+44 (0)113 234 4000Royal Mail Postcode Data UK
Geo-Referenced Postcode Points Data UK
Graticule supply annual licences for geo-coded postcode points data of the UK from the Royal Mail. Revised every six months, the latest revision is to August 2010. Each postcode point is geo-referenced to its location using Easting and Northing coordinates in the National Grid of Grid Britain and Northern Ireland or Longitude and Latitude coordinates in the world coordinate system known as the WGS84 spheroid. Postcode points data is available at four different levels of accuracy in terms of specifying location and with several optional additional types of data as follows:
- Postcode Area Points Data, UK
- Postcode Area Points specify the centroid of each of the 128 postal areas in the UK. The first two letters of a postcode represent a postcode area. For example, Aberdeen - AB, Leeds - LS. All of the Postcode Points Data files contain an ASCII text record as a comma separated value (CSV) file and have a similar structure: Postcode Area, Easting Coordinate, Northing Coordinate, Optional Additional Fields.
- Postcode District Points Data, UK
- Each postcode area is divided into a number of districts. The Postcode District Points specify the centroid of each of some 4,500 postcode districts in the UK. This corresponds to the first three letters of a postcode. E.g. AB1 - Aberdeen, district 1; LS2 - Leeds, District 2.
- Postcode Sector Points Data, UK
- Each district is sub-divided into a number of postcode sectors. The Postcode Sector Points data specifies the centroid of each postcode sector in the UK. There are about 9,600 postcode sectors. A postcode sector corresponds to the first three parts of a postcode in the UK: e.g. AB1 2 - Aberdeen area, district 1, sector 2; LS2 9 - Leeds, district 2, sector 9.
- Postcode Unit Data, UK
- Postcode units refer to a single building such as an office or farm or a group of 10-15 suburban residential addresses on one side of a street. Postcode units represent the highest level of accuracy of specifying location and use the full postcode string in the UK. e.g. AB1 2DE - Aberdeen area, district 1, sector 2 and unit DE.
The above sets of geo-referenced postcode points data of the UK have many applications including plotting locations of contact addresses on maps, specifying the start and end points of a journey using two postcodes rather than Easting and Northing co-ordinates of two points,measuring distances by road between postcodes and geo-referencing addresses using postcodes for mail sorting.
Graticule supply annual licences for use of the Royal Mail Postcode Points UK data in two products, each of which include one update:
- 1. Postcode Area, District and Sector Points Data UK
- 2. Postcode Unit Data UK
Formats
- ASCII Text Comma Separated Value File (CSV) or Binary format.