List of postcode areas in the United Kingdom

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 and BT the highest. The London post town is instead divided into several postcode areas.

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 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
AL	St Albans	St Albans	10
B	Birmingham	Birmingham	79
BA	Bath	Bath	19
BB	Blackburn	Blackburn	13
BD	Bradford	Bradford	24
BH	Bournemouth	Bournemouth	26
BL	Bolton	Bo'lton	10
BN	Brighton	B'righton	30
BR	Bromley	Bromley	8
BS	Bristol	Bristol	37
BT	Belfast	Belfast	81
CA	Carlisle	Carlisle	28
CB	Cambridge	Cambridge	16
CF	Cardiff	Cardiff	35
CH	Chester	Chester	37
CM	Chelmsford	Chelmsford	25
CO	Colchester	Colchester	16
CR	Croydon	Croydon	9
CT	Canterbury	Canterbury	21
CV	Coventry	Co'ventry	24
CW	Crewe	C'rewe	12
DA	Dartford	Dartford	18
DD	Dundee	Dundee	11
DE	Derby	Derby	23
DG	Dumfries	Dumfries and Galloway	15
DH	Durham	Durham	9
DL	Darlington	Darlington	17
DN	Doncaster	Do'ncaster	32
DT	Dorchester	D'orchester	11
DY	Dudley	Dudley	14
E	East London	East	20
EC	East Central London	East Central	23
EH	Edinburgh	Edinburgh	54
EN	Enfield	Enfield	11
EX	Exeter	Exeter	33
FK	Falkirk	Falkirk	21
FY	Blackpool	The Fylde	8
G	Glasgow	Glasgow	52
GL	Gloucester	Gloucester	27
GU	Guildford	Guildford	38
HA	Harrow	Harrow	10
HD	Huddersfield	Hu'ddersfield	9
HG	Harrogate	H'arrogate	5
HP	Hemel Hempstead	Hemel Hempstead	24
HR	Hereford	He'reford	9
HS	Hebrides	H'ebrides	9
HU	Hull	Hull	20
HX	Halifax	Halifax	7
IG	Ilford	Possibly Ilford and Gants Hill	11
IP	Ipswich	Ipswich	33
IV	Inverness	In'verness	52
KA	Kilmarnock	Possibly K'ilmarnock, or Kilmarnock and Ayr, or Kilmarnock and Arran	30
KT	Kingston upon Thames	Kingston upon Thames	24
KW	Kirkwall	Kirkwall	16
KY	Kirkcaldy	Kirkcaldy	16
L	Liverpool	Liverpool	40
LA	Lancaster	Lancaster	23
LD	Llandrindod Wells	Llandrindod Wells	8
LE	Leicester	Leicester	21
LL	Llandudno	Llandudno	67
LN	Lincoln	Lincoln	13
LS	Leeds	Leeds	29
LU	Luton	Luton	7
M	Manchester	Manchester	43
ME	Rochester	Medway	20
MK	Milton Keynes	Milton Keynes	26
ML	Motherwell	Motherwell	12
N	North London	North	23
NE	Newcastle upon Tyne	Newcastle upon Tyne	61
NG	Nottingham	Nottingham	29
NN	Northampton	Northampton	19
NP	Newport	Newport	18
NR	Norwich	No'rwich	35
NW	North West London	N'orth West	11
OL	Oldham	Oldham	16
OX	Oxford	Oxford	27
PA	Paisley	Paisley	67
PE	Peterborough	Peterborough	38
PH	Perth	Perth	43
PL	Plymouth	Plymouth	35
PO	Portsmouth	Portsmouth	34
PR	Preston	Preston	11
RG	Reading	Reading	30
RH	Redhill	Redhill	20
RM	Romford	Ro'mford	20
S	Sheffield	S'heffield	45
SA	Swansea	Swansea	51
SE	South East London	South East	28
SG	Stevenage	Stevenage	19
SK	Stockport	Stockport	19
SL	Slough	Slough	10
SM	Sutton	Possibly Sutton and Morden, the two post towns that are within the SM area	7
SN	Swindon	Swindon	18
SO	Southampton	Southampton	23
SP	Salisbury	Salisbury Plain	11
SR	Sunderland	Sunderland	8
SS	Southend-on-Sea	Southend-on-Sea	17
ST	Stoke-on-Trent	Stoke-on-Trent	21
SW	South West London	South West	27
SY	Shrewsbury	Shrewsbury	25
TA	Taunton	Taunton	24
TD	Galashiels	Tweeddale	15
TF	Telford	Telford	13
TN	Tunbridge Wells	Tu'nbridge Wells	40
TQ	Torquay	T'orquay	14
TR	Truro	Truro	27
TS	Cleveland	Teesside	29
TW	Twickenham	Twickenham	20
UB	Southall	Ux'bridge	11
W	West London	W'est	26
WA	Warrington	Warrington	16
WC	West Central London	West Central	14
WD	Watford	Watford	11
WF	Wakefield	Wakefield	17
WN	Wigan	Wigan	8
WR	Worcester	Worcester	15
WS	Walsall	Walsall	15
WV	Wolverhampton	Wolverhampton	16
YO	York	York	29
ZE	Lerwick	Zetland	3