UK Postcode Data

PostZon and PAF derived data from the Royal Mail

Graticule's postcode data are derived from the Royal Mail's official and fully verified Postzon and Postcode Address File databases.

• Postzon Postcode Points

  • Level of detail

    Graticule can provide postcode data at two levels of detail:

    The Postcode ADS data provides a database of postcode areas (eg. LS), districts (eg. LS2) and sectors (eg. LS2 9) in the UK. Sector level postcodes cover an area of around 3 miles (although this varies heavily between rural and urban areas) and around 2,500 households. The database contains the centre-point of each of these regions. It provides approximate placement but the smaller dataset (around 10,000 entries) allows much faster searching.

    The Postcode Unit covers an area of approximately 15 houses or a single large business. It provides more precise co-ordinate placement but has over 1.7 million entries so can be slow to search.

    Applications

    The co-ordinates are perfect for locating postcodes onto visual digital maps. Graticule use this database in the PostcodeAnalyst 3 application to plot postcodes onto raster and vector maps.

    Using the postcodes to provide co-ordinates for the starting and ending location, it is simple to derive distance by straight line, or to incorporate vector map data and calculate distance by road. These databases are used in Graticule's PostcodeCalculator and Routefinda applications.

    This database is the key for any website designer looking to incorporate a 'Find my Nearest' or any location based functionality to a website and is also provided as part of Graticule's Web Postcode Toolkits.

    Features

    All Postcode Points data are supplied with co-ordinates in the Great Britain National Grid as standard. The datasets can additionally or alternatively be supplied with Latitude and Longitude co-ordinates in the International Standard WGS84 spheroid as used by most GPS applications.

    In addition, each Postcode can include the following information about its location:
    • Postcode Area name (AB = Aberdeen)
    • Local Government District (in Scotland, Council Area)
    • Region (broad areas - North West, South East etc.)
    • County (in England, 'ceremonial counties', in Wales 'preserved counties')
    • Country (England, Wales, Scotland, NI)

    More information

    Annual licences are available for single user, internet and server applications and full updates are provided every 6 months.

    Data is available for the whole of the UK, or for smaller regions (down to a single postcode area).

    Postcode Point data is provided as a standard ASCII CSV file.

    For a quote and free sample dataset, contact our sales team.




• PAF Postcode Address File

  • Application and Details

    The Royal Mail Postcode Address File (PAF) is the most up-to-date and complete address database in the UK, containing all of the valid UK addresses of both businesses and households.

    It is used extensively in Address Management software to help provide a full address from a postcode, find a full address from a fragment, conform and correct addresses in a database and verify addresses on online submission forms. For any firm looking to create their own software with the same features, the PAF data is essential.

    Features

    • The PAF database contains over 28 million delivery points in the UK.
    • Includes up-to-date information about each address in the UK including the full information for building an address: organisation, building name and number, street name, locality, post town, county and postcode.
    • User Catagory distinguishes between residental, non-residental and large user (ie. large company) addresses
    • As supplied by Graticule, the PAF data also includes Postzon co-ordinate points for geolocating.

    More information

    Annual licences are available for single user, internet and server applications and full updates are provided every 6 months.

    The British National Grid and Latitude/Longitude co-ordinates are included for each postcode unit that has a geographic location.

    PAF data is supplied in ASCII Text Comma Separate Value (.csv) format. Due to the file size (up to 4Gb) it is provided on DVD.

    For a quote and free sample dataset, contact our sales team.