Purchase the Postcode to County Name Lookup Table

The Postcode to County name data file is a compiled extract from the Royal Mail's Postcode Address File (PAF), Postcode Administration tables and Ordnance Survey's Code Point file.  We have merged the data to create this Postcode to County lookup table.  The file is updated every quarter.  The PAF file is the only comprehensive source of business & residential sites and features 28 million addresses for the UK.  The PAF file is supplied and managed by InfoLogic who are licensees.

When you order the Postcode to County file you receive a text based list of Postcodes falling within an appropriate County. If you require a fully structured address file including house number, street name, town etc. then the Royal Mail's Postcode Address File (PAF) should be reviewed by clicking here.
 

This Postcode to County file is supplied as a CSV formatted file and can be opened used in any standard software application including Excel, Word, Access, Note Pad etc. Should you wish an alternative format then please let us know and we will arrange to supply in the format at no additional cost if the requested format for the postcode list is reasonable.

What you Receive:

• 1.8 million Postcodes
• Field 1, Fully Structured Postcode - e.g. B76 1PH
• Field 2, Formal Postal County Name - e.g. West Midlands
• Field 3, Traditional County Name - e.g. Warwickshire
• Field 4, Administrative County Name - e.g. Birmingham

More Detail about the Postcode to County Lookup table

Postcode Areas

Each Postcode Area comprises one or two alpha characters generally chosen to as an extract from the area name e.g. B for Birmingham, CF for Cardiff, CV Coventry etc. In total the UK comprises of one hundred and twenty four postcode areas.

Postcode Districts

Each Postcode Area is made up of dozens of Postcode Districts represented by the first one or two numbers immediately following the postcode area. B7, CV21, SL16 etc. The district's numbers range from 0 to 99. In London a further alpha character is used to divide some London districts into sub divisions (suffixes) e.g. EC1A. There are 2,827 postcode districts.

Postcode Sectors

Sectors are numbered 0-9. It should be noted that when sorting postcodes into order, sector 0 is the tenth sector rather than the first!  There are 9,487 postcode sectors in the UK.

County Details

Counties are no longer required or used by the Royal Mail Post Office service as part of a correct postal / delivery address.

The Traditional County is the county name most recognised and most used by the public even though the county names technically no longer exist – examples include Berkshire, Middlesex, Yorkshire. This county field is most useful for public facing website applications where users are requested to select a County for an address etc.

The Administrative County provides the latest county name for each postcode based upon administrative geography. This field includes unitary authorities where applicable, for example York is within the unitary authority (administrative county) of ‘York’ but in the (Traditional) County of ‘Yorkshire’.

Whilst these county definitions are no longer maintained by Royal Mail or Ordnance Survey, we have applied geographic analysis to the data to ensure that every Postcode is allocated to a County.

Updates

The file is updated every three months and free updates will be made available to you so long as your licence remains current.