Data sources and corrections

ONS Postcode Directory, Office for National Statistics

Every postcode page, and every district, sector, area, place and council page, is built from the ONS Postcode Directory (August 2026). The centre point of a postcode is the one ONS gives: it is approximate, it is not the position of any one building, and it is not a boundary. The maps on this site are drawn from these centre points alone.

Our copy: August 2026, loaded 20 October 2026. Licence: Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: Office for National Statistics licensed under the Open Government Licence v.3.0. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains Royal Mail data © Royal Mail copyright and database right 2026. The original, from Office for National Statistics

Scottish Postcode Directory, National Records of Scotland

ONS names built-up areas for England and Wales only. A Scottish town or village here is the census 2022 locality National Records of Scotland gives its postcodes in the Scottish Postcode Directory 2026/2: 656 localities over 134,748 postcodes. A postcode outside every locality is in no town here. Contains National Records of Scotland data © Crown copyright and database right 2026.

Our copy: Scottish Postcode Directory 2026/2, loaded 20 October 2026. Licence: Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains National Records of Scotland data © Crown copyright and database right 2026, Open Government Licence v3.0 The original, from National Records of Scotland

List of postcode areas in the United Kingdom, Wikipedia

The names postcode areas are commonly known by are not in the ONS data: we keep them by hand. We last checked them against Wikipedia’s list on 8 October 2026. Wikipedia’s text is published under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA 4.0); we copy none of it, only compare our names with its table.

Our copy: checked 8 October 2026. Licence: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA 4.0). The original, from Wikipedia

Local authority services (GOV.UK Local Links), Government Digital Service

Our copy was downloaded on 14 October 2026. We opened every link we show on 14 October 2026, and left out any that did not open, said the page was not found, or opened only the council’s home page.

Our copy: downloaded 14 October 2026, links opened 14 October 2026. Licence: Open Government Licence v3.0. The original, from Government Digital Service

Connected Nations: fixed broadband coverage, Ofcom

For a postcode we show Ofcom’s own shares of the homes and businesses there that can get superfast (30 Mbit/s), gigabit, and decent (10 Mbit/s) broadband. Ofcom does not give full fibre for a single postcode, so we show it only for a whole council area. A county council’s figure is the sum of its district councils’. Ofcom gives no count of homes for a postcode, so a district or place page counts postcodes instead. Ofcom publishes mobile coverage by council and constituency, not by postcode, so we hold none.

Our copy: Connected Nations, Spring 2026, data for January 2026. Licence: Open Government Licence v3.0. The original, from Ofcom

Members API, UK Parliament

We read the list of MPs on 14 October 2026 and match each to a constituency by its name. Each MP link goes to their contact page on parliament.uk.

Our copy: read 14 October 2026. Licence: Open Parliament Licence v3.0. The original, from UK Parliament

Risk of Flooding from Rivers and Sea: Postcodes in Areas at Risk, Environment Agency

It counts the homes and businesses at each postcode in each band of risk. A postcode that is not on that list has no property in an area at risk of flooding from rivers or the sea. Flood warning and alert areas are the Agency’s own outlines; we place each postcode in them by its centre point. The figures are for areas of land, not single buildings, and leave out surface water, groundwater and sewers; GOV.UK's long term flood risk checker answers for one address and covers surface water. A district, place or council page adds up the Agency’s counts over its postcodes in England.

Our copy: published 6 July 2026; warning areas read 17 October 2026. Licence: Open Government Licence v3.0. The original, from Environment Agency

Real-time flood-monitoring API (Beta), Environment Agency

This uses Environment Agency flood and river level data from the real-time data API (Beta). Each page says the date and time the warnings were read.

Our copy: asked when a page is opened, at most every 15 minutes. Licence: Open Government Licence v3.0. this uses Environment Agency flood and river level data from the real-time data API (Beta) The original, from Environment Agency

Risk of Flooding from Surface Water: Key Summary Information, Environment Agency

The Agency publishes surface water risk for each local authority, not for each postcode: the properties in an area at high, medium and low risk, and each as a share of all the authority’s properties. A postcode page shows its council’s figures and says that they are for the whole council. A county council’s page adds up its districts’ counts and gives no share, since shares cannot be added.

Our copy: version 2025-09, listed as updated 18 September 2026. Licence: Open Government Licence v3.0. The original, from Environment Agency

Price Paid Data, HM Land Registry

Standard sales of homes at market value. For each postcode sector, district, place and postcode area: counts and medians for the 12 months to August 2026 and the 12 before, a median shown only from 5 sales or more. For each postcode: every standard sale since January 2024, with its address as Land Registry gives it, each linked to Land Registry's own record of the sale. Standard sales only: Land Registry lists repossessions, sales to companies, buy-to-let and right-to-buy apart, and none of them are here. A sale can take several months to be registered, so the latest months are not complete. We keep the three latest years Land Registry has published, usually this year and the two before, and a postcode page gives the middle sale and the range from 3 sales. The addresses in Price Paid Data include Royal Mail and Ordnance Survey address data, which their terms, as Land Registry publishes them, allow “to display for the purpose of providing residential property price information services”; we show them only in these lists of sales. Anyone who owns or lives in a home and would rather its sale were not listed can ask us to take it off, through the error-report form, or by email as the privacy page says. Read again each month when Land Registry publishes.

Our copy: files dated 28 September 2026. Licence: Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2021. This data is licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. The original, from HM Land Registry

Council Tax: stock of properties, HM Revenue and Customs (the Valuation Office Agency’s statistics)

Counts are rounded to the nearest 10, with the smallest withheld. A postcode page shows the figures for the neighbourhood its centre is in, usually 400 to 1,200 homes, not the postcode alone. A home’s own band is set for that home and is on GOV.UK.

Our copy: at 31 March 2026. Licence: Open Government Licence v3.0. The original, from HM Revenue and Customs (the Valuation Office Agency’s statistics)

Council tax levels 2026-27, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government; Welsh Government (StatsWales); Scottish Government

Band D is the figure each council sets; the other bands are fixed shares of it, set in law and different in England, Wales and Scotland. Each figure is the average Band D across the council’s area, as each nation publishes it (England: including the county council, police, fire and combined authority charges, and parish or town council charges; Wales: including police and community council charges), so a home’s own bill can be a little higher or lower, and discounts, such as the 25% for one adult living alone, come off it. A postcode page gives the range of bills for the bands its neighbourhood has, each band worked out by us from Band D and rounded to the pound. It never gives one home’s bill.

Our copy: 2026-27, published 31 March 2026. Licence: Open Government Licence v3.0. The original, from Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government; Welsh Government (StatsWales); Scottish Government

Get Information about Schools, Department for Education

Every open school in England, placed at its postcode’s ONS centre point. Distances are straight lines, not routes or catchments. We keep no person’s name.

Our copy: read 17 October 2026. Licence: Open Government Licence v3.0. The original, from Department for Education

National Public Transport Access Nodes (NaPTAN), Department for Transport

Distances are straight lines from a postcode’s centre, not routes, and say nothing of how often services run.

Our copy: read 17 October 2026. Licence: Open Government Licence v3.0. The original, from Department for Transport

Food hygiene ratings, Food Standards Agency

The agency publishes every rating again each day, and we read its file each day. A postcode page lists the businesses at that postcode, each linked to the agency's own page for it. The ratings are shown as words, not the agency's rating images. Businesses the agency gives no address for, most of them run from a home, are not listed. The agency asks anyone who shows a rating to show the current one, so if our copy is more than 3 days old the pages show no ratings and send you to the agency's own search instead. In Scotland, the Food Hygiene Information Scheme gives a pass or improvement required, in place of 0 to 5.

Our copy: as published on 21 October 2026. Licence: Open Government Licence v3.0. The original, from Food Standards Agency

Organisation Data Service: GP practices, NHS England

Every active GP practice, placed at its postcode’s ONS centre point. Distances are straight lines; each practice sets the area it takes patients from.

Our copy: read 17 October 2026. Licence: Open Government Licence v3.0. The original, from NHS England

Care directory and ratings, Care Quality Commission

Each place is put at its postcode’s ONS centre point, and each opens the Commission’s own page for it. A rating is the Commission’s latest overall rating, in its own words, with the date its report was published; a place it has not rated shows none. The Commission does not rate most dentists. We read its directory each week and its ratings each month. This uses Care Quality Commission information.

Our copy: directory of 14 October 2026, ratings of 1 October 2026. Licence: Open Government Licence v3.0. The original, from Care Quality Commission

NHS dental practices (Wales); GP and dental practices (Scotland), NHS Wales, through the NHS Organisation Data Service; Public Health Scotland

Placed at each practice’s postcode centre. Distances are straight lines; each practice sets the area it takes patients from. Wales and Scotland have their own inspectors, whose ratings are not shown here. NHS Wales’s file gives no phone numbers for its dental practices, so none are shown for them. Public Health Scotland publishes its lists every three months.

Our copy: Scottish GP list of 1 July 2026; Scottish dental list of 31 March 2026. Licence: Open Government Licence v3.0. The original, from NHS Wales, through the NHS Organisation Data Service; Public Health Scotland

OpenStreetMap: vets, OpenStreetMap contributors

The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons keeps the register of vet practices, but it is not open data, so we use the open map, which volunteers keep and which may not have every vet. Our copy of every named vet mapped in the United Kingdom (Northern Ireland’s are held too, but no postcode here is near them) comes from Geofabrik’s download of the whole map as it was on 20 October 2026, read with the charging points each week. A practice mapped twice, on its door and on its building, is listed once. Only the name and phone number are shown.

Our copy: map as of 20 October 2026. Licence: Open Database Licence (ODbL) 1.0. © OpenStreetMap contributors The original, from OpenStreetMap contributors

OpenStreetMap: charging stations, OpenStreetMap contributors

The government’s National Chargepoint Registry closed on 28 November 2024 and no single free national list has replaced it, so we use the open map, which volunteers keep and which does not have every charger. Our copy of every charging station mapped in the United Kingdom comes from Geofabrik’s download of the whole map as it was on 20 October 2026, and is refreshed weekly.

Our copy: map as of 20 October 2026. Licence: Open Database Licence (ODbL) 1.0. © OpenStreetMap contributors The original, from OpenStreetMap contributors

Bin collection days, BinDayBuddy (run by Towpath Digital, which runs this site), from each council

BinDayBuddy reads each council's own collection system and holds the answer for a whole postcode, from homes in it that agree. A postcode page shows only an answer BinDayBuddy already holds, so it never waits for a council; for a postcode it does not hold yet, it asks the council in the background, within a small limit, and a later visit has the date. Some councils give days only for one home, from its house number: the page then sends you to BinDayBuddy to give yours. A council BinDayBuddy does not read yet is linked to its own bin checker. A date that has passed is never shown.

Our copy: asked of BinDayBuddy when a postcode page is opened; the page says when BinDayBuddy read the council. Licence: Each council's own terms for its collection system. The original, from BinDayBuddy (run by Towpath Digital, which runs this site), from each council

OS Open Roads, OS Open Rivers and OS Open Built Up Areas, Ordnance Survey

Drawn under the maps only, never counted or quoted. Each road and river is simplified to under a pixel at the closest zoom and cut to the map; minor roads are left out of the wider maps. Lakes and the sea are not drawn: these products do not hold them as areas.

Our copy: OS Open Roads 2026-04, OS Open Rivers 2026-04, OS Open Built Up Areas 2026-04. Licence: Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 The original, from Ordnance Survey

Street-level crimes, data.police.uk

From police.uk's own monthly download, checked against the MD5 it lists and read again each day for a newer one. A postcode page counts the crimes within a mile of its centre in the latest month; a place page counts each of the latest 12 months around its centre. The download says which forces published each month: where a force has not published the latest months, its pages show its own latest 12 and say so, rather than count the missing months as quiet. In this archive: British Transport Police, Gloucestershire Constabulary. Police.uk gives the approximate location of each crime, never the exact place: each is moved to the nearest of a fixed list of map points, each over a street, a public place or a commercial premises, chosen so that each point covers at least eight addresses or none. Police Scotland publishes separately.

Our copy: its archive of August 2026, published 30 September 2026, September 2024 to August 2026. Licence: Open Government Licence v3.0. The original, from data.police.uk

Planning constraints, planning.data.gov.uk (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government)

A postcode page in England asks which of them its centre point is inside, and keeps the answer for a day. How complete each layer is depends on what each council has sent.

Our copy: asked when a page is opened, and kept for a day. Licence: Open Government Licence v3.0. The original, from planning.data.gov.uk (Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government)

New homes

New homes on a place page come from two sources. The ONS Postcode Directory gives the month each postcode came into use: we count the postcodes now in use that came into use in January 2020 or later, and list the newest. A new postcode is often a new street or estate, but Royal Mail also makes new postcodes when it reorganises old ones. HM Land Registry marks each sale of a newly built home: we count those sales for each place and district in the same two 12-month periods as prices, and give a share only from 5 sales or more. New homes take longer to be registered than other sales, so the latest 12 months count fewer of them than were sold.