List of postcodes and corresponding local authorities

FOI REF: FOI-2023-1331

You asked

Please can you provide me with a list of UK postcodes and the Local Authority they fall under? Please also supply the local authority contact details.

we said

Thank you for your request. 

The latest ONS postcode directory is available to download from our Open Geography portal via the following link: Open Geography Portal.

The associated download 'ONSPD User Guide Aug 2023' contains details of how to use the postcode directory. 

The associated download 'UK Postcodes and LAD August 2023' contains Postcodes and Local Authority District (LAD) for the UK for August 2023. Please note however, there are 10,799 postcodes in the file which cannot be assigned to a LAD as they have no grid reference.

Royal Mail maintains a UK-wide system of postcodes to identify postal delivery areas. Most people know their postcode, so ONS use this as a geographic reference when collecting data. This reference can then be related to any geographic unit used for statistical production. 

However, you should be aware that there are around 1.6m postcodes in use within England and Wales, created for postal delivery purposes. The majority of these are used to cover residential addresses, with around 15 addresses on average per postcode. 

The addresses covered by individual postcodes do not necessarily follow administrative boundaries. Whilst the majority of addresses for individual postcodes will fall within the same local authority, there are around 15,000 postcodes containing addresses which straddle local authority boundaries.  

Also, postcode boundaries are subject to continuous change due to new addresses, single addresses acquiring 'large user' status as mail volume increases, and the need to restrict the number of addresses per unit to less than 100. Areas can also be recoded and postcodes can be re-used in a different place after just two years. 

A list of local council contact details can be found via the following link to the Local Government Agency website.

Correction Notice

The file previously uploaded has been found to have missing data, containing only postcodes beginning with A-H.

The new file now contains all UK Postcodes.