UK Code-Point DataPlus
UK Code-Point provides a precise
geographical location for each postcode unit in Great
Britain. There are approximately 1.6 million postcode
units in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Each postcode unit, such as KY12 8UP or PO14 2RS, contains
an average of fifteen adjoining addresses.
UK Code-Point is an Ordnance Survey
data product that provides a National Grid co-ordinate
(a grid reference comprising an Easting and a Northing
value) for a point within each postcode in Great Britain.
The UK Code-Point (for each postcode
unit) is derived from the mean of Ordnance Survey’s
ADDRESS-POINT. ADDRESS-POINT provides each of the 27
million addresses in Britain with a precise geographic
reference to a resolution of 0.1m (10cm!). Therefore,
the Code-Point grid reference is actually the ADDRESS-POINT
for the property centrally located in the postcode.
There may be postcodes where this grid reference is
distorted due to the allocation by Royal Mail of a postcode
to an address outside the contiguous geographical area
of that postcode, or where an address has not yet been
accurately positioned in ADDRESS-POINT (e.g. a postcode
which only contains a single "large user"
address)
The grid reference is to a resolution
of 1 meter, and is the same for every delivery point
within the postcode. The resolution (indicated by the
number of digits in each co-ordinate) is always to 1m,
but the accuracy is sometimes less than this. This may
be contrasted with Ordnance Survey ADDRESS-POINT, a
separate product, which usually provides a grid reference
for every delivery point to a resolution of 0.1m.
What information does
Code-Point provide?
The following items of information are associated with
each postcode, in addition to the Easting and Northing
components forming the grid reference:
Positional quality indicator
The positional quality indicator (PQI) is a measure
of the accuracy of the Easting and Northing values.
There are six possible PQI values.
PO box indicator
This status flag indicates whether this postcode contains
only a PO box address. This is either a 'Y' (yes) or
'N' (no) with a 'Y' indicating that a PO box is associated
with the ADDRESS-POINT delivery point within the postcode.
Total number of delivery
points
This is the total number of delivery points within that
postcode.
Positional quality delivery
points
This is the number of delivery points in that postcode
with the same PQI as that of the postcode itself.
Domestic delivery points
This is the number of delivery points where there is
no organisation name registered on PAF within the postcode
specified. These exclude PO boxes.
Non-domestic delivery
points
This is the number of delivery points that do have an
organisation name registered on PAF within the postcode
specified. This also excludes PO boxes.
PO box delivery points
This is the number of PO boxes associated with a delivery
point within the postcode.
Matched address premises
This is the number of ADDRESS-POINT delivery points
with unique Easting and Northing values that have a
positional quality indicator of 2 or 3 within the postcode.
Unmatched delivery points
This is the number of delivery points within the postcode
that do not have a positional quality of 2 or 3.
Date of Royal Mail source
information
This is the date of the Royal Mail PAF data that was
applied to ADDRESSPOINT at the time of Code-Point data
derivation.
Code-Point Geographical
Coverage
Code-Point includes 121 postcode areas in England, Scotland,
Wales and Northern Ireland, but does not include the
postcode areas for the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands.
| Area |
Code-Point coverage? |
| England |
Y |
| Scotland |
Y |
Wales |
Y |
Northern Ireland (BT) |
Y |
Isle of Man (IM) |
N |
Channel Islands (Jersey/Guernsey) (JE/GY) |
N |
Suggested applications
Code-Point forms a nationally consistent postcode
reference and is a standard link between databases and
geographical information systems (GIS)
- Market analysis and profiling
- Statistical analysis
- Crime pattern analysis
- Epidemiology
- Resource allocation
- Sales targeting
- Route planning
- Retail
- Market analysis and profiling
- Sales analysis by store
- Store location
- Targeting promotions
- Insurance
- Market analysis and profiling
|