Sources and method
beaches.llc lists 57,411 named beaches in 233 countries: 48,545 from OpenStreetMap (9,763 of them matched to a Wikidata item) and 8,866 known only to Wikidata. OpenStreetMap data as of 2026-09-10; built 2026-09-10.
How much is recorded
| Fact | Values recorded | Not recorded |
|---|---|---|
| Ground | Sand 17,569 · Pebble, shingle or gravel 2,956 · Rock or stone 439 · Grass 419 · Other surface 928 | 35,100 |
| Sand colour | Golden 878 · White 698 · Black 334 · Pink 4 | 55,497 |
| Lifeguard | Yes 1,280 · Seasonal 56 · No 3,514 | 52,561 |
| Dogs | Allowed 257 · On a leash 56 · Not allowed 376 | 56,722 |
| Wheelchair access | Yes 185 · Limited 155 · No 282 | 56,789 |
| Clothing-optional | Yes 1,494 · No 411 | 55,506 |
| Fee | Free 851 · Paid 213 | 56,347 |
| Access | Public 3,017 · Private 264 · Customers only 114 | 54,016 |
How a beach becomes one record
- Every named
natural=beachon OpenStreetMap. A long beach mapped in segments with the same name is one beach; numbered sections are one beach. - Wikidata items that are beaches are matched to them by OpenStreetMap's own
wikidatatag, then by name and place — the strongest name match first, never merely the nearest. - Items Wikidata alone knows are listed as their own beaches. Those within 1 km of a mapped beach whose name matches nothing there are kept on a review list and never given a page.
- A name that is only a common noun (“Beach”, “Plyazh”, شاطئ) is not a name; those beaches are not listed.
Country and “near”
Country comes from the Natural Earth outline a beach falls in; for points just offshore, the nearest outline within 25 km, or the nearest village within 3 km, and a territory Natural Earth folds into its sovereign (Guadeloupe, Martinique, Réunion…) keeps its own code. Where the two references disagree over a disputed territory — Crimea and Western Sahara — the ISO 3166 assignment is used. “Near” is the nearest populated place in GeoNames, of any size, with its distance; it is not an address.
Pink sand
Neither source records sand colour for pink beaches, so these were checked by hand. A name is not evidence.
Blue Flag
Blue Flag is re-awarded every year. Wikidata records it for 970 of these beaches — 516 with an award year (almost all 2018) and 454 with none. It is shown on a beach's page with its year, and it is not offered as a filter, because a lapsed award would read as a current one.
Water temperature and conditions
The month-by-month temperature is NOAA OISST v2.1, the 1991–2020 average, from the nearest ocean cell within 25 km — 45,679 beaches have one. The grid includes the Great Lakes, so a lake beach shows the lake. Today’s conditions on a beach page are Open-Meteo’s model, fetched by your browser when the page opens, labelled with the model time and the distance to its grid point. They are never stored here.
What is not here, and why
Water colour, shade, crowds, “vibe”, cell signal, Wi-Fi, parking, rentals, food, ratings and reviews: there is no honest source for any of them at this scale, so none is shown. Nearby toilets, showers and parking exist on OpenStreetMap and are planned. Webcams are linked only where Wikidata lists one and it answered when checked.
Countries
- Spain 5,669
- United States 5,136
- Australia 3,369
- Greece 3,213
- Canada 2,828
- France 2,740
- Italy 2,725
- Brazil 2,470
- United Kingdom 1,503
- Russia 1,248
- Finland 1,151
- Portugal 1,051
- Germany 1,025
- Norway 929
- Philippines 832
- Croatia 805
- Japan 791
- Ukraine 771
- Indonesia 769
- Sweden 728
- Chile 704
- Mexico 688
- India 652
- New Zealand 645
- Turkey 617
- Peru 549
- Thailand 542
- Argentina 517
- Ireland 461
- Poland 461
- Colombia 457
- Cuba 412
- Estonia 395
- South Korea 389
- Costa Rica 374
- Venezuela 359
- Algeria 346
- Denmark 310
- Malaysia 307
- Morocco 280
- China 243
- The Netherlands 235
- Dominican Republic 232
- South Africa 227
- Puerto Rico 211
- Nicaragua 166
- El Salvador 158
- Uruguay 156
- Vietnam 145
- Israel 144
- Albania 141
- Guadeloupe 136
- Sri Lanka 136
- Panama 134
- Montenegro 130
- Switzerland 128
- Cyprus 127
- Egypt 126
- Bulgaria 123
- Belarus 114
- Ecuador 113
- Seychelles 104
- U.S. Virgin Islands 104
- Hungary 101
- New Caledonia 101
- Mayotte 101
- Taiwan 96
- Bahamas 93
- Cabo Verde 92
- Lithuania 92
- United Arab Emirates 87
- Iran 86
- Tunisia 86
- Hong Kong 85
- Libya 76
- Latvia 75
- Greenland 74
- Martinique 74
- Romania 74
- Austria 72
- Maldives 71
- Honduras 69
- Azerbaijan 67
- Mozambique 63
- Mauritius 62
- Jamaica 58
- Barbados 57
- Guam 57
- Iceland 56
- Guernsey 51
- Northern Mariana Islands 49
- Sao Tome and Principe 49
- Antarctica 48
- Bosnia and Herzegovina 47
- Curacao 46
- Kazakhstan 46
- Serbia 46
- Belgium 45
- Georgia 45
- Cambodia 45
- Grenada 44
- Slovakia 44
- Bangladesh 43
- Trinidad and Tobago 43
- Antigua and Barbuda 42
- Czechia 42
- Bermuda 41
- Saint Lucia 41
- Malta 41
- Falkland Islands 40
- Haiti 39
- Kenya 39
- Jersey 38
- Aruba 37
- Angola 35
- Slovenia 34
- Pakistan 33
- Saudi Arabia 33
- Tonga 32
- French Polynesia 30
- Democratic Republic of the Congo 28
- British Virgin Islands 28
- Fiji 27
- Moldova 27
- Myanmar 27
- Madagascar 26
- North Macedonia 26
- Oman 26
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 26
- Samoa 26
- Isle of Man 25
- Tanzania 25
- Nigeria 23
- Papua New Guinea 23
- Senegal 23
- Bolivia 22
- Palau 22
- Saint Helena 22
- Uganda 22
- Aland Islands 21
- Cayman Islands 21
- Saint Martin 21
- Reunion 21
- Bonaire, Saint Eustatius and Saba 20
- Guatemala 20
- Ghana 19
- Faroe Islands 18
- French Guiana 18
- Saint Barthelemy 17
- North Korea 17
- Paraguay 17
- Vanuatu 17
- Heard Island and McDonald Islands 16
- Qatar 16
- Belize 15
- Christmas Island 15
- Djibouti 15
- Dominica 15
- Western Sahara 15
- Kyrgyzstan 15
- Sierra Leone 15
- Sint Maarten 15
- French Southern Territories 15
- Gambia 14
- Guinea 14
- Comoros 14
- South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands 13
- Guinea-Bissau 13
- Lebanon 13
- Somalia 13
- Brunei 12
- Saint Kitts and Nevis 12
- Singapore 12
- Guyana 10
- Laos 10
- Namibia 10
- Nepal 10
- Turks and Caicos Islands 10
- Timor Leste 10
- Ivory Coast 9
- Cameroon 9
- Micronesia 9
- Anguilla 8
- Gibraltar 8
- Montserrat 8
- Uzbekistan 8
- Equatorial Guinea 7
- Iraq 7
- Marshall Islands 7
- Mauritania 7
- Syria 7
- Tajikistan 7
- Yemen 7
- Gabon 6
- Jordan 6
- Kuwait 6
- Suriname 6
- Bahrain 5
- Liberia 5
- Luxembourg 5
- Palestinian Territory 5
- Wallis and Futuna 5
- Armenia 4
- American Samoa 4
- Republic of the Congo 4
- Cook Islands 4
- Malawi 4
- Niue 4
- South Sudan 4
- Turkmenistan 4
- Afghanistan 3
- Kiribati 3
- Saint Pierre and Miquelon 3
- Rwanda 3
- Sudan 3
- Burundi 2
- Cocos Islands 2
- Eritrea 2
- Monaco 2
- Macao 2
- Pitcairn 2
- Svalbard and Jan Mayen 2
- United States Minor Outlying Islands 2
- Benin 1
- Ethiopia 1
- Mali 1
- Mongolia 1
- Norfolk Island 1
- Nauru 1
- Solomon Islands 1
- Togo 1
- Tokelau 1
- Tuvalu 1
Licences and the data
- Beach data derived from OpenStreetMap: © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL. This database is offered under the same licence: download it.
- Wikidata: CC0. Photographs: each under its own Wikimedia Commons licence, credited where shown.
- Map: OpenFreeMap, © OpenMapTiles, data © OpenStreetMap contributors.
- Places: GeoNames, CC BY 4.0. Outlines: Natural Earth. Water temperature: NOAA OISST v2.1. Conditions: Open-Meteo, CC BY 4.0.
Sponsorship enquiries: labs@labs.llc.