Ordnance Survey – Great Britain's national mapping agency
![Ordnance Survey home page [logo]](/images/gui/logo-os.gif){kind=logo}
Technical Information
|
Specification |
Code-Point® |
|
Coverage |
United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland) |
|
Availability |
Order by: United Kingdom |
|
Data source |
The source of the postcodes is the Royal Mail Group PAF® data, which has been continuously updated since 1974, and Postzon® data from 1999. Code-Point is produced quarterly using updates from the Gridlink® dataset and Ordnance Survey field survey updates, creating the National Grid references (and associated attribution) for each postcode centroid in Code-Point to a resolution of 1 metre. |
|
Data structure |
Vector |
|
Transfer format |
National Transfer Format (NTF) v2.0 Level 2 - [BS 7567] Comma Separated Values (CSV) |
|
Storage volumes |
NTF 259Mb CSV 138Mb |
|
Number of postcode units |
May 2008 release. |
|
Supply media |
CD |
|
Coordinate resolution |
1 metre |
|
Update interval |
Updates are quarterly-February, May, August and November |
|
Styling |
A separate symbol set is not supplied with this product |
|
Geometric types |
Point |
|
Coordinate reference system |
British National Grid (OSGB36®). Code-Point data is supplied tothe British National Grid (OSGB36) and for (BT postcodes the Northern Ireland Grid configuration European Datum 1950 (ED50) |
|
Unique Identifier |
The postcodes within Code-Point are the unique identifieres. As the postcode is the identifier it will be persistant for the lifetime of the postcode as determined by Royal Mail®. |
Code-Point data structures
The Code-Point CD-ROM contains two folders in the root directory: DOC and DATA.
The DOC folder contains the following files:
Readme- a file summarising copyright and licensing information that must be read and understood before any of the DATA files are opened.
- CD_INFO- a file summarising the content and file structure of the CD-ROM.
- DISCCARE.TXT- a file summarising recommendations on the handling and storage of CD-ROMS.
Codelist.txt- derived from Boundary-LineTM,lists the numbers of the postcode units in each postcode area and the data of the most recent version of the Royal Mail PAF that has been incorporated into the data.
The data folder contains the following sub-folders:
- CSV- Contains 121 postcode area files in CSV format.
- NTF- Contains 121 postcode area files in NTF.
NHS is a registered trademark of Department of Health.
PAF, Postzon, and Royal Mail are registered trademarks of Royal Mail Group plc.
Record attributes for Code-Point
- Postcode unit (for example, SO16 4GU).
- Positional quality indicator (providing information about the accuracy of the postcode location).
- PO box indicator – a flag that indicates whether the postcode contains only PO Boxes.
- Total number of delivery points (addresses) in the postcode unit.
- Number of delivery points in the Addressing data with the same 'positional quality indicator' as that allocated to the Code-Point postcode record.
- Number of domestic delivery points in the postcode unit.
- Number of non-domestic delivery points in the postcode unit.
- Number of PO boxes in the postcode unit.
- Number of delivery points in the Addressing data not allocated accurate coordinates.
- Ordnance Survey National Grid co-ordinates.
- Source currency indicator.
- Administrative and NHS area codes.
Sample data
The following self-extracting archives of data are available for download:
If you haven't downloaded or used sample data before, we recommend that you read our guidance notes.
User guide
The user guide contains information on the technical specification and product specification for Code-Point to help you understand how to use the data.
Code-Point user guide (2 MB PDF file)