National Statistics Postcode Lookup for the UK, February 2022

United Kingdom postcodes linked to statutory geographies via best-fit allocation from 2011 Census Output Areas. The dataset is produced by ONS Geography and issued quarterly, supporting area-based statistics from postcoded data. It is provided in CSV and TXT formats as a 196 MB file.

Use Cases

• Generate area-based statistics based on postcode-to-geography linkages mentioned in the description
• Map current and terminated postcodes to administrative regions based on the 'best-fit' allocation method
• Support geographic analysis for public policy or business planning based on the linkage to 2011 Census geographies

Strengths

• File size is explicitly stated as 196 MB, indicating a substantial dataset.
• Data is produced by the authoritative ONS Geography team for the UK.
• Links both current and terminated postcodes, providing historical coverage.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• The snapshot is from February 2022; more recent quarterly updates may be available.

Provenance

Source

Office for National Statistics (ONS) Geography

Collection Method

Best-fit and exact-fit allocation from 2011 Census Output Areas.

Time Range

Snapshot as of February 2022.

Freshness

Last updated 2025-08-11 07:51:32; dataset is issued quarterly.

Geography

United Kingdom