Extract country border from OpenStreetMap

Question

I'm trying to extract the Jordanian country border from an OpenStreetMap. When I click the download link for the file, the following page opens:

How do I save these XML tags as an XML- or OSM file which I can convert into a shapefile, so that I can use it in QGIS?

Answer 1

If you want to convert it to a Shapefile just download the xml (for example right-mouse-click on the download link and choose something like "save target as..." instead of opening it in the browser. then in Qgis choose "add vectorlayer" or use drag and drop to add your xml layer to your Qgis project. then save layer as shapefile. If you are just looking for the borders and it does not have to be OSM you could also have a look at http://gadm.org

Answer 2

There is a service that allows you to retrieve any administrative border from OpenStreetMap in a number of formats. https://osm.wno-edv-service.de/boundaries/

Answer 3

The most simple query I came with using Overpass turbo https://overpass-turbo.eu/ is

[out:json];
relation["boundary"="administrative"]["admin_level"="4"]["name"="Bayern"];
out geom;

With list of administrative levels for each country from List of the levels for each country: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:boundary=administrative

Result can be downloaded as GeoJSON.

Answer 4

If you wish to retrieve the OSM Raw XML, that is how Overpass API query would look like:

http://www.overpass-api.de/api/interpreter?data=[bbox];(way[admin_level="2"];way[border_type="nation"];);(._;>;);out body qt;&bbox=112.5,31.9521,123.75,40.9798

Please replace that &bbox=112.5,31.9521,123.75,40.9798 with coordinates of the region of your interest.