Register of Geographic Codes: UK Statistical Geographies (November 2020)

ONS maintains the definitive list of UK statistical geographies, including codes for MSOAs, Local Authority Districts, and Built-up Areas. The dataset is a key product for the Government Statistical Service and should be used with the separate Code History Database. The platform record was last updated on 2025-08-11.

Use Cases

• Link socio-economic data to specific areas based on definitive statistical geography codes.
• Maintain temporal consistency in analyses using the relationship between active and archived code ranges.
• Standardize geographic reporting across government departments using the authoritative ONS-maintained list.

Strengths

• Definitive list maintained by the UK's Office for National Statistics (ONS) on behalf of the Government Statistical Service.
• Includes relationships between different geographic hierarchies, such as MSOAs with Local Authority District codes.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.

Provenance

Source

Government Digital Service

Collection Method

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

Time Range

Snapshot from November 2020.

Freshness

Last updated 2025-08-11 07:50:44; freshness should be verified.

Geography

United Kingdom.