The ONS Postcode Directory (ONSPD) relates both current and terminated

postcodes A postal code (also known locally in various English-speaking countries throughout the world as a postcode, post code, PIN or ZIP Code) is a series of letters or digits or both, sometimes including spaces or punctuation, included in a postal ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

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 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 The Office for National Statistics (ONS; ) is the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority, a non-ministerial department which reports directly to the Parliament of the United Kingdom, UK Parliament. Overview The ONS is responsible fo ...

(ONS) and geographic services used by other organisations. The ONSPD is issued quarterly. The ONSPD is available for free download in comma separated variable (CSV) format and ASCII text (TXT) formats from the

ONS Open Geography Portal The ONS Open Geography portal from the Office for National Statistics The Office for National Statistics (ONS; ) is the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority, a non-ministerial department which reports directly to the Parliament of ...

. The supplied file contains multi CSVs so that postcode areas can be opened in MS Excel. The ONSPD reflects current and terminated postcodes using information supplied monthly by

Royal Mail Royal Mail Group Limited, trading as Royal Mail, is a British postal service and courier company. It is owned by International Distribution Services. It operates the brands Royal Mail (letters and parcels) and Parcelforce Worldwide (parcels) ...

. It relates postcodes (as at the third Friday of the month prior to each release) to administrative and electoral areas as at the preceding May and to the latest known health areas. The area assignments for postcodes in Scotland are to the latest electoral wards and council areas. The area assignments for postcodes in Northern Ireland are to the latest electoral wards and district council areas. The ONSPD uses the

Government Statistical Service The Government Statistical Service (GSS) is the community of all civil servants in the United Kingdom who work in the collection, production and communication of official statistics. It includes not only statisticians, but also economists, socia ...

(GSS) standard 9-character codes throughout and lookup files linking these codes to statutory area names are provided. Each record in the ONSPD contains the following fields: *Unit postcode – 7 character version *Unit postcode – 8 character version *Unit postcode – variable length version *Date of introduction *Date of termination *

Non-metropolitan county A non-metropolitan county, or colloquially, shire county, is a subdivision of England used for local government. The non-metropolitan counties were originally created in 1974 as part of a reform of local government in England and Wales, and ...

*County Electoral Division *

Local Authority District The districts of England (officially, local authority districts, abbreviated LADs) are a level of Subdivisions of England, subnational division of England used for the purposes of Local government in England, local government. As the structure ...

(LAD) /

unitary authority A unitary authority is a type of local government, local authority in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Unitary authorities are responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are ...

(UA) /

metropolitan district A metropolitan borough (or metropolitan district) is a type of local government district in England. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972, metropolitan boroughs are defined in English law as metropolitan districts within metropol ...

(MD) /

London borough The London boroughs are the current 32 districts of England, local authority districts that together with the City of London make up the administrative area of Greater London, England; each is governed by a London borough council. The present ...

(LB) / (Scottish)

council area {{Unreferenced, date=May 2019, bot=noref (GreenC bot) A council area is one of the areas defined in Schedule 1 of the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994 and is under the control of one of the local authorities in Scotland created by that Ac ...

(CA) * Electoral ward / division *

Parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

community A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...

*Postcode user type (small / large) * National Grid reference – Easting *National Grid reference – Northing *Grid reference positional quality indicator (1–9) *Former

strategic health authority Strategic health authorities (SHA) were part of the structure of the National Health Service in England between 2002 and 2013. Each SHA was responsible for managing performance, enacting directives and implementing health policy as required by the ...

(SHA) – England / local health board (LHB) – Wales / health board (HB) – Scotland / Health authority (HA) – Channels Islands – Isle of Man /

Health and Social Care Board The Health and Social Care Board was, until 2022, an organisation responsible for the commissioning of health services for the people of Northern Ireland. Creation The Health and Social Care (Reform) Act (Northern Ireland) 2009 followed the Rev ...

(HSCB) – Northern Ireland *NHS England (Region) (NHS ER) *

Country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, state with limited recognition, constituent country, ...

Region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...

(former GOR) * (Former) standard statistical region (SSR) * Westminster parliamentary constituency * European electoral region (EER) * Local Learning and Skills Council (LLSC) – England / Dept. of Children, Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills (DCELLS) – Wales / Enterprise Region (ER) – Scotland *

Travel to work area A travel to work area (TTWA) is a statistical tool used by UK Government agencies and local authorities, especially by the Department for Work and Pensions and Jobcentres, to indicate an area where the population would generally commute to a ...

(TTWA) *

Primary care trust Primary care trusts (PCTs) were part of the National Health Service in England from 2001 to 2013. PCTs were largely administrative bodies, responsible for commissioning primary, community and secondary health services from providers. Until 31 May ...

(PCT) /

care trust An NHS trust is an organisational unit within the National Health Services of England and Wales, generally serving either a geographical area or a specialised function (such as an ambulance service). In any particular location there may be several ...

/ Care Trust Plus (CT) / local health board (LHB) – Wales / Community Health Partnership (CHP) – Scotland / local commissioning group (LCG) – Northern Ireland / Primary Healthcare Directorate (PHD) – Isle of Man *International Territorial Level (ITL) / LAU1 *2005 ‘statistical’ ward (England and Wales only) *2001 Census Output Area (OA) *Census Area Statistics (CAS) ward *

National park A national park is a nature park designated for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes because of unparalleled national natural, historic, or cultural significance. It is an area of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that is protecte ...

*2001 Census Lower Layer Super Output Area (LSOA) / Data Zone (DZ) / Super Output Area (SOA) *2001 Census Middle Layer Super Output Area (MSOA) / Intermediate Zone (IZ) *2001 Census urban/rural indicator *2001 Census Output Area classification (OAC) *2011 Census Output Area (OA) / Small Area (SA) *2011 Census Lower Layer Super Output Area (LSOA) / Data Zone (DZ) / SOA *2011 Census Middle Layer Super Output Area (MSOA) / Intermediate Zone (IZ) *2011 Census Workplace Zone (WZ) *

Clinical commissioning group Clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) were National Health Service (England), National Health Service (NHS) organisations set up by the Health and Social Care Act 2012 to replace Strategic health authority, strategic health authorities and NHS pr ...

(CCG) – England / local health board (LHB) – Wales / Community Health Partnership (CHP) – Scotland / local commissioning group (LCG) – Northern Ireland / Primary Healthcare Directorate (PHD) – Isle of Man *

Built-up area Buildup may refer to: * Atomic buildup In atomic physics and quantum chemistry, the Aufbau principle (, from ), also called the Aufbau rule, states that in the ground state of an atom or ion, electrons first fill Electron shell#Subshells, sub ...

(BUA) *Built-up Area Sub-division (BUASD) *2011 Census rural-urban classification *2011 Census Output Area classification (OAC) *Decimal degrees latitude *Decimal degrees longitude *

Local Enterprise Partnership In England, local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) were voluntary partnerships between local authorities and businesses, set up in 2011 by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to help determine local economic priorities and lead ec ...

(LEP) – first instance *Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) – second instance * Police force area (PFA) *

Index of Multiple Deprivation Index (: indexes or indices) may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities * Index (''A Certain Magical Index''), a character in the light novel series ''A Certain Magical Index'' * The Index, an item on the Halo Array in the ...

(IMD) *Cancer Alliance / National Cancer Vanguard (CALNCV)NHS Englan
Guidance for Cancer Alliances and the National Cancer Vanguard
Retrieved 23 June 2019 * Sustainability and transformation partnership (STP)

References

{{reflist

External links

Open Geography Portal
Office for National Statistics Demographics of England Demographics of Wales Demographics of Scotland Geodemographic databases Geographical databases in the United Kingdom National statistical services Statistical organisations in the United Kingdom