National Statistics Postcode Directory (NSPD)
The NSPD is a key ONS Geography product and is used by a variety of customers, including central and local government, private industry and academia. It links all current and terminated UK postcodes to the administrative, health and other geographic areas in which the postcodes fall.
Users should note that postcodes which straddle two geographic areas will be assigned to the area where the mean grid reference of all the addresses within the postcode falls.
The NSPD is a Gridlink® branded product which pulls together data from members of the Gridlink® Consortium (Royal Mail, Ordnance Survey, General Register Office for Scotland, Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland and ONS).
A list of the fields included in each version is included in the NSPD Order Form, available from the Downloads section.
Information on the latest postcode changes is available on the Royal Mail website.
Product details
The NSPD is released quarterly in February, May, August and November and is available in two versions. The Full version contains postcodes linked to all geographies; the Core version is an extract of the Full version and contains postcode links to the most commonly used geographies.
Full and Core NSPD products are supplied with Postcode Address File (PAF) extracts depending on the level of data required. These extracts are available as Full PAF, Thoroughfare PAF and Postcode-only options.
A list of each version's fields is included in the NSPD Order Form, available from the Downloads section. Samples of both the Core and Full NSPD versions are also available to download. The samples are taken from August 2007 and are for viewing only.
The NSPD is provided in all the following formats: MS ACCESS, DBF, TXT, and CSV. It is supplied zipped on CD-ROM (containing all formats) or unzipped on DVD-ROM (containing all formats). A User Guide and Version Notes provide additional information about the product and are included with the NSPD data and can also be downloaded from this page.
Availability and cost
The NSPD is available either for the whole of the UK, for individual countries, or individual Government Office Regions (GORs) and grid references at either 100 metre or 1 metre resolution. It can be ordered by completing the order form and returning it to ONS Geography by email.
Users should be aware that both Ordnance Survey and Royal Mail royalties now apply when using the NSPD.
Academia
The Full NSPD is available to download free-of-charge for academic users who have completed the Athens registration process. Registration is only available to those carrying out academic work in UK Higher and Further Education, and some Research Council staff. The NSPD can be accessed via UKBORDERS on the University of Edinburgh website.
For details of current charging for the NSPD please contact us or view the document that can be downloaded from this page.
Details of the Terms and Conditions for Internal Business. Use of the NSPD are available in the Downloads section.
Details of the Ordnance Survey standard license use and royal mail licensing terms can be downloaded from this page.
For other use of the NSPD data, for example website or commercial re-distribution please contact us.
The NSPD user guide and version notes can be downloaded from this page.
