Register of Geographic Codes: Definitive UK Statistical Geographies (May 2023)

ONS maintains the definitive list of UK statistical geographies, coordinating new codes and maintaining relationships between active and archived code ranges. The 20 MB product is maintained by the Government Digital Service on behalf of the Government Statistical Service. Users must consult the separate Code History Database for complete historical context.

Use Cases

• Standardizing geographic identifiers for UK data analysis based on the definitive list of codes.
• Mapping and visualizing UK administrative regions based on the maintained statistical geographies.
• Linking datasets using consistent official geographic codes for the Government Statistical Service.
• Tracking changes in boundary definitions over time when used with the companion Code History Database.

Strengths

• Definitive list maintained by the UK's Office for National Statistics (ONS).
• Explicitly maintains relationships between active and archived code ranges.
• File size is specified as 20 MB, indicating a substantial data product.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale projects.
• Data is from May 2023; freshness should be verified against more recent releases.

Provenance

Source

Government Digital Service

Collection Method

Maintained and coordinated by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Time Range

May 2023

Freshness

Last updated 2025 08 11 08:17:32; temporal coverage is May 2023.

Geography

United Kingdom