ONS UPRN Directory: User Guide for Address and Postcode Data

ONS UPRN Directory (July 2023) User Guide is a document from the Government Digital Service explaining the UK's Unique Property Reference Number directory. The guide covers directory content, data currency, methodology for assigning areas to postcodes, data formats, quality, limitations, and recent changes. It was last updated on the platform on August 11, 2025.

Use Cases

• Understand the methodology for assigning administrative areas to postcodes based on the guide's description.
• Assess data quality and limitations for UK address data integration projects.
• Review recent changes impacting the ONS UPRN directory data for temporal analysis.

Strengths

• Includes detailed methodology for area-to-postcode assignment as mentioned in the description.
• Provides information on data quality and limitations, offering transparency.
• Contains annexes and tables with supporting information for reference.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The guide is from July 2023, while the platform update is from 2025; data freshness should be verified.

Provenance

Source

Government Digital Service

Collection Method

Likely compiled by the UK's Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Time Range

Directory reference is July 2023.

Freshness

Last updated 2025-08-11 08:18:23; freshness should be verified

Geography

United Kingdom