Approximately one-third of the global population of black-footed albatrosses (Phoebastria nigripes) nest at Midway Atoll in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. As part of an effort to monitor albatross at this globally important site, USFWS personnel and volunteers conduct an annual, spatially-explicit, atoll-wide albatross census during the peak nesting when albatrosses are attending an egg (December-January). During the 2011-2012 breeding season (hatch year 2012) the census was conducted December 16, 2011–January 8, 2012. Albatross nest counts during the census were divided into 61 historically established, spatially-explicit sectors of unequal area. Within a sector, surveyors walked parallel transects approximately 3 m apart counting every nest. After a sector was censused, we collected black-footed albatross nest location data using hand-held global positioning system (GPS) units (Trimble GeoXM and GeoXT unit; ± < 3 m accuracy). During the atoll-wide census, every nest was counted; however, time constraints prevented collection of GPS location data of every nest. We collected GPS locations for black-footed albatross nests in nearly 70% (419.7 ha) of the atoll area, prioritizing coastal high-density nesting areas. In interior areas without GPS location data, we assumed a uniform distribution of nests across the suitable habitat within each census sector. This dataset contains the boundaries of areas in which individual nests were mapped using GPS location, and those in which a uniform distribution of the nests tallied during the atoll-wide census was assumed.