Postcodes Explained Page 1 of 2
Royal Mail UK Postcodes Explained (page 2 of 2)
Postcode Areas
UB7 0EB - The largest geographical unit of the Postcode. Each Post Office Postcode Area divides the UK into one of 124 Areas. The Postcode area being the first one or two alpha digits of a Postcode is usually chosen as a mnemonic representation of the area it represents, examples include "B" for Birmingham, "MK" for Milton Keynes, "SL" for Slough. In all there are 124 Postcode areas excluding the Falklands and other Armed Forces Postcodes.
Postcode Districts & Suffixes
UB7 0EB - The Post Office has divided each post code area into a number of districts. Districts are represented by the first one or two numbers immediately following the post code area. These numbers range from 0 to 99 e.g. B42, UB7, SL19. In London a further alpha character is added to divide some heavily populated London districts into "suffixes" e.g. EC1A. In total there are 2,827 postcode districts for the UK although new postcode districts are created / divided each month.
Postcode Sectors
UB7 0EB - 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! This is only really relevant when sorting post (Mailsort) to obtain discount on your postage (Mailsort bulk mailing greater than 4,000 items). There are 9,487 sectors in the UK.
Postcode Walks
UB7 0EB - Walk are the last two alpha characters of the Postcode. It is the "Postman's Walk" that defines the households assigned to a specific postman. I.e. the Sorting Frame used to prepare your addresses post has a Walk attached to it and on that sorting frame is the road names that share the same Walk that the postman takes each morning and afternoon.
Postcodes Explained Page 1 of 2
Downloads
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Every deliverable postal address in the UK - 29 million fully structured addresses
