OpenStreetMap has always made geographic data available for use in
interesting and unexpected ways. As OpenStreetMap grows, the data
becomes more difficult for some users to consume purely because of the
volume of data.
The World at once
To have the whole World in your hand, download and use the planet file.
Planet files are published every week. As mentioned above, some uses
find this file large and cumbersome to deal with, especially if their
interest is limited to a small portion of the data set.
In September 2011, the planet file was 18GB when compressed and about
250GB when loaded into a spatial database.
Smaller portions
If your interests are limited to a portion of the planet, then you’ll
want to know more about planet extracts. Extracts are a portion of the OpenStreetMap data
set.
Extracts are provided by third-parties for single countries and and
also for regions that range from cities to states, provinces and
continents.
