This is a list of postcode areas, used by Royal Mail for the purposes of directing mail within the United Kingdom. The postcode area is the largest geographical unit used and forms the initial characters of the alphanumeric UK postcode. There are currently 121 geographic postcode areas in use in the UK and a further three often combined with these covering the Crown Dependencies of Guernsey, Jersey and Isle of Man.

Subdivision Each postcode area is further divided into post towns and postcode districts. There are on average 20 postcode districts to a postcode area, with ZE having the lowest (3) and BT the highest (81). The London post town is instead divided into several postcode areas.HMSO, The Inner London Letter Post, (1980)

Scope The single or pair of letters chosen for postcode areas are generally intended as a mnemonic for the places served. Postcode areas, post towns and postcode districts do not follow political or local authority administrative boundaries and usually serve much larger areas than the place names with which they are associated. Many post towns are former "county towns" but postcode areas rarely align with the county (or successor authority) area. For example, within the PA postcode area the PA1 and PA78 postcode districts are apart, and cover 5 local authority areas; and the eight postcode areas of the London post town cover only 40% of Greater London. The remainder of its area is covered by sections of twelve adjoining postcode areas: EN, IG, RM, DA, BR, TN, CR, SM, KT, TW, HA and UB.

United Kingdom postcode areas

Postcode area Postcode area name Code formation Number of postcode districts within area AB Aberdeen Aberdeen 33 (highest number 56) AL St Albans St Albans10 B Birmingham Birmingham79 (highest number 98) BA Bath Bath19 (highest number 22) BB Blackburn Blackburn13 (highest number 18) BD Bradford Bradford24 BH Bournemouth Bournemouth26 (highest number 31) BL Bolton Bolton10 (highest number 9) BN Brighton Brighton 30 (highest number 45) BR Bromley Bromley8 BS Bristol Bristol37 (highest number 49) BT Belfast Belfast81 (highest number 94) CA Carlisle Carlisle28 CB Cambridge Cambridge16 (highest number 25) CF Cardiff Cardiff 35 (highest number 83) CH Chester Chester37 (highest number 66) CM Chelmsford Chelmsford 25 (highest number 77) CO Colchester Colchester16 CR Croydon Croydon 9 (highest number 8) CT Canterbury Canterbury21 CV Coventry Coventry24 (highest number 47) CW Crewe Crewe12 DA Dartford Dartford18 DD Dundee Dundee11 DE Derby Derby23 (highest number 75) DG Dumfries Dumfries and Galloway 15 (highest number 16) DH Durham Durham9 DL Darlington Darlington 17 DN Doncaster Doncaster32 (highest number 41) DT Dorchester Dorchester11 DY Dudley Dudley14 E East London East (London)20 (includes E1W) EC East Central London East Central (London)23 (EC is split into four, with EC1, EC2 and EC4 split -A, -M, -N, -R, -V & -Y and EC3 split -A, -M, -N, -R & -V; highest number 4/4Y) EH Edinburgh Edinburgh54 (highest number 55) EN Enfield Enfield11 EX Exeter Exeter33 (highest number 39) FK Falkirk Falkirk21 FY Blackpool The Fylde 8 G Glasgow Glasgow52 (highest number 84) GL Gloucester Gloucester27 (highest number 56) GU Guildford Guildford38 (highest number 52) HA Harrow Harrow10 (highest number 9) HD Huddersfield Huddersfield9 HG Harrogate Harrogate5 HP Hemel Hempstead Hemel Hempstead24 (highest number 27) HR Hereford Hereford9 HS Hebrides Hebrides9 HU Hull Hull20 HX Halifax Halifax7 IG Ilford Ilford and Gants Hill11 IP Ipswich Ipswich33 IV Inverness Inverness52 (highest number 63) KA KilmarnockPossibly Kilmarnock, or Kilmarnock and Ayr, or Kilmarnock and Arran 30 KT Kingston upon Thames Kingston upon Thames24 KW Kirkwall Kirkwall16 (highest number 17) KY Kirkcaldy Kirkcaldy16 L Liverpool Liverpool40 LA Lancaster Lancaster23 LD Llandrindod Wells Llandrindod Wells 8 LE Leicester Leicester21 (highest number 67) LL Llandudno Llandudno67 (highest number 78) LN Lincoln Lincoln13 LS Leeds Leeds29 LU Luton Luton7 M Manchester Manchester43 (highest number 90) ME Rochester Medway 20 MK Milton Keynes Milton Keynes26 (highest number 46) ML Motherwell Motherwell12 N North London North (London)23 (includes N1C, highest number 22) NE Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne 61 (highest number 71) NG Nottingham Nottingham29 (highest number 34) NN Northampton Northampton19 (highest number 29) NP Newport Newport18 (highest number 44) NR Norwich Norwich35 NW North West London North West (London)11 OL Oldham Oldham16 OX Oxford Oxford27 (highest number 49) PA Paisley Paisley67 (highest number 80) PE Peterborough Peterborough38 PH Perth Perth43 (highest number 50) PL Plymouth Plymouth35 PO Portsmouth Portsmouth34 (highest number 41) PR Preston Preston11 (highest number 26) RG Reading Reading30 (highest number 45) RH Redhill Redhill20 RM Romford Romford20 S Sheffield Sheffield45 (highest number 81) SA Swansea Swansea51 (highest number 73) SE South East London South East (London)28 SG Stevenage Stevenage19 SK Stockport Stockport19 (highest number 23) SL Slough Slough10 (highest number 9) SM Sutton Possibly Sutton and Morden, the two post towns that are within the SM area 7 SN Swindon Swindon18 (highest number 26) SO Southampton Southampton23 (highest number 53) SP Salisbury Salisbury Plain 11 SR Sunderland Sunderland8 SS Southend-on-Sea Southend-on-Sea17 ST Stoke-on-Trent Stoke-on-Trent21 SW South West London South West (London)27 (SW1 is split into eight, -A, -E, -H, -P, -V, -W, -X & -Y; highest number 20) SY Shrewsbury Shrewsbury25 TA Taunton Taunton24 TD GalashielsTweeddale 15 TF Telford Telford13 TN Tunbridge Wells Tunbridge Wells40 TQ Torquay Torquay14 TR Truro Truro27 TS Cleveland Teesside 29 TW Twickenham Twickenham20 UB SouthallUxbridge 11 W West London West (London)26 (W1 is split into thirteen, -A to -D, -F to -H, -J, -K, -S to -U & -W; highest number 14) WA Warrington Warrington16 WC West Central London West Central (London)14 (WC1 is split into eight, -A, -B, -E, -H, -N, -R, -V & -X; WC2 is split into six, -A, -B, -E, -H, -N & -R; highest number 2R) WD Watford Watford11 (highest number 25) WF Wakefield Wakefield17 WN Wigan Wigan8 WR Worcester Worcester15 WS Walsall Walsall15 WV Wolverhampton Wolverhampton16 YO York York29 (highest number 62) ZE Lerwick Zetland 3

Crown dependencies The Crown dependencies (which are not part of the United Kingdom) did not introduce postcodes until later, but use a similar coding scheme. They are separate postal authorities.

Postcode area Postcode area nameCode FormationNumber of postcode districts within area GY GuernseyGuernsey10 JE JerseyJersey2 (highest number 3) IM Isle of ManIsle of Man9

Defunct postcode areas London NE and S

Glasgow Glasgow, like London, was divided into compass districts: C, W, NW, N, E, SE, S, SW. When postcodes were introduced, these were mapped into the new G postcode: C1 became G1, W1 became G11, N1 became G21, E1 became G31, S1 became G41, SW1 became G51, and so on. As NW and SE had never been subdivided they became G20 and G40 respectively.

Norwich and Croydon Norwich and Croydon were used for a postcode experiment in the late 1960s, which was replaced by the current system. The format was of the form NOR or CRO followed by two numbers and a letter, e.g. NOR 07A. They were later changed to CR0 (digit '0') and NR1.

Dublin, Ireland When Ireland was a part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland a postal district system was introduced in 1917 by the UK government. The letter D was assigned to Dublin. Upon the establishment of the Irish Free State and later, the Republic of Ireland, the Irish government retained the designation and today it forms part of the Eircode system, a postcode format slightly different from the UK format and identifying individual addresses. Since Irish independence, D has never been reassigned as a postcode area in the UK.

Non-geographic postcodes

Types Some postcode areas do not correspond to geographical areas. They can be - (a) postcode areas with no geographic link (for use by Large Volume Receivers ("bulk mail", with delivery options determined between the LVR and Royal Mail) and these can for general mail or specific functions (e.g. parcel returns; centralised scanning of mail); (b) non-geographic postcode districts or sectors contained within geographic postcode areas (for LVRs or PO Boxes); and (c) specific purpose postcodes.

Postcode area Purpose BF British Forces Post Office BX National Non-geographic GIR Girobank (no longer operating)XMLetters to Father Christmas ("XMas")XXParcel returns to LVRs; COVID-19 samplesaa91-aa95Business Large Volume Receivers in a postcode district (but this number range is not universally applied, and has many exceptions)aa96-aa99Government Large Volume Receivers in a postcode district (but this number range is not universally applied, and has many exceptions)aanPPO Boxes, in some London postcode districts e.g. EC1P, N1P (but is not consistently applied)

Numbering of non-geographic postcode districts For those within geographic postcode areas, the first two numbers can be any number though they are generally larger than the numbers allocated to geographic districts. Some fall within the range 91 to 99 (e.g. S98 for payments to MNBA Ltd; NE98 for Department for Work and Pensions, Central Office, Newcastle-upon-Tyne). However, there are many exceptions to this - e.g. American Express has the postcode area BN88; in Glasgow G58 1SB is allocated to National Savings, formerly National Savings Bank, as a mnemonic (SB, and with 58 looking like SB), though it is located in the G43 postcode district; and in Glasgow G70 is allocated to HMRC which is located in G67. Some are in fact geographic e.g. EH99 1SP for the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh.

BF The BF postcode area was introduced in 2012 to provide optional postcodes for British Forces Post Office addresses, for consistency with the layout of other UK addresses. It uses the national non-geographic post town "BFPO" and, as of 2012, the postcode district "BF1". Each BFPO number is assigned an inward code, which are grouped as: 0 - Germany, 1 - UK, 2 - Rest of Europe, 3 - Rest of World, 4 - Ships and Naval Parties, 5 - Rest of World, Operations and Exercises, 6 - Rest of World, Operations and Exercises.

BX The non-geographic postcode area BX has been introduced for addresses which do not include a locality; this allows large organisations long-term flexibility as to where they receive their mail. This postcode area is used by Lloyds Banking Group (BX1 1LT), HSBC (BX8 0HB) and parts of HM Revenue and Customs like VAT (BX5 5AT) and Pay As You Earn (BX9 1AS). Lloyds Bank also use BX4. After splitting from Lloyds, TSB Bank uses BX4 7SB, the latter part of which, when written, looks similar to "TSB".

GIR GIR 0AA is a postcode created for Girobank in Bootle. It remained in use by its successors when Girobank was taken over by Alliance & Leicester and subsequently by Santander UK.

XM XM4 5HQ is a postcode created for letters sent to Santa Claus or Father Christmas (with XM4 5HQ resembling "XMAS").

XX The non-geographic postcode area XX is used by online retailers for returns by Royal Mail, and was used for COVID-19 test samples.