced to its source label. `excluded_pois` is an attribute table of 10 rows holding the records removed by coordinate quality assurance, with their original coordinates and the reason for exclusion. `build_metadata` is an attribute table of 15 rows recording provenance: upstream repository, commit hash and date, build time, row counts, bounding box, CRS, rapid-charging threshold, and licence notice.
The `connections` layer holds the connector-level detail that `charge_points` summarises. Each row carries `connection_id` and the `poi_id` it belongs to; the connector type (`connection_type_id`, `connection_type_title`, `connection_type_formal_name`, and flags for discontinued and obsolete types); the connector's own reported status (`status_type_id`, `status_title`, `is_operational`); the Open Charge Map charger level (`level_id`, `level_title`, `level_comments`, `level_is_fast_charge_capable`); the current type (`current_type_id`, `current_type_title`, `current_type_description`); electrical characteristics (`power_kw`, `amps`, `voltage`); the number of identical connectors the record represents (`quantity`); and free-text `reference` and `comments`. Sixteen distinct connector types appear in the data, of which Type 2 (Socket Only) accounts for 30,688 of the 47,306 records.
## Quality, Representation and Bias
Open Charge Map is a community-maintained aggregate rather than an authoritative register. It carries no statutory basis, and its coverage, currency, and attribute completeness all depend on what contributors and bulk data suppliers have provided. It should not be treated as a complete inventory of UK charging infrastructure. For official regional level data see the [DfT website](https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/electric-vehicle-charging-infrastructure-statistics).
Records reach the register by two routes, and the two behave differently. 13,691 records were imported from bulk data providers and 13,841 were submitted by contributors. Bulk imports dominate the record history: 13,467 records (48.9%) were created during 2023 and 17,702 (64.3%) carry a last-verified date in that year, while only 1,618 records (5.9%) have been verified in 2025 or later. Recently installed charge points are therefore likely to be under-represented, and a large share of records have not been checked for some years.
A row is a point of interest as recorded by Open Charge Map, not a single connector and not necessarily a distinct physical site. Locations vary in what they represent, from a single socket to a large forecourt. 178 records share a coordinate pair with at least one other record, so 27,532 rows resolve to 27,440 distinct locations; some of these are genuine co-location and some are duplicate submissions. 105 locations have no connector records at all, and can be filtered with `n_connections > 0`.
Attribute completeness is uneven, and missing values are common enough to affect analysis. An operational status is absent on 36.9% of records and `is_operational` is null on 49.7%; `number_of_points` is present on 53.3%; `usage_cost` is present on 45.2% and is free text that cannot be parsed reliably. In the connector table, `quantity` is absent on 37.1% of records. The derived `n_connectors` treats an absent quantity as a single connector, so it is an estimate; `number_of_points` is the provider's own figure and is not reconciled against it. Two records carry an implausible `number_of_points` (0 and -4), retained as published.
Attributes prefixed `operator_`, `data_provider_`, and the `is_pay_at_location`, `is_membership_required`, and `is_access_key_required` flags come from Open Charge Map's reference tables. They describe the operator, provider, or usage type in general and are not independently reported for each location.
Provision is heavily concentrated by operator: 117 distinct operators appear, and the ten largest account for over 20,000 of the 27,532 records. 206 records have no operator recorded. Charging speed is likewise skewed - 4,817 locations (17.5%) meet the rapid threshold of 43 kW, and the median `max_power_kw` is 7 kW.
Coordinates are as supplied by contributors and importers rather than surveyed. Their precision is not documented and varies between sources, so the data suit area-level analysis and visualisation but should not be treated as exact charge point positions. Postcodes are retained exactly as published, with no validation or correction; 85 records have no postcode.
27,532 of the 27,542 source records (99.96%) are retained, and all of them have coordinates and geometry. The 10 excluded records are held in `excluded_pois` with their original coordinates: five were locations in other countries misfiled under GB, two had latitude duplicated into the longitude field, two sat at near-zero coordinates, and one at (5, 5).
## Licensing and attribution
The dataset mixes licences and attribution is required. Every record carries its own `data_provider_licence`, and the full text is held in `ref_data_providers`.
15,958 records come from Open Charge Map Contributors under CC BY 4.0, and 11,573 from the UK National Charge Point Registry under the Open Government Licence v2.0. A single record comes from Oplaadpalen.nl under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0; it is non-commercial and should be excluded where that conflicts with the intended use.
Coverage
Spatial
Spatial Coverage:
United Kingdom
Temporal
Start Date:
01 April 2026
End Date:
30 April 2026
Date of First Release:
30 August 2026
Provenance
Origin
Source:
Collection Situation:
Point Location
Author 1
Family Name Person:
Singleton
Given Name Person:
Alex
Access and Governance
Access
Access Service:
The data for this research have been provided by the Geographic Data Service (GeoDS), a Smart Data Research UK Investment: ES/Z504464/1.
Data Controller:
Geographic Data Service
Licence:
Other (Open)
Format and Standards
Format:
- geopackage
- CSV