🆕Comparison of End of Life Address Products
Comparing AddressBase, AddressBase Plus and AddressBase Plus Islands to the OS NGD Address Theme
The AddressBase, AddressBase Plus and AddressBase Plus Islands products are expected to become End of Life in Spring 2027, with a formal notice anticipated shortly. Subject to confirmation in that notice, Ordnance Survey will no longer maintain or publish updates to these products as of the confirmed date, and access to the products will be removed from the OS Data Hub.
For the latest updates and information on this and other products, please refer to our strategic product roadmap and End of Life Product Notices pages.
Overview
The purpose of this page is to provide a technical summary of things to consider when migrating from AddressBase, AddressBase Plus or AddressBase Plus Islands to corresponding Feature Types within the OS NGD Address Theme. It covers data supply and formats, as well as a comparison of the attribution between them.
Key features
AddressBase provides a current view of all Royal Mail Postcode Address File (PAF) addresses that have been matched to the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG) and One Scotland Gazetteer (OSG).
AddressBase Plus contains current properties using addresses sourced from Local Authorities, Ordnance Survey and Royal Mail for England, Wales and Scotland. AddressBase Plus Islands provides the same for Northern Ireland, Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. The product contains all current addresses validated from Local Custodians and non-postal addresses such as ponds, electricity sub-stations and telephone boxes are also included.
All of these addresses are also present in the OS NGD Address Theme. Addresses in England, Wales and Scotland can be found in the GB Address Collection, whereas Northern Ireland, Isle of Man and Channel Islands addresses are within the Islands Address Collection. Both OS NGD collections have the same data structure and attribution. OS NGD data has been enriched with attribution to ensure that it's straightforward to navigate and query. Attribute names have also been simplified to make them easier to understand.
Additional benefits
The OS NGD Address theme also offers the following additional benefits over AddressBase, AddressBase Plus and AddressBase Plus Islands products:
Easily identify and download addresses by pre-build, built and historic lifecycle stages.
Clear lifecycle attribution:
buildstatus, physical state of the building: Built in Use, Built Vacant, Historic, Prebuildaddressstatus, address lifecycle stage: Alternative, Approved, Historical, Provisional
100% of Royal Mail Postcode Address File (PAF) with point geometry for all addresses available in the Royal Mail Address Feature Type (released 30 September 2025).
Attributes in plain English, no external lookups or code lists required.
Increased currency, up to daily frequency available.
Single line address field.
Up to quaternary level classifications and descriptions.
Alternative addresses.
New cross-references make it easy for you to link data in this collection with data from other OS NGD collections such as buildings and land use sites.
Currency
Both AddressBase and AddressBase Plus have an update frequency of every six weeks. OS NGD Address can be supplied with up to daily frequency, monthly and annual supplies are also available.
Data supply
File formats
AddressBase and AddressBase Plus are available in:
Geography Markup Language (GML)
CSV (comma-separated values)
The OS NGD Address is available via the download service of OS Select+Build in:
GeoPackage
CSV (comma-separated values)
Data ordering
Through the OS Data Hub, AddressBase and AddressBase Plus can be ordered for Great Britain in full geographic coverage or in individual 5km² tiles covering a specified area of interest. It is not possible to order a true area of interest, as the data is supplied in these 5km² tiles only (both for CSV and GML formats). It is also not possible to order a true Change-Only Update (COU); instead, you can only choose to receive the 'changed chunks', which resupply an entire 5km² tile if any change has occurred within it.
It is currently only possible to order full geographic coverage of Northern Ireland, Isle of Man and Channel Islands in AddressBase Plus Islands.
All OS NGD download data is supplied through OS Select+Build in the OS Data Hub. OS Select+Build offers a much more tailored experience to ordering and downloading OS data with an improved range of options, including:
True areas of interest are supplied for GB Address Feature Types, as opposed to 5km² tiles.
In addition to updates being delivered as full refreshes, it is also possible to take COUs in CSV format for full Great Britain coverage, so you'll receive only the updated features.
With OS Select+Build, it is also possible to filter your supply on a range of attributes such as classification, build status, local custodian, local authority and country. This enables the ability to filter Islands Address Feature types on their country attribution to receive only the combination of Northern Ireland, Isle of Man and Channel Islands that is required.
Feature types
The OS NGD Address Theme is made up of the GB Address Collection and the Islands Address Collection, and each collection is comprised of six Feature Types:
Built Address
Historic Address
Non-Addressable Object
Pre-Build Address
Royal Mail Address
Street Address
As AddressBase provides Royal Mail Postcode Address File (PAF) addresses, these addresses will all be found within the OS NGD Royal Mail Address Feature Type. Likewise, all the Royal Mail attribution from AddressBase Plus can also be found within the Royal Mail Address Feature Type.
As AddressBase Plus (and AddressBase Plus Islands) contains current properties using addresses sourced from Local Authorities, Ordnance Survey and Royal Mail. The majority of the Local Authorities and Ordnance Survey addresses will be found in Built Address or Non-Addressable Object Feature Types. The Royal Mail attribution will be found in the Royal Mail Address Feature Type.
Unique identifiers
The Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN) and Unique Street Reference Number (USRN) is the persistent identifier providing consistency across the AddressBase products range. The UPRN and USRN is also used in the OS NGD in all the relevant GB Address and Island Address Feature Types:
Pre-Build Address
Built Address
Historic Address
Non-Addressable Object
Street Address
In AddressBase products, Royal Mail Postcode Address File (PAF) addresses include the Royal Mail's Unique Delivery Point Reference Number (UDPRN) as an identifier. This is also used as the primary identifier in the OS NGD's Royal Mail Address Feature Type, the matched UPRN for the address is also supplied.
Attribution comparison
OS NGD data has been enriched with attribution to ensure that it's straightforward to navigate and query. Attribute names have also been simplified to make them easier to understand. There are detailed attribute comparison tables to the equivalent OS NGD Feature Types on the following sub-pages:
Help and support
Supporting links
The OS NGD Documentation site has further information that you may find useful. Some particularly relevant sections that may aid you with migration are:
Contact us
If you have any questions, need assistance, or want to provide feedback, please don't hesitate to reach out to us at os.uk/contact-us.
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