ONS Postcode Directory (ONSPD) and National Statistics Postcode Lookup (NSPL)
ONS
- Licence
- Open Government Licence v3.0
- Cost
- Free
- Account needed
- No
- Harvestable
- Automated
What it contains
Every current and terminated UK postcode with its easting/northing, lat/long, and its assignment to OA, LSOA/DZ, MSOA/IZ, ward, LAD, CCG/ICB, region, country, urban/rural class and IMD decile. The join key between DESNZ postcode energy data and every other geography.
When you need it
Not yet mapped to a project stage. The stage axis is a first pass against a draft matrix, and a record with no stage means nobody has placed it rather than that it is useful at none.
Coverage and detail
- Geographic
- United Kingdom
- Nations
- UK-wide
- Resolution
- Postcode unit
- Formats
- CSV (~2.7m rows), plus a user guide
- Update cadence
- Quarterly (Feb/May/Aug/Nov)
Access and machine route
- Licence as stated
- OGL v3.0; contains OS data (c) Crown copyright and database right; Royal Mail data (c) Royal Mail copyright and database right; NI data from LPS
- Assertion source
- as published by ONS
- Protocol
- ArcGIS Hub REST
- Harvest note
- yes-automated machine_endpoint is a URL template, not a resolvable link: https://www.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/{itemid}/data (ArcGIS Hub item download)
Caveats
NEW as a distinct record. The triple copyright (OS + Royal Mail + LPS) means attribution obligations are stricter than plain OGL - the catalogue MUST carry the full attribution string.
Classification
- Category
- Unassigned
- Assigned by
- Not yet determined
- Depth domain
- Surface
- Data form
- Tabular
- Evidence confidence
- Not yet assessed. Only a person can set this.
How current this entry is
- Last updated here
- 2026-09-22
- Last checked against the holder
- 2026-09-07
- Checked by a person
- Not yet. Nobody has read this entry.
- Catalogue id
- ons-postcode-directory-onspd-and-national-statistics-postcode-lookup-n
Open at ONS
Openly licensed. No account needed.
Resolved
A server answered on 2026-09-08 and returned the expected page.
Checked by automated request, not in a browser. A site can answer a script and still fail for a reader, so treat this as a weak signal.
More from Office for National Statistics
This record as JSON
Report a problem
ONS. ONS Postcode Directory (ONSPD) and National Statistics Postcode Lookup (NSPL). Accessed via UK Geothermal Data Catalogue, https://catalogue.geothermaluk.org/id/ons-postcode-directory-onspd-and-national-statistics-postcode-lookup-n/. Record ons-postcode-directory-onspd-and-national-statistics-postcode-lookup-n.