Postcodes / Zipcodes 100% open

What data is expected?

A database of postcodes/zipcodes and the corresponding geospatial locations in terms of a latitude and a longitude (or similar co-ordinates in an openly published national co-ordinate system). A database which gives a location in terms of the name of a town or a street without lat/long co-ordinates is not considered acceptable unless the name of the town or street can be further converted to a latitude and longitude by means of other open data (eg an open gazetteer with latitude and longitude attributes).

What data is available

•   Does the data exist? Yes
•   Is data in digital form? Yes
•   Publicly available? Yes published by Office for National Statistics)
•   Is the data available for free? Yes
•   Is the data available online? Yes (Here)
•   Is the data machine readable? Yes (CSV)
•   Available in bulk? Yes
•   Openly licensed? Yes(Here)
•   Is the data provided on a timely and up to date basis? Yes

Details

Update: While you need to fill out a form in order to get access to the Ordnance Survey's Code-Point Open dataset, the Office for National Statistics publishes postcode data under an open licence publicly on the web.

Revision: you need to fill a form to get access to this dataset. Then you get a link by email.

Open postcode data which meets the specification here (postcodes and corresponding geospatial locations - lat/long or equivalent) is available via the Ordnance Survey's Code-Point Open dataset, which contains the 1.4m GB post codes each with a UK national grid reference of the postcode's location in eastings and northings (convertable to lat/long by published formulae) and with the administrative area (country/county/district/ward, plus National Health Service Region and Authority) in which it is located. This is updated quarterly. Similar Postcode data for the devolved province of Northern Ireland is not available as Open Data. The main UK address database (~24m individual addresses) is confusing called the Postcode Address File. This is a subscription-only database privately owned by the Royal Mail. The Open Data User Group have been pressing for its release too - see http://data.gov.uk/blog/dont-sell-our-postcodes-odug-on-why-we-should-have-open-addressing-in-the-uk The Postcode data as of August 2014 is available here: https://geoportal.statistics.gov.uk/Docs/PostCodes/ONSPD_AUG_2014_csv.zip The geographic coverage is United Kingdom (including Northern Ireland). More detailed information on the dataset can be found here: https://geoportal.statistics.gov.uk/geoportal/catalog/search/resource/details.page?uuid={473A5770-FB1B-4C1A-AEEC-5DC056E5EC7F}