Astrometric calibration of KiDS DR5, with respect to Gaia DR3 stars at epoch J2000. Values here show the median astrometric residual per pointing for stars in the magnitude range 16.5 ≤ G ≤ 19. The colour bar shows the location of each field in the Dec direction, after subtracting a constant equal to the mean declination of all fields in the relevant hemisphere. Absolute residuals are typically less than the 0″.05 level, and are therefore negligible. Residual offsets below this level are possibly attributable to barycentric motion between the J2000 and J2015 epochs (see Appendix C).