Great Britain’s postcodes in numbers

Introduced and terminated, month by month

In the 24 complete months to June 2026, 30,208 postcodes were introduced in Great Britain and 19,547 terminated, by the months the directory dates them to. July 2026, the newest month the release dates anything to, is left out because it may be only partly recorded.

The release dates no termination to December 2024: the zero is the directory's own, not a gap in this count.

Postcode areas

One row per area — the leading letters of a postcode. Districts are the outward codes the directory lists in the area, live or not; streets are the roads OS Open Names files under them, each road under one district even where it runs through several. Area names are the post towns the areas are conventionally known by, not read from any dataset.

2,418 postcodes whose outward code is not in the modern shape (GIR, NPT) count in the totals above but in no area row.

Every district has a page of its own in the British postcode districts index.

Common questions about these counts

Why Great Britain and not the United Kingdom?

Northern Ireland’s postcodes, the BT area, are in the ONS Postcode Directory release, but reusing them needs a separate Land & Property Services licence, so they are dropped before the directory is installed. Every count here is England, Scotland and Wales. The Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, which the release also lists, are not part of Great Britain and are counted apart.

What is a terminated postcode?

A postcode that is no longer in use. The directory keeps it, dated to the month it was terminated, because an address written with one did exist; the address checker answers such a code as retired rather than unknown, and scores it rather than refusing it.

Why does the monthly series stop a month early?

The directory dates introductions and terminations to the month, and the newest month a release dates anything to may be only partly recorded when the release is compiled. The series therefore ends the month before it, so every month shown is complete.

Does a postcode count say who lives there?

No. A postcode directory says whether a code is in use, never who is there, and a streets register lists roads, not occupants. Nothing on this page, or in the address lookup behind it, names a person at an address.

Check a postcode on the address checker, read how a British address is written on the Great Britain page, or see every dataset behind the answers on the data sources page.

Counted from the ONS Postcode Directory (ons-postcode-directory, 2026-08). Contains ONS, OS and Royal Mail data © Crown copyright and database right 2026, Open Government Licence v3.0. Northern Ireland postcodes are excluded: their reuse needs a Land & Property Services licence. Licence: Open Government Licence v3.0.

Data synced on 2026-10-01: the postcode directory and streets register counted here.