Unlocking archival censuses for spatial analysis: An historical dataset of the administrative units of Galicia 1857–1910

The lack of long-term assessment of the administrative divisions of Galicia, a former part of the Austrian monarchy, has so far been a serious obstacle in the mapping and spatial analyses of archival census data. To fill this gap, we reconstructed the boundaries of 5944 cadastral communes, court districts, and political districts into circles (https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/PXDP41). Geometric boundaries are accompanied by different names according to census and cartographic sources. We found that a detailed reconstruction of the administrative units for Galicia is critically important for appropriately using census data in spatial analyses. So far, it has been neglected or considered difficult to perform because of the large area of the region, frequent administrative changes, and time-consuming map processing.