ONS Postcode Directory: UK Geographic Linkages

ONS Postcode Directory (ONSPD) links UK postcodes, including terminated ones, to administrative, electoral, health, and census geographies. It supports the production of area-based statistics from postcoded data. The directory is produced quarterly by ONS Geography and contains intellectual property from Royal Mail, Ordnance Survey, and other national mapping agencies.

Use Cases

• Aggregating statistics by local authority based on postcode linkages.
• Mapping customer data to health regions using the provided geographic codes.
• Linking historical postcode data to 2001 Census Output Areas for longitudinal studies.
• Validating address data against current and terminated postcode records.

Strengths

• Covers both current and terminated UK postcodes, providing historical continuity.
• Links to multiple census geographies, including 2001 and 2021/2022 Output Areas and Super Output Areas.
• Updated quarterly, suggesting relatively frequent revisions.

Limitations

• Specific column names and row counts are not provided in the source metadata.
• Contains intellectual property from multiple organizations (Royal Mail, Ordnance Survey), which may restrict use.
• File size for one version is noted as 2.31 GB, indicating a large dataset that may require significant resources to handle.

Provenance

Source

Office for National Statistics (ONS Geography)

Collection Method

Produced by ONS Geography as an official statistical product.

Time Range

Contains data up to the snapshot dates (February 2026, May 2026). Links to census geographies from 2001, 2021, and 2022.

Freshness

Last updated on platform: 2026-06-03. Data snapshots are for February 2026 and May 2026.

Geography

United Kingdom (England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland).