How many postcodes in England, Scotland and Wales?
| Nation | Postcodes in use | Share |
|---|---|---|
| England | 1,495,007 | 85% |
| Scotland | 161,855 | 9% |
| Wales | 92,247 | 5% |
| Great Britain | 1,749,109 | 100% |
Northern Ireland's postcodes all start BT. We do not hold them: the Office for National Statistics says the Northern Ireland postcodes need a separate licence for commercial use. We do not hold the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man either. So the number of postcodes in the whole UK is higher than the figure on this page, and we do not quote a UK total we have not counted.
Licences for ONS geography productsHow many postcode areas and districts are there?
In Great Britain, our copy holds 120 postcode areas, 2,872 postcode districts and 10,875 postcode sectors with at least one postcode in use. An area is the letters a postcode starts with, a district is the first half of a postcode, and a sector is the district plus the next digit.
See every postcode areaThe largest and smallest postcode areas
| Postcode area | Postcodes in use | Districts |
|---|---|---|
| BBirmingham | 41,844 | 78 |
| SSheffield | 34,522 | 52 |
| NENewcastle upon Tyne | 33,857 | 64 |
| GGlasgow | 32,454 | 54 |
| MManchester | 32,420 | 46 |
| NGNottingham | 29,864 | 31 |
| PEPeterborough | 27,768 | 36 |
| BSBristol | 27,448 | 39 |
| EHEdinburgh | 25,448 | 57 |
| POPortsmouth | 24,513 | 35 |
| The 100 areas in between are left out here. | ||
| HXHalifax | 5,715 | 7 |
| TDGalashiels | 4,538 | 15 |
| HGHarrogate | 4,528 | 5 |
| SMSutton | 4,326 | 7 |
| ECEast Central London | 3,550 | 27 |
| WCWest Central London | 2,537 | 14 |
| LDLlandrindod Wells | 2,216 | 8 |
| KWKirkwall | 1,853 | 16 |
| HSOuter Hebrides | 981 | 9 |
| ZELerwick | 658 | 3 |
The 10 areas with the most postcodes in use, then the 10 with the fewest.
In use and ended
As well as the 1,749,109 postcodes in use, our copy lists 901,097 postcodes that have ended. A postcode that has ended is one Royal Mail no longer uses.
We keep ended postcodes so that an old one still gets an answer: the month it ended and the council it was in.
Why the number moves
The Office for National Statistics releases a new directory every three months, in February, May, August and November. Each release adds new postcodes and marks others as ended, so the count changes.
This page is counted again each time we load a new release, and the release named at the top changes with it.
Where this comes from
- Postcode counts ONS Postcode Directory, August 2026
- When the directory is released (quarterly) Postcode products, at the Office for National Statistics
- The licence for Northern Ireland postcodes Licences for ONS geography products
- How a postcode is built UK postcode format explained
Published 7 October 2026 by Towpath Digital Ltd, the company that runs CheckAPostcode. Last checked against these sources on 20 October 2026. If something here is out of date, report an error.