A lookup between postcodes and postcode sectors, postcode districts and postcode areas as at March 2021 in England and Wales (File size 5MB).

This is the ONS Postcode Directory (ONSPD) for the United Kingdom as at February 2024 in Comma Separated Variable (CSV) and ASCII text (TXT) formats. This file contains the multi CSVs so that postcode areas can be opened in MS Excel. To download the zip file click the Download button. The ONSPD relates both current and terminated postcodes in the United Kingdom to a range of current statutory administrative, electoral, health and other area geographies. It also links postcodes to pre-2002 health areas, 1991 Census enumeration districts for England and Wales, 2001 Census Output Areas (OA) and Super Output Areas (SOA) for England and Wales, 2001 Census OAs and SOAs for Northern Ireland and 2001 Census OAs and Data Zones (DZ) for Scotland. It now contains 2021 Census OAs and SOAs for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It helps support the production of area-based statistics from postcoded data. The ONSPD is produced by ONS Geography, who provide geographic support to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and geographic services used by other organisations. The ONSPD is issued quarterly. (File size - 231 MB) Please note that this product contains Royal Mail, Gridlink, LPS (Northern Ireland), Ordnance Survey and ONS Intellectual Property Rights.

UK Postcode Directory

Geocode UK Postcodes & Identify Geographical Hierarchies

By GetTheData [source]

About this dataset

This Open Postcode Geo dataset contains a wealth of information about UK postcodes. For each postcode, there are several geospace attributes you can use to refine your analysis such as latitude, longitude, easting and northing. Moreover, the positional quality indicator provides a range of accuracy levels for each geospace attribute.

In addition to positioning data, this dataset has been derived from the Office for National Statistics' Postcode Directory which gives users extra insights into postcodes such as postcode areas, districts and sectors — enabling them to accurately group records into geographic hierarchies: perfect for mapping applications and statistical analysis!

And with data coming from multiple sources — The Crown Copyright & Database Right (2016), Royal Mail Copyright & Database Right (2016) & ONS ™ - users can be assured that Open Postcode Geo provides accurate and up-to-date results that cover terminated archives as well as smaller user-generated postcodes! All released under the UK Government's Open Government Licence v3; with attribution required pursuant to ONS Licences info... Now you too have access to powerful spatial information about the United Kingdom; helping you gain unparalleled insight in record time

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Research Ideas

• Use this dataset to combine with other datasets to accurately geocode addresses in a variety of formats, such as full postcodes or postcodes with only one digit missing.
• Utilise the different hierarchy levels including postcode area, district and sector for data visualization and analysis on census data collected by specific area in the UK.
• Feed this dataset into a route optimization algorithm so delivery routes can be quickly optimized between different locations using accurate lat-long coordinates from each address

Acknowledgements

If you use this dataset in your research, please credit the original authors. Data Source

License

See the dataset description for more information.

Columns

File: open_postcode_geo.csv | Column name | Description | |:---------------|:------------------------------| | AB1 0AA | Postcode (String) | | terminated | Terminated postcode (String) | | small | Small postcode (String) | | 385386 | Easting coordinate (Integer) | | 801193 | Northing coordinate (Integer) | | Scotland | Country name (String) | | 57.101474 | Latitude coordinate (Float) | | -2.242851 | Longitude coordinate (Float) | | AB10AA | Postcode area (String) | | AB1 0AA.1 | Postcode district (String) | | AB1 0AA | Postcode sector (String) | | AB1.1 | Postcode area (String) |

Acknowledgements

If you use this dataset in your research, please credit the original authors. If you use this dataset in your research, please credit GetTheData.

Postcode area and district polygons derived from Ordnance Survey Open Data using R and GRASS. Method used was creating voronoi polygons from point postcode data and dissolving boundaries based on postcode area and district attributes.Contains OS data © Crown Copyright and database rightFile descriptions:postcode_polygons.gpkg: geopackage file containing two polygon layers: postcode_area and postcode_district.postcode_aggregator.R: R script to extract area and district from full postcode.postcode_aggregator.sh: GRASS/Bash script to convert point postcode data into polygons.postcode_overview.png: image of polygons available.

A lookup between postcodes and postcode sectors, postcode districts and postcode areas as at March 2021 in England and Wales (File size 5MB).

UK postcodes with the below additional geospace fields:

• Latitude
• Longitude
• Easting
• Northing
• Positional quality indicator
• Postcode area
• Postcode district
• Postcode sector
• Outcode
• Incode
• Country

Usecases

• Geocode any dataset containing UK postcodes using either latitude and longitude or northing and easting.
• Geocode older data using terminated postcodes.
• Recognise postcodes in a variety of different formats, for example "RG2 6AA" and "RG26AA".
• Group records into geographical hierarchies using postcode area, postcode district and postcode sector (see below graphic).

https://www.getthedata.com/images/postcode_map.png" alt="Geographical hierarchy of postcode area, district, sector and unit postcode">

Format of a UK Postcode

https://www.getthedata.com/images/postcode_format.png" alt="Format of a UK Postcode">

Documentation

Full documentation is available on the Open Postcode Geo homepage:

https://www.getthedata.com/open-postcode-geo

Version

August 2016.

Updated quarterly, for the most up to date version please see:

https://www.getthedata.com/open-postcode-geo

API

Open Postcode Geo is also available as an API.

Licence

UK Open Government Licence

Attribution required (see ONS Licences for more info):

• Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right (2016)
• Contains Royal Mail data © Royal Mail copyright and Database right (2016)
• Contains National Statistics data © Crown copyright and database right (2016)

Derived from the ONS Postcode Directory.

Acknowledgements

Open Postcode Geo was created and is maintained by GetTheData, an open data portal organising UK open data geographically and signposting the source.

Dataset contains polygons corresponding to the top level (Postcode Area) of the GB Postcode Hierarchy. Thiessen polygons were generated from all records in OS OpenData Code-Point Open. Resulting coverage was dissolved up to postcode area level and then clipped to GB extent of the realm using OS OpenData Boundary-Line. Names of postcode areas were added from Wikipedia. GIS vector data. This dataset was first accessioned in the EDINA ShareGeo Open repository on 2010-07-22 and migrated to Edinburgh DataShare on 2017-02-21.

A lookup between postcodes and postcode sectors, postcode districts, postcode areas and 2021 Census Output Areas as at August 2022 in England and Wales (File size 13MB).

This dataset represents the Postal Boundaries for 2012. Included in the zip file are postcode Areas (AB, EH,..), districts (AB1, AB2,..) and sectors (AB1 1, AB1 2, ..). This data was sourced from Geolytix (https://blog.geolytix.net/2012-11-20-postal-sector-boundaries-by-geolytix/). The source data is released under a OGL licence which allows users to use the data without charge but requires them to attribute the following: Postal Boundaries (c) GeoLytix copyright and database right 2012 Contains Ordnance Survey data (c) Crown copyright and database right 2012 Contains Royal Mail data (c) Royal Mail copyright and database right 2012 Contains National Statistics data (c) Crown copyright and database right 2012. GIS vector data. This dataset was first accessioned in the EDINA ShareGeo Open repository on 2014-03-14 and migrated to Edinburgh DataShare on 2017-02-22.

This file contains the National Statistics Postcode Lookup (NSPL) for the United Kingdom as at May 2022 in Comma Separated Variable (CSV) and ASCII text (TXT) formats. To download the zip file click the Download button. The NSPL relates both current and terminated postcodes to a range of current statutory geographies via ‘best-fit’ allocation from the 2011 Census Output Areas (national parks and Workplace Zones are exempt from ‘best-fit’ and use ‘exact-fit’ allocations). It supports the production of area based statistics from postcoded data. The NSPL is produced by ONS Geography, who provide geographic support to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and geographic services used by other organisations. The NSPL is issued quarterly. (File size - 196 MB).

This data collection consists of UK postcodes with additional geospace fields including easting, northing, latitude, longitude, positional quality indicator, postcode area, postcode district, postcode sector, outcode, incode.

Designed for applications which require a dataset of addresses to be geocoded, or organised in a geographical hierarchy based on postcode.

Derived from the ONS Postcode Directory which is licensed under the Open Government Licence(see Related Resources). Updated quarterly.

This is the ONS Postcode Directory (ONSPD) for the United Kingdom as at February 2025 in Comma Separated Variable (CSV) and ASCII text (TXT) formats. This file contains the multi CSVs so that postcode areas can be opened in MS Excel. To download the zip file click the Download button. The ONSPD relates both current and terminated postcodes in the United Kingdom to a range of current statutory administrative, electoral, health and other area geographies. It also links postcodes to 2001 Census Output Areas (OA) and Super Output Areas (SOA) for England and Wales, 2001 Census OAs and SOAs for Northern Ireland and 2001 Census OAs and Data Zones (DZ) for Scotland. It also contains 2021 Census OAs and SOAs for England, Wales and Northern Ireland and 2021 Census OAs DZs and Intermediate Zones (IZ) for Scotland. It helps support the production of area-based statistics from postcoded data. The ONSPD is produced by ONS Geography, who provide geographic support to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and geographic services used by other organisations. The ONSPD is issued quarterly. (File size - 234 MB) Please note that this product contains Royal Mail, Gridlink, LPS (Northern Ireland), Ordnance Survey and ONS Intellectual Property Rights.

Postal Areas (POA)

Postal Areas (POAs) are designed to approximate postcode boundaries, as closely as possible. There is not a one-for-one correspondence between Australia Post postcodes and POAs, but these are a good starting point for comparison of Census data with other data collected using postcodes.

Census Postal Areas exclude non-mappable Australia Post postcodes such as:

• post office box postcodes
• some delivery route postcodes, which are also covered by other postcodes (a situation which often occurs in rural areas)
• some postcodes which, because of the application of the 'best fit' principle, do not get a Mesh Block allocated to them.

​

Australian Bureau of Statistics (Jul2021-Jun2026), Data services and APIs, ABS Website, accessed 25 July 2023.

https://www.abs.gov.au/website-privacy-copyright-and-disclaimer#copyright-and-creative-commons

1,572,685 polygon records with EASTING,NORTHING and PAREA (postcode area) fields. Individual polygons could be aggregated using PAREA field and entire coverage clipped to a coastline dataset to give a GB Postcode Area dataset. Dataset created by reducing all records in Code-Point Open to a unique point set based on Easting & Northing, allocating the most frequently occurring postcode area at each unique location by sub-stringing unit postcode labels and then creating a thiessen polygon coverage from the pointset in arcinfo workstation. GIS vector data. This dataset was first accessioned in the EDINA ShareGeo Open repository on 2010-09-13 and migrated to Edinburgh DataShare on 2017-02-21.

This is the ONS Postcode Directory (ONSPD) for the West Midlands Combined Authorities, containing comprehensive postcode data for the region.

The ONS Postcode Directory relates both current and terminated postcodes in the United Kingdom to a wide range of current statutory administrative, electoral, health and other area geographies. It also links postcodes to pre-2002 health areas, 1991 Census enumeration districts for England and Wales, 2001 Census Output Areas (OA) and Super Output Areas (SOA) for England and Wales, as well as Wards and Constituencies.

Every postcode record in the ONSPD is produced by ONS Geography, who provide geographic support to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and geographic services used by other organisations. The postcode data is issued quarterly. Please note that this product contains Royal Mail, Gridlink, LPS (Northern Ireland), Ordnance Survey and ONS Intellectual Property Rights.

Data is updated quarterly. See https://geoportal.statistics.gov.uk/ for the full release schedule.To view previous versions see the Snapshots section on the Export tab.

      ℹ️

        Release



            August 2025

⚠️

Important Note

 Since the August 2024 release, the dataset now includes the new 2024 constituencies. You can use our Boundaries - Constituencies (2024) dataset to work with this new geography.
 This dataset will always contain the latest iteration of the postcodes file, ensuring you have access to the most up-to-date postcode mapping for analysis.

Postcode district grid references are created and maintained by National Records of Scotland (NRS). Grid references are calculated based on the Royal Mail Delivery Point Count of the postcodes within the postcode district, while ensuring that the centroid is located inside the boundary.

NRS publish these grid references twice a year as part of the Scottish Postcode Directory (SPD) which should be considered the definitive source for postcode geographies in Scotland.

Open Postcode Geo is a postcode dataset and API optimised for geocoding applications. You can use Open Postcode Geo to geocode a dataset, geocode user input, and therefore build a proximity search.

Data is derived from the ONS (Office for National Statistics) postcode database and is free to use, subject to including attributions to ONS, OS (Ordinance Survey) and Royal Mail.

Information is also provided on a range of topics, including education, health, crime, business, etc.

Postcodes can be entered at area, district, sector, and unit level - see Postcode map for the geographical relationship between these.

The Locality and Postcode Areas dataset depicts the authoritative boundaries and names of localities. A locality is an administrative area which uniquely defines the name of a place to enable street addressing. In metropolitan areas it may also be referred to as a âsuburbâ. Every locality has been defined with boundaries that do not overlap with other localities. Because of its unique name and unambiguous boundaries, a locality provides the official reference point for addressing purposes. A locality may include a town having the same name Locality Boundaries generally extend to High Water Mark and may not include uninhabitable offshore rocks and small islands. Larger named islands which are not included in this dataset will, if required for addressing or location purposes, use the official island feature name as the locality. Attributes include: The approved locality name (NAME); The Postal Code assigned by Australia Post for a locality (POSTCODE); The plan reference of the Central Plans Office plan that defined the initial locality (PLAN_REF); The Gazettal date for the proclamation first proclaiming the locality (GAZ_DATE) The Place Names Advisory Panel (formally Nomenclature Board of Tasmania) approves the Locality boundaries and names, and Postcodes have been assigned by Australia Post.

All regional statistics at Eurostat refer to NUTS. However, some data collections use postcodes to reference the geographic location. Therefore, Eurostat has established a link between postcodes and NUTS level 3 codes in order to exploit information which originally is coded only by postcodes.

Various projects in Eurostat and other services of the Commission as well as the European Investment Bank have expressed their need for a link between postcodes and NUTS codes. The most important application at Eurostat is in transport statistics where the information is used to identify the flows of goods transport on roads. Another application is to geo-code address registers with the regional NUTS codes because postcodes are generally available as part of the address.

The TERCET NUTS-postal codes matching tables contain a lookup-list of European postal codes and their corresponding NUTS codes for the NUTS versions 2010, 2013, 2016 and 2021. There are matching tables for most of the EU, Candidate, EFTA and the United Kingdom. Eurostat has applied a number of quality assurance measures to ensure the best possible quality of the data including formatting checks, checks for completeness of postal codes and checks for spatial accuracy of the geocoding.

Additional tables containing distance matrixes for different modes of transport are provided.

Nevertheless, due to the very diverse and complex situation in Europe for postal codes data we cannot guarantee that all postal codes are included and have been correctly matched. Should you detect any errors, we would be grateful if you could notify them to us at ESTAT-USER-SUPPORT@ec.europa.eu. The matching tables have been created with data and tools that allow for their free and public distribution for statistical and other non-commercial purposes.

More information on quality assurance and data sources can be found in the methodological notes.

KNOWN ISSUES FOR NUTS (as of 15/07/2020) * Malta has only higher level Postal districts * Data for CY has gaps for NUTS 2021, GISCO is working on improving the coverage. * Data for Albania and Montenegro are missing, GISCO is looking into improving the coverage.