About Postcodes UK
Postcodes UK is a free geographic reference site dedicated to the United Kingdom postcode system. Our editorial team researches and writes guides covering postcodes, distances, centroids and the tools that make location data accessible to everyone.
We combine Ordnance Survey data, Royal Mail postcode records and government open data to build a comprehensive picture of every postcode, town and county across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Our goal is to make UK geographic data simple, accurate and freely available. Every article we publish is grounded in the datasets that power the site, and every distance, coordinate and boundary we reference has been verified against authoritative sources.
Data Sources & Credentials
Articles by Postcodes UK
St Mary Tops the Register: Britain's Most Common School Names
Across 30,187 schools, 54 share the exact same name. We ranked every school name in the country and settled the saintly league table once and for all: Mary first, John second.
Read articleOpposite the Church: Britain's Favourite Bus Stop Names
We sorted 343,949 British bus stops by name. The nation waits for its bus outside the Post Office, by the Church, at the Village Hall, and at 597 War Memorials.
Read articleHow to Date a British Street by Its Name
Britain wrote its history into its street signs. There are 743 Wellingtons, 685 Jubilees and 449 Churchills, but only 4 streets in the entire country remember Sebastopol.
Read articleSAD, MAD and PEAR: The Postcodes That Accidentally Spell Words
Strip the numbers out of a postcode and you are left with its letters. Across 1.8 million postcodes, those letters spell SAD 163 times, MAD 128 times and PEAR 101 times.
Read articleOutcode and Incode: The Complete Anatomy of a British Postcode
Seven characters take a letter from anywhere in the world to one front door in Britain. Here is how the machine works: every segment of the postcode explained, measured across all 1.8 million of them.
Read articleThe Four Corners of Britain, by Postcode
The northernmost, southernmost, easternmost and westernmost postcodes in the country, plus the surprising address that sits at the statistical centre of it all.
Read articleThe Most Average Place in Britain
We measured 1,984 postcode districts against the national norm on seven counts, from age and home ownership to elevation. One corner of Salisbury matched Britain almost exactly.
Read articleThe Highest and Lowest Places to Live in Britain
Some Britons live more than 400 metres up, in villages that spend winter in the clouds. Others live below the level of the sea, kept dry by pumps. We mapped the elevation of 1.8 million postcodes to find the highest and lowest places you can call home.
Read articleWhere Your Salary Goes Furthest: Britain's Most and Least Affordable Postcodes
The average British home costs around six times the local household income. In Middlesbrough it is barely two. In Belgravia, thirty-five. We mapped affordability across 1,952 postcode districts to find where a wage stretches, and where it barely covers the mortgage.
Read articleLeasehold Britain: The North West's Leasehold Houses
Most leasehold homes are flats, but in one corner of England even ordinary houses are routinely sold leasehold. We mapped where.
Read articleThe Property Price Ladder: What Each Type Really Costs
Detached, semi, terrace, flat. The price gaps between Britain's housing types are wide, and flats are not the cheapest rung you might expect.
Read articleDetached Britain: Where the Detached Home Rules
The detached house is the aspiration of suburban Britain. We mapped where it actually dominates, and it is not where you might think.
Read articleRoad, Street or Close? Britain's Street Endings Counted
Is your home on a Road, a Street, a Close or an Avenue? We counted the endings of Britain's street names, and Close came a surprising second.
Read articleNottinghamshire by the Numbers: Southwell to Worksop
A data portrait of Nottinghamshire: 1,329,716 people across 31 postcode districts, average prices, the cheapest and dearest corners, deprivation and schools.
Read articlePlymouth in Postcodes: Cornish Coast to the City
A data portrait of Plymouth: 564,940 people across 36 postcode districts, average prices, the cheapest and dearest corners, deprivation and schools.
Read articleMerseyside by the Numbers: Heswall to Liverpool
A data portrait of Merseyside: 1,519,842 people across 57 postcode districts, average prices, the cheapest and dearest corners, deprivation and schools.
Read articleReading in Postcodes: Henley to Basingstoke Edge
A data portrait of Reading: 860,296 people across 30 postcode districts, average prices, the cheapest and dearest corners, deprivation and schools.
Read articleBrighton in Postcodes: The BN Area by the Numbers
A data portrait of Brighton: 836,968 people across 37 postcode districts, average prices, the cheapest and dearest corners, deprivation and schools.
Read articleHertfordshire by the Numbers: Radlett to Harlow
A data portrait of Hertfordshire: 1,378,888 people across 51 postcode districts, average prices, the cheapest and dearest corners, deprivation and schools.
Read articleCheshire by the Numbers: Hale to Ellesmere Port
A data portrait of Cheshire: 1,354,237 people across 41 postcode districts, average prices, the cheapest and dearest corners, deprivation and schools.
Read articleLeicester in Postcodes: Rutland Edge to the City
A data portrait of Leicester: 1,085,679 people across 26 postcode districts, average prices, the cheapest and dearest corners, deprivation and schools.
Read articleNottingham in Postcodes: Southwell to the City
A data portrait of Nottingham: 1,224,637 people across 31 postcode districts, average prices, the cheapest and dearest corners, deprivation and schools.
Read articleWest Midlands by the Numbers: Solihull to Wolverhampton
A data portrait of West Midlands: 3,051,871 people across 94 postcode districts, average prices, the cheapest and dearest corners, deprivation and schools.
Read articleDevon by the Numbers: Salcombe to Plymouth
A data portrait of Devon: 1,321,054 people across 67 postcode districts, average prices, the cheapest and dearest corners, deprivation and schools.
Read articleNewcastle in Postcodes: Ponteland to the Tyne
A data portrait of Newcastle: 1,194,876 people across 64 postcode districts, average prices, the cheapest and dearest corners, deprivation and schools.
Read articleBristol in Postcodes: Harbour to Suburb
A data portrait of Bristol: 1,034,255 people across 39 postcode districts, average prices, the cheapest and dearest corners, deprivation and schools.
Read articleLancashire by the Numbers: Coast, Mills and Moors
A data portrait of Lancashire: 1,922,303 people across 52 postcode districts, average prices, the cheapest and dearest corners, deprivation and schools.
Read articleSheffield in Postcodes: The Peak Edge to the City
A data portrait of Sheffield: 1,389,843 people across 51 postcode districts, average prices, the cheapest and dearest corners, deprivation and schools.
Read articleWest Yorkshire by the Numbers: Wetherby to Bradford
A data portrait of West Yorkshire: 2,378,065 people across 81 postcode districts, average prices, the cheapest and dearest corners, deprivation and schools.
Read articleEssex by the Numbers: Country Lanes to the Coast
A data portrait of Essex: 2,177,480 people across 77 postcode districts, average prices, the cheapest and dearest corners, deprivation and schools.
Read articleLiverpool in Postcodes: The L Area by the Numbers
A data portrait of Liverpool: 894,335 people across 49 postcode districts, average prices, the cheapest and dearest corners, deprivation and schools.
Read articleHampshire by the Numbers: New Forest to Southampton
A data portrait of Hampshire: 2,120,918 people across 77 postcode districts, average prices, the cheapest and dearest corners, deprivation and schools.
Read articleLeeds in Postcodes: Wetherby to Beeston
A data portrait of Leeds: 835,424 people across 32 postcode districts, average prices, the cheapest and dearest corners, deprivation and schools.
Read articleBirmingham in Postcodes: The Second City by the Numbers
A data portrait of Birmingham: 2,029,280 people across 78 postcode districts, average prices, the cheapest and dearest corners, deprivation and schools.
Read articleKent by the Numbers: The Garden of England's Property Map
A data portrait of Kent: 1,934,087 people across 76 postcode districts, average prices, the cheapest and dearest corners, deprivation and schools.
Read articleManchester in Postcodes: Chorlton to Gorton
A data portrait of Manchester: 1,273,372 people across 46 postcode districts, average prices, the cheapest and dearest corners, deprivation and schools.
Read articleSurrey by the Numbers: Inside a £574,000 County
A data portrait of Surrey: 1,571,252 people across 69 postcode districts, average prices, the cheapest and dearest corners, deprivation and schools.
Read articleSemi-Detached Britain: The Shape of the Suburbs
The semi-detached house is the defining home of the British suburb. We mapped where it dominates, and found its heartland in the West Midlands.
Read articleTerraced Britain: The Postcodes Built in Rows
The terraced house is the workhorse of British housing. We mapped where the rows still dominate, from the mill towns of the north to the valleys of south Wales.
Read articleA Tale of Four Nations: Deprivation Across the UK
Each UK nation measures deprivation its own way. We brought all four official indices together to show the most and least deprived corners of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Read articleBritain's Road Collision Hotspots, Mapped
We mapped every recorded road collision in Great Britain to postcode areas to find where, relative to the people who live there, the roads see the most crashes.
Read articleHouse or Flat? How Britain Lives, Mapped
We sorted almost eight million property sales by type to find where flats dominate the market and where the terraced and semi-detached house still rules.
Read articleMillion-Pound Postcodes: Where the Money Lives
There have been 265,947 sales of a million pounds or more in England and Wales since 2018. We mapped where they cluster, both by sheer number and by share of the local market.
Read articleRenting Britain: Where Home Ownership Is Rarest
We mapped Census 2021 housing tenure across every postcode area in England and Wales to find where people are most likely to own their home, and where renting rules.
Read articleRose Cottage Britain: The Most Common House Names
Most homes have a number. Millions have a name instead. We counted them across every sale since 2018 to find the most common house names in England and Wales.
Read articleThe Detached Premium: House Versus Flat
In some postcode areas a detached house costs more than four times the price of a flat. In others, barely twice. We mapped the gap between the grandest and the most modest homes.
Read articleThe GP Gap: England's Best and Worst Served Areas
Using NHS organisation data we counted the GP surgeries in every English postcode area and weighed them against population to find where a doctor is easiest, and hardest, to come by.
Read articleThe Greying Map: Britain's Oldest and Youngest Areas
Census 2021 age data, mapped by postcode area, reveals a sharp split between the retirement coast and the young commuter suburbs.
Read articleWhere England's Outstanding Schools Cluster
We took every Ofsted-rated school in England and worked out, area by area, what share carry the top grade of Outstanding. The map is sharper than you might expect.
Read articleThe Most Common Street Names in Britain
There are more than 350,000 different street names in Britain, but a handful turn up again and again. We counted them all to find the most common street name in the country, and the answer says a lot about how our towns were built.
Read articleBritain's Youngest and Oldest Postcodes
We ranked every postcode district in England by the age of the people who live there. The result is a tale of two countries: a retired coastline where half the residents are over 60, and inner cities where more than a quarter are children.
Read articleThe Great Property Divide: Where House Prices Rose and Fell
We compared house prices in every postcode area in 2018 against 2025. The result turns the old story on its head: the cheapest corners of the North saw prices surge by 70 percent, while parts of prime central London actually fell.
Read articleWhat 8 Million Home Sales Reveal About the Price of a Postcode
We analysed every property sale in England and Wales from 2018 to 2026, almost 8 million transactions, to find the most and least expensive postcodes, the priciest streets in the country and the truth about the new-build premium.
Read articleWhere You Can Still Buy a Home for Under £100,000
The average British home now costs well over £300,000, but in a handful of postcodes the majority of homes still sell for under £100,000. We found the places where a six-figure budget is more than enough to buy outright.
Read articleBritain's Most Common Crimes: What the Data Reveals
We broke down millions of police crime reports by type to find out what crime in Britain actually looks like. The answer is very different from the burglaries and robberies that dominate our fears, and shoplifting has surged up the list.
Read articleBelow Sea Level: Britain's Lowest-Lying Postcodes
We checked the elevation of all 1.8 million UK postcodes. Hundreds sit below sea level, kept dry only by pumps and embankments, and they cluster in three very different corners of the country: the Fens, the Humber, and the reclaimed docks of our biggest cities.
Read articleThe Station Premium: Do Homes Near the Railway Cost More?
We matched house prices against the distance from every postcode area to its nearest railway station. Homes within a kilometre of a station carry a clear price premium, but the relationship has a twist that catches most people out.
Read articleBritain's Schools by the Numbers
We went through the records of more than 30,000 schools to answer the questions parents actually ask. How many are rated Outstanding? How many are faith schools? Are single-sex schools really dying out? The data has some clear answers.
Read articleHow Far Is Britain From the Train? The Best and Worst Connected Postcodes
We measured the distance from every populated postcode district in Britain to its nearest railway station. Nine in ten people live within ten kilometres of a platform, but a handful of sizeable towns sit more than forty kilometres from the nearest train.
Read articleWhere Britain Is Building: The New-Build Hotspots
Almost 800,000 brand-new homes were sold in England and Wales between 2018 and 2026. We mapped where they went, and found whole new neighbourhoods rising out of old docks, railway sidings and Olympic parkland.
Read articleBritain's Leasehold Map: Who Really Owns the Ground
Nearly a quarter of homes sold in England and Wales are leasehold, meaning the owner does not own the land beneath them. We mapped where leasehold rules, and uncovered a belt of the North West where most houses, not just flats, are sold this way.
Read articleMapping Opportunity: England's Most and Least Deprived Postcodes
Using the official English Indices of Deprivation, we ranked postcode districts from the most to the least deprived. The gap between a seaside town in Lancashire and the commuter belt of Surrey is wider than most people imagine.
Read articleThe Hidden Map in British Place Names
We sorted all 43,000 settlements in our database by the endings of their names. The result traces the Viking frontier across England with startling precision: a thousand-year-old border you can still read on a road sign.
Read articleBritain's Birthplaces of Fame: Where Notable People Are Born
We mapped the birthplaces of more than 17,000 notable Britons against the towns they came from. London leads, of course, but the league table of which places produce the famous holds a few real surprises.
Read articleThe 20 Highest Settlements in England
The long-running argument over England's highest village doesn't have a tidy answer. Our elevation data for every settlement in the country throws up 20 places sitting above 400 metres, from the lead-mining hamlets of the North Pennines to the windswept streets of Dartmoor.
Read articleFamous UK Postcodes and the Stories Behind Them
From Buckingham Palace to Coronation Street, some UK postcodes are more famous than the streets they serve. Here are the stories behind them.
Read articleThe UK's Most and Least Dense Postcode Areas
Which parts of the UK pack the most postcodes into the smallest space? We analysed our database of 1.8 million postcodes to find out.
Read articleWhy the UK adds around 26,000 New Postcodes Every Year
Around 26,000 new postcodes are added in the UK each year. Here is why that happens, how quarterly updates work, and why fresh postcode data matters.
Read articleUnderstanding the Haversine Formula
The Haversine formula calculates distances between two points on the Earth. Here is how it works and how we use it across Postcodes UK.
Read articleWhat Is a Centroid and How Do We Use Them?
Centroids are the geographic centre points we use to plot postcodes, towns and counties on maps. Here is how they work and why they matter.
Read articleIntroducing Postcodes UK
A new free resource for exploring UK postcodes, cities, towns and villages. Find out what we offer and how we can help.
Read article