🆕Comparison of Code-Point and OS NGD Postcodes
Comparing the Code-Point and Code-Point with Polygons products to corresponding new features in OS NGD Postcodes.
Code-Point and Code-Point with Polygons will become End of Life in March 2028. As of this date, Ordnance Survey will cease to maintain or publish updates, and access to the product will be removed from the OS Data Hub.
From October 2026, dual running licenses for Code-Point with Polygons will cover both Postcode Unit Area and Postcode Unit Point.
For the latest updates and information on this and other products, please refer to our End of Life Product Notices pages.
Overview
This page compares the two upcoming End of Life Code-Point products with their OS National Geographic Database (OS NGD) equivalents and explains key changes.
The following products are covered:
End of Life Code-Point products: Code-Point and Code-Point with Polygons
New OS NGD postcodes products: OS GB Postcodes Collection and OS NI Postcodes Collection
This page will help support migration to the OS NGD equivalents from the two Code‑Point products approaching End of Life, highlighting differences in coverage, geometry, methodology and behaviour. It also describes data supply and formats and compares attribution across the products.
Product migration pathway
The table below illustrates which OS NGD feature types are relevant for each migration pathway from the two Code-Point products:
Code‑Point
Postcode Unit Point (in the OS GB Postcodes Collection) Postcode Unit Point (in the OS NI Postcodes Collection)
Code‑Point with Polygons
Postcode Unit Area (in the OS GB Postcodes Collection)
Postcode Unit Point (in the OS GB Postcodes Collection) Postcode Unit Point (in the OS NI Postcodes Collection)
Transforming postcode products
OS has transformed its postcode product offering to improve how postcode unit areas align with underlying topographic features. The aim is to create a more accurate and consistent spatial representation that better reflects real-world geography. The OS GB Postcodes and OS NI Postcodes Collections sit alongside the suite of new features in the OS NGD, making them interoperable with the new era of products.
End of Life products
Code-Point is a point dataset that contains postcode units for Great Britain and Northern Ireland, each having a notional geographical location.
Code-Point with Polygons is a dataset that contains the notional area of postcode units in Great Britain, designed to allow customers to display and analyse any data collected at the postcode level.
OS NGD equivalents
The OS GB Postcodes Collection is a complete, analytical and authoritative postcode dataset for Great Britain. It's designed to provide a detailed view of postcodes. It contains the following feature types:
Postcode Unit Point is a point representation of a postcode, calculated from the average positions of addresses which share a postcode.
Postcode Unit Area is an area representation of the notional extents of areas containing addresses which share a common postcode unit
The OS NI Postcodes Collection is a complete, analytical and authoritative postcode dataset for Northern Ireland. It is designed to provide a detailed view of postcodes. It contains the following feature type:
Postcode Unit Point is a point representation of a postcode, calculated from the average positions of addresses which share a postcode.
Additional benefits
In response to customer feedback OS has:
Removed 'vertical streets' and replaced them with coincident geometries, simplifying how postcode areas relate to mapped features.
Introduced interoperable attribution between Postcode Unit Points and Postcode Unit Areas to ensure consistency across datasets.
Implemented related entities containing Local Government and NHS codes to improve usability as codes change.
Product comparison map
Please note, NHS codes and Local Government Codes are linked via the ‘related entities table’.
Key attribute comparison table
Postcode (Full – with space)
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Postcode (Full – without a space)
No
Yes
No
Yes
Postcode Area
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Postcode District
No
Yes
No
Yes
Postcode Sector
No
Yes
No
Yes
Postcode Type
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
Positional Quality Information
Yes (PQI)
Replaced by inputAddressAccuracy
Yes (PQI)
Not applicable*
Version Date Information
No
Yes
No
Yes
Local government codes
Yes
Yes (via related entities)
Yes
Yes (via related entities)
NHS codes
Yes
Yes (via related entities)
Yes
Yes (via related entities)
PO Box indicator
Yes
(po_box_ind)
Yes
(ispobox)
Yes
(po_box_ind)
Yes
(ispobox)
Delivery Point Total
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Domestic delivery points per postcode unit
Yes
Yes (residential)
Yes
Yes (residential)
Non‑domestic delivery points per postcode unit
Yes
Yes (commercial)
Yes
Yes (commercial)
Postcode delivery points matched / unmatched
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Vertical street look‑up table
No
Not applicable*
Yes
Not applicable*
Coincident Geometries (replacing Vertical Streets)
No
No
No
Yes
Northern Ireland coverage
Yes
Yes (separate NI dataset)
No
No
Polygon geometry
No
No
Yes
Yes
Added benefits and supporting notes
Not applicable* in the table above indicates that the concept is not required in the OS NGD due to changes in data modelling.
The Positional Quality Indicator (PQI) used in Code‑Point products is replaced by the
inputAddressAccuracyattribute in the OS NGD, which provides clearer and more descriptive information about positional confidence.Postcode Unit Point provides complete postcode coverage, including low accuracy and PO Box cases.
Postcode Unit Area is only created where sufficient positional accuracy exists, so not all postcodes have a polygon representation.
The vertical street lookup table used in Code‑Point with Polygons is no longer required. The OS NGD uses coincident geometries to represent overlapping postcode areas.
The OS NGD introduces versioning and lifecycle attributes, enabling customers to understand when features change over time.
Currency
Code‑Point products are updated quarterly, with each release provided as a full resupply of the dataset.
OS NGD postcodes data is updated on a monthly cycle. Data is updated on the 17th of each month. Updates are provided as:
Daily Change‑Only Updates (COU), with data only appearing on the monthly update day
Monthly full or COU supply, delivered at the start of the following month
Update frequency
Quarterly
Monthly (17th of each month)
Update model
Periodic batch updates
Continuous updates with scheduled monthly release
Change‑only updates (COU)
Not available
Available (daily feed, populated monthly)
Full supply updates
Periodic full refresh
Available monthly or on demand
Temporal views (historic data)
Not supported
Supported (snapshot and temporal filtering)
Consistency of dataset
Fixed at each release
Consistent monthly snapshot with controlled updates
Data supply
File formats
File formats
CSV, GPKG
Esri® SHP, GPKG, MapInfo® MID/MIF, MapInfo® TAB, or Vector Tiles (MBTiles)
CSV, GPKG, GeoJSON (API)
CSV, GPKG, GeoJSON (API)
Access method
Download only
Download only
API and download (OS Select+Build)
API and download (OS Select+Build)
API access
No
No
Yes
Yes
Custom extract (area of interest)
No
No
Yes
Yes
National coverage dataset
UK wide (GB and NI)
GB
GB NI separate
GB
Download data ordering options
OS NGD Postcodes
For OS NGD Postcodes data, all OS NGD download data is supplied through OS Select+Build in the OS Data Hub. OS Select+Build is the bespoke download service for OS NGD data and it offers a much more tailored experience to ordering and downloading OS data, with an improved range of options, including:
True areas of interest can be defined, enabling customers to extract only the data relevant to a specific geographic area, rather than fixed national datasets. Data can be supplied as:
Full Great Britain coverage
Predefined areas (OS polygons)
Customer-defined areas of interest
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 receive only the updated features.
A range of ordering options is available, including:
One‑off full supply
Regular full supply refresh (monthly, annual)
COUs (daily, monthly)
The OS NGD also supports temporal filtering, enabling you to request data as it existed at a specific point in time.
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:
Further guidance on downloading with OS Select+Build (the bespoke download service for OS NGD data) and using and loading OS NGD data in both CSV and GeoPackage formats:
Further guidance on the differing formats for OS NGD data:
Further guidance on OS NGD data ordering and currency:
End of Life notices for Code-Point and Code-Point with Polygons:
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