Product supply

Supply format and method

Code-Point with Polygons is available in the following formats:

• Shapefile

• MapInfo MID / MIF

• MapInfo TAB file

• Vector tiles (MBTiles)

• GeoPackage (GPKG)

Code-Point with Polygons is supplied as a zip file in the Data folder and can be downloaded from the OS Data Hub. The Code-Point polygon files contain substantial amounts of information, which in shapefile, MapInfo MID / MIF, MapInfo TAB file and vector tiles formats necessitate that file compression be used.

File sizes

File sizes for the product (including the polygon and points data) are approximately:

• Shapefile: 666MB

• MapInfo MID / MIF: 638MB

• MapInfo TAB file: 568MB

• Vector tiles (MBTiles): 470MB

• GeoPackage (GPKG): 871MB

Coverage

Coverage for the product is summarised in the table below:

Format	Polygons	Points
Shapefile	120 files covering Great Britain	121 (CSV) files covering the United Kingdom
MapInfo MID / MIF	120 files covering Great Britain	121 (CSV) files covering the United Kingdom
MapInfo TAB file	120 files covering Great Britain	121 (CSV) files covering the United Kingdom
Vector tiles	Single MBTiles file covering Great Britain	121 (CSV) files covering the United Kingdom
GeoPackage	Single database table covering Great Britain	Single database table covering Great Britain

Polygon coverage

The polygon data coverage is Great Britain. Polygon data is not provided for Northern Ireland postcodes.

The shapefile, MapInfo TAB file and MapInfo MID / MIF formats are split into 120 files where each file represents the notional geometry for a postcode area. The vector tiles and GeoPackage formats are supplied as one national file.

The following two comma-separated values (CSV) text files accompany the polygon data:

• Vertical_streets: A list of polygons, identified by a serial number that is prefixed by the letter V, which contain more than one postcode. This situation can occur in, for example, a block of flats where there is more than one postcode within a single building.

• Discard_files: A list of the postcodes for which polygons have not been included because there is no data of sufficient quality to use in the polygon creation, or because their constituent addresses lie outside the extent of the realm (coastline). The discard file also contains a list of PO Box postcodes as none of these will have been used in the creation of the polygon set.

Points coverage

For shapefile, MapInfo TAB file, MapInfo MID / MIF, and vector tiles formats, the associated Code-Point points coverage is for the United Kingdom as it includes Northern Ireland postcodes, and is provided as 121 comma-separated value (CSV) files.

For GeoPackage format, the associated Code-Point points data coverage is for Great Britain only, not Northern Ireland, and is provided as a single database table.

Code-Point contains georeferenced postcode unit data, with associated metadata such as address counts and quality indicators. It also provides the health and administrative area codes related to each postcode.

The following text files that are associated with the Code-Point data provide:

• The full-text equivalents of the administrative area codes

• The number of postcode units in each postcode area