Product supply
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All four of the AddressBase products are available as Comma-Separated Value (CSV) files. AddressBase, AddressBase Plus and AddressBase Premium are also available as Geography Markup Language (GML). AddressBase Core is also available as a GeoPackage.
The Geography Markup Language (GML) Encoding standard is an Extensible Markup Language (XML) grammar for expressing geographical features. XML schemas are used to define and validate the format and content of GML. The XML specifications that GML is based on are available from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) website: More information can be found in the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) document, Geography Markup Language v3.2.1.
The GML 3.2 specification provides a set of schemas that define the GML feature constructs and geometric types. These are designed to be used as a basis for building application-specific schemas, which define the data content.
More information on the XML schemas can be found in the product technical specification.
AddressBase products incorporate a web-based ordering system that allows customers to order initial data supply and updates, obtain price estimates and view details of their data holdings on demand.
AddressBase products can be ordered via DVD or Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP).
AddressBase Core is provided as a single file which will contain all records regardless of format and supply option: full supply or COU.
The AddressBase, AddressBase Plus and AddressBase Premium products have been split into chunks of smaller data. The primary supply mechanism is referred to as non-geographic chunks. This is the main mechanism for the delivery of data.
Public Sector Geospatial Agreement (PSGA) customers are able to order all AddressBase products via geographic chunks (5km tiles). Address records are provided in individual files, which represent each 5km tile ordered.
Non-geographic chunking is a way of dividing up data into chunks that are supplied in separate volumes that have a fixed maximum number of records, as opposed to a given geographic National Grid area. For this reason, it is possible for features from various geographic locations to appear in one volume and for adjacent features to appear in different volumes.
Non-geographic chunk volumes are designed to be loaded into spatial databases, but can be used in a file format as long as all chunks are translated or imported into the system at the same time.
CSV files can supply a maximum of one million complete address records within one volume, when this limit is reached, a new volume will be started.
For the GML supply a maximum of 200 000 features will be provided in one volume before the next one is started.
For data that is supplied in 5km-by-5km chunks, the file name will reference the 1km tile in the south-west corner of the 5km tile.
Based on your area of interest (AOI), for example the boundary of your local authority, a 5km-by-5km grid covering the area of interest is generated.
All features within each 5km grid that intersects the AOI are added to a geographic chunk file. Geographic chunking is performed using the standard Ordnance Survey National Grid.
AddressBase products provide address data for England, Wales and Scotland.
A national set of AddressBase, known as a Managed GB Set (MGBS) service is a way of processing identical orders faster, which improves delivery times. All records within England, Wales and Scotland will be provided. If you are signed up to an MGBS service you will benefit from:
Data arriving faster and in a more predictable manner.
Seeing the same version of features as other organisations.
Easier data management – no need to manage your order beyond signing up.
For Public Sector Geospatial Agreement (PSGA) customers, MGBS will be supplied as geographic or non-geographic chunks. For non-PSGA users, MGBS will be supplied as non-geographic chunks.
Customers may provide their own area of interest (AOI) in any standard GIS format.
You can supply us with a polygon or you can digitise a polygon within our online ordering service.
Customers are able to take a full supply for all AddressBase products. An easier way to manage the addressing data which each product release is to take change-only updates (COU)
A Full Supply is a resupply of all addressable features in each product each time it is released. This may require you to delete to current holding and replace this with the newly supplied product on each product refresh.
AddressBase Core in GeoPackage format is only available as a Full Supply each week.
Change-only update (COU) is a supply of features which have been created, changed or deleted in a customer’s area of interest since their last supply.
Any feature which has not undergone one of the above changes since a customer’s last supply will not be supplied as part of a COU.
COU will be supplied on a weekly basis for AddressBase Core CSV or a six-weekly basis for AddressBase, AddressBase Plus and AddressBase Premium.
A Geographic chunked COU is not supplied as per the Non-Geographic chunked COU outlined above. For a specified 5km tile, all features within the tile will be supplied should any of the individual features change.
This means the user will need to remove all features that previously existed in the provided tile(s) and insert the entire new tile(s) in its place.
Comma-separated value (CSV) files are a delimited text file that use commas or other characters to separate individual elements of a feature. It is used to store data, often in the form of a table. These tables can be freely loaded into databases and programs allowing for the easy loading and updating of data holdings.
The supply of AddressBase products in the CSV format means:
There will be one record per line in each file.
Fields will be separated by commas.
Character strings will be encapsulated with double quotation marks.
No comma will be placed at the end of each row in the file.
Records will be terminated by Carriage Return / Line Feed.
For AddressBase Core, the first line of the CSV file will be the Header row. Other AddressBase products have a separate Header file that is available on the product's Downloads page; this Header file can be combined with the data to give a structure tabular view. Instructions to do this are provided in each product's Getting Started Guide.
GeoPackage (GPKG) is an open, standards-based data format as defined by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). It is designed to be a lightweight format that can contain large amounts of varied and complex data in a single, easy-to-distribute and ready-to-use file. Please be advised that older versions of GIS software may need updating before being able to display and interact with GeoPackage files.
GeoPackage offers the following benefits:
The single file is easy to transfer and offers the end-user a rich experience.
Attribute names are not limited in length making it user-friendly.
No file size limit so lots of data can be easily accommodated.
Supports raster, vector and database formats making it a highly versatile solution.
It is an OGC Standard.
In most cases, it is a Plug and Play format.