Local short name form

Official name

Area

Population

Capital

Currency

International telephone access code

ISO 3166 country codes

Car nationality plate code

Internet country code

GRC Country Code

   1,234.45

(where . indicates the decimal separator and , the thousands separator)

   Note: This section last updated 23rd June 2021

   dd/mm/yyyy

Both the 12-hour and 24-hour clock notations are used.

   14:32

English , the official language, is spoken by 98% of the population. Welsh is spoken by 575 102 people, of whom 32 700 speak no other language, mainly in northern and central Wales. Scottish Gaelic , is spoken by 88 892 people in Ross, the Isle of Skye and the Western Isles of Scotland (of which 477 speak no other language) and Irish Gaelic is spoken in parts of Belfast and in parts of the counties of Armagh and Fermanagh in Northern Ireland.

Angloromani is spoken by 90 000 people. Traveller Scottish is spoken by 4 000 people in Scotland. Welsh Romani is also spoken.

Words indicating the nature of a company, when forming part of the company name, will always follow the name of the company, either after a comma or in brackets, thus:

   John Smith, Bakers
   John Smith (Bakers)

   Note: This section last updated 12th February 2017

The company types Limited (abbreviated to Ltd - private limited company) and PLC (Public Limited Company) are those most commonly found in address databases. Other types include

   Community Interest Company (CIC)
   Community Interest Public Limited Company (Community Interest PLC)
   Company Limited by Guarantee
   Cwmni Buddiant Cymunedol (CBC)
   Cwmni Buddiant Cymunedol Cyhoeddus Cyfyngedig (Cwmni Buddiant CCC)
   Cyfyngedig (Cyf, Limited company)
   Foreign Registered Company
   Friendly Society
   General Partnership
   Investment Company with Variable Capital (ICVC)
   Limited Partnership (LP)
   Limited Liability Partnership
   Open-Ended Investment Company (OEIC)
   Partnership
   Private Unlimited Company
   Public Corporation
   Sole Proprietorship

   Comprehensive tables of these strings can be acquired – see http://www.grcdi.nl/addresses.htm 

Addresses in the United Kingdom are the least formatted of any country in Europe. Whilst many countries limit addresses to, at most, three lines, the structure of addresses in the United Kingdom seems very much to have been left to the discretion of the sender, with the result that addresses are often long, contain not strictly necessary information and some almost provide the postman with a route description from the nearest large town to the address concerned. Naming houses or company locations is as common in the United Kingdom as it is rare in other parts of Europe. The postal code is also not as instinctively used as it is in other European countries. The address is written in the following format:

   Contact name
   {Job Title}
   Company Name
   {Sub-building name and number}
   {number[ ]}Thoroughfare name[ ]Thoroughfare type
   {Secondary address string}
   {District/suburb of town etc. or village name (double dependent locality)}
   {District/suburb of town etc. or village name (dependent locality)}
   POSTAL TOWN
   {County}
   POSTAL CODE

Some addresses contain a house name and no house number. In these cases the house name must be used. However, a house name must not replace a house number where this is available.

The street address may also be written as follows:

   Number[, ]Thoroughfare name[ ]Thoroughfare type

The address may also contain one or more of the following parameters:

   Floor number
   Unit number
   Industrial Estate name
   Building name

The order of these parameters varies. Punctuation (commas at the end of lines) is optional. There must be no punctuation on the same line as the postal code. For example:

The thoroughfare type is written after and separately from the thoroughfare name, thus:

   Saint Helen’s Avenue

An exception is the thoroughfare type ‘-gate’, which is of Scandinavian origin and is usually attached to the thoroughfare name, thus:

   Friargate

UK addresses will also often use a whole series of other directional indications, such as ‘c/o’ (care of), ‘r/o’ (rear of), ‘near’, ‘off’ and so on.

There are 11 postal town names in the United Kingdom which are duplicated. These are:

This will cause no problems provided that the postal code is used. Where the postal code is unknown, the county is required.

   A table containing information about the relevant position of elements within address blocks can be acquired 

Thoroughfare types

   Comprehensive tables of these strings can be acquired – see http://www.grcdi.nl/addresses.htm 

Other elements commonly found in address databases

This is written as P.O. Box, Post Office Box, PO Box or Post office box.

Note that in the United Kingdom, a post office box is not necessarily a number. It can also be a part (usually the last part) of a postal code. Thus, for example:

   Note: This section last updated 3rd December 2017

Postal codes (called Postcodes in the United Kingdom) have a long history, the first limited set of codes having been created for parts of London in 1856. The current system was introduced after a trial run in Norwich in 1959. There are around 1.8 million postal codes covering about 29 million addresses. About 5000 changes are made to the postal code files daily.

Postal codes must be placed on a separate line at the bottom of the address, after the town name. There must be nothing else written on this line.

Postal code areas do not correspond to administrative districts. Each code represents a single large user or a small number of addresses in a street or neighbourhood.

Each postal code has two parts, separated by a space. No postal code is longer than 8 characters.

The first part of the postal code (outward code, outcode) can take the following forms:

   A9                e.g. E1
   A99               e.g. E11
   A9A               e.g. E1A
   AA9               e.g. EX1
   AA99              e.g. EX11
   AA9A              e.g. EC1A(This format is found only in London.)
   AAA               For a small number of postal codes only – GIR 0AA, SAN TA1

The second part of the postal code (inward code, incode) is always a digit followed by 2 letters, e.g.

   lAP

The first part of the postal code relates to the postal distribution centre, the letters deriving from the town name, and the part of that district. The second part relates to a street and to which side of the street the house is found or whether the house is odd- or even-numbered; or it may be unique to a single large user. The user cannot derive these details from the code itself.

There are a number of non-geographic codes in use:

   BF1      Introduced in 2012 for British Forces Overseas addresses, with the postal town being BFPO

   BX       This is a Bespoke Service Identifier (BSI) used for large businesses.  This code has the same format as a postal code and is used in place of the postal code, and is theoretically available to companies receiving more than 36000 mail pieces per  day. It is non-geographic, so it allows the large-user to specify and change a preferred delivery point without the need to change postal code and therefore saving money for stationery re-printing etc.

   GIR 0AA  The code created for the Girobank, now part of Santander

   QC       A code used by examination boards.

   XM4 5HQ  Used for letters to Santa Claus. This had previously been SAN TA1.

   XX       A code used by some large retailers, such as John Lewis and Amazon, for parcel returns.

The following list gives all possible initial characters for geographic postal codes. The list below gives the postal town from which the code was derived (though not necessarily the town which is to be used in the address containing this postal code). As the component nations of the United Kingdom now have devolved governments, their use in addresses is likely to increase. The table therefore also shows which postal code is in which nation.

In the inward (second half) of the code, the letters C, I, K, M, O and V are never found.

As both the International sorting code and UK postal codes begin with letters, confusion can occur (e.g. CH indicating Switzerland can be confused with CH indicating Chester), and for this reason the British Post Office prefers that the International sorting code is not used for international mail posted within the United Kingdom.

Postal codes beginning GY are in the crown dependency of Guernsey, those beginning JE are in Jersey and those beginning IM in the Isle of Man.

   Metadata containing postal code formatting rules, exceptions and regular expressions can be acquired 

United Kingdom - Postal code format graphic

United Kingdom - Postal code format

United Kingdom - Postal code specifics

United Kingdom - Postal code regular expression

United Kingdom - Postal code level of coverage

United Kingdom - Postal code map

   Note: This section last updated 13th September 2017

There are few rules to govern the correct punctuation of place names. A good place to look for correct spellings is Oliver Mason’s Bartholomew Gazetteer of Places in Britain. The UK has many charmingly and idiosyncratically named settlements, and space limitations do not allow me to list all of them. However, the list below, limited to settlements with more than 5 000 inhabitants (2 000 for settlements in Scotland or Wales) shows the correct way of writing the names of settlements which can be wrongly or alternatively spelt, with their respective postal codes:

List of places with royal patronage in the United Kingdom

Londonderry, in Northern Ireland, is now officially known as Derry. Londonderry is still used by some of the population. The use of either name is heavily politically coloured, and care needs to be taken. Use the same version that the contact person uses.

Staines (postal code areas TW18 and TW19) became Staines-upon-Thames on 20^th May 2012.

Furthermore, there is generally no hyphenation for names beginning with the following words:

   Bishop
   Castle
   East
   Far
   Great
   Greater
   High
   Higher
   Lesser
   Little
   Low
   Lower
   Market
   Mid
   Middle
   Near
   Nether
   New
   North
   Old
   St
   South
   The
   Upper
   West
   Y
   Yr

In some databases, these words may sometimes be found following the rest of the settlement name in this way:

   Tew, Great

Saint is always printed as St.

Refer to Exonyms in United Kingdom for full lists of place names in the United Kingdom in other languages.

   Alternate place name forms/postal code tables can be acquired at http://www.grcdi.nl/settlements.htm 

   Other language place name data can be acquired at http://www.grcdi.nl/otherlanguageplace.htm 

   Note: This section last updated 1st April 2019

There have been a number of re-organizations of counties and other administrative districts within the United Kingdom in the past 25 years which has caused confusion especially in the use of these names in addresses. Counties have been merged, un-merged and had name changes. Many people still use county names in addresses, though they may use old (pre-1974) names, new names, or the name that was used in the intervening period. Some still use the names of counties which no longer exist. To add to this confusion, administrative areas which are not counties but have the same administrative rôle as counties, have been brought into being. The British Post Office have not made changes to the official way that counties are used in addresses to conform to the most recent changes.

It is not necessary to use a county in an address provided that the postal code is used. Given the problems in identifying the correct county name, it is probably best not to add them to addresses at all unless you have a good reason to do so.

For a small number of addresses, especially for those near a county boundary, the county added to the address is not necessarily that where the address is geographically situated - it may be that of the postal town.

The following list of counties provides common abbreviations in brackets. Those names followed by an asterisk (*) are newly created districts and are unlikely to be in common usage in addresses. Those followed by the symbol (†) no longer exist as counties but may still be found in address databases. Those followed by the symbol (‡) are counties or districts which were abolished in 1974 but have recently been re-incarnated. Those followed by the symbol (§) are new urban districts or unitary authorities which are unlikely to become used as county names - the old county will be used.

England

   Avon  (†)
   Bath and North East Somerset  (*)
   Bedfordshire  (Beds)
   (Royal) Berkshire  (Berks)
   Blackburn with Darwen  (*)(§)
   Blackpool  (*)(§)
   Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole  (*)(§)
   Bracknell Forest  (*)(§)
   Brighton & Hove  (*)(§)
   Buckinghamshire  (Bucks)
   Cambridgeshire  (Cambs)
   Cheshire 
   City of Bristol  (*)(§)
   City of Kingston upon Hull  (*)(§)
   City of Stoke-on-Trent  (*)(§)
   Cleveland  (†)
   Cornwall 
   Cumbria 
   Darlington  (*)(§)
   Derby City  (*)(§)
   Derbyshire 
   Devon 
   Dorset 
   (County) Durham 
   East Sussex  (E Sussex)
   East Yorkshire  (E Yorks), or East Riding of Yorkshire (‡)
   Essex 
   Gloucestershire  (Glos)
   Greater London 
   Greater Manchester 
   Halton  (*)(§)
   Hampshire  (Hants)
   Hartlepool  (*)(§)
   Herefordshire  (‡)
   Hertfordshire  (Herts)
   Isle of Wight 
   Isles of Scilly  (*)
   Kent 
   Lancashire  (Lancs)
   Leicester City  (*)(§)
   Leicestershire  (Leics)
   Lincolnshire  (Lincs)
   Luton  (*)(§)
   Medway  (*)(§)
   Merseyside 
   Middlesbrough  (*)(§)
   Milton Keynes  (*)(§)
   Norfolk 
   North Lincolnshire  (*)
   North East Lincolnshire  (*)
   North Somerset  (*)
   North Yorkshire  (N Yorks)
   Northamptonshire  (Northants)
   Northumberland  (Northd)
   Nottingham  (*)(§)
   Nottinghamshire  (Notts)
   Oxfordshire  (Oxon)
   Peterborough  (*)(§)
   Plymouth  (*)(§)
   Portsmouth City  (*)(§)
   Reading  (*)(§)
   Redcar and Cleveland  (*)
   Rutland  (‡)
   Shropshire  (for a short period renamed Salop)
   Slough  (*)(§)
   Somerset 
   South Gloucestershire  (*)
   South Yorkshire  (S Yorks)
   Southampton City  (*)(§)
   Southend-on-Sea  (*)(§)
   Staffordshire  (Staffs)
   Stockton-on-Tees  (*)(§)
   Suffolk 
   Surrey 
   Swindon  (*)(§)
   Telford & Wrekin  (*)(§)
   Thurrock  (*)(§)
   Torbay  (*)(§)
   Tyne and Wear 
   Warrington  (*)(§)
   Warwickshire 
   West Berkshire  (*)(§)
   West Midlands  (W Midlands)
   West Sussex  (W Sussex)
   West Yorkshire  (W Yorks)
   Wiltshire  (Wilts)
   Windsor & Maidenhead  (*)(§)
   Wokingham  (*)(§)
   Worcestershire  (‡)
   York  (*)(§) 

Wales

   Blaenau Gwent  (*)
   Bridgend  (*)
   Caerphilly  (*)
   Cardiff  (*)
   Carmarthenshire  (‡)
   Clwyd  (†)
   Conwy  (*)
   Ceredigion  (*)
   Denbighshire  (‡)
   Dyfed  (†)
   Flintshire  (‡)
   Gwent  (†)
   Gwynedd 
   Isle of Anglesey 
   Merthyr Tydfil  (*)
   Mid Glamorgan  (M Glam) (†)
   Monmouthshire  (‡)
   Neath Port Talbot  (*)
   Newport  (*)
   Pembrokeshire  (‡)
   Powys 
   Rhondda Cynon Taff  (*)
   South Glamorgan  (S Glam) (†)
   Swansea  (*)
   Torfaen  (*)
   Vale of Glamorgan  (*)
   West Glamorgan  (W Glam) (†)
   Wrexham  (*)

Scotland

   Aberdeen City  (*)(§)
   Aberdeenshire  (‡)
   Angus  (‡)
   Argyll & Bute 
   Central  (†)
   City of Edinburgh  (*)(§)
   Clackmannanshire  (‡)
   Dumfries and Galloway 
   Dundee City  (*) (§)
   East Ayrshire  (*)
   East Dunbartonshire  (*)
   East Lothian  (‡)
   East Renfrewshire  (*)
   Falkirk 
   Fife 
   Glasgow City  (*)(§)
   Grampian  (†)
   Highland  
   Inverclyde  (*)
   Lothian  (counties of East Lothian, Lothian, West Lothian)
   Midlothian  (‡)
   Moray  (‡)
   Na h-Eileanan Siar  (Western Isles)    
   North Ayrshire  (*)
   North Lanarkshire  (*)
   Orkney 
   Perth and Kinross  (*)
   Renfrewshire  (‡)
   Scottish Borders 
   Shetland 
   South Ayrshire  (*)
   South Lanarkshire  (*)
   Stirling  (‡)
   Strathclyde  (†)
   Tayside  (†)
   West Dunbartonshire  (*)
   West Lothian  (‡)

Northern Ireland

   County Antrim 
   County Armagh 
   County Londonderry 
   County Down 
   County Fermanagh 
   County Tyrone 

Note: Northern Ireland is divided into 11 divisions , but these are not generally used in addresses.

Crown dependencies

   Alderney 
   Guernsey
   Isle of Man
   Jersey
   Sark 

Counties may be written in addresses without the word ‘shire’, especially where the county is named after a town. Thus, Gloucestershire is often written as Gloucester, Oxfordshire as Oxford, etc. This is especially the case with the old Scottish counties, where the ‘shire’ is rarely used.

If you want to use counties in addresses, it is necessary to note a number of idiosyncratic differences between the existing administrative regions and the county names that the Royal Mail prefers are used in addresses. These idiosyncrasies are as follows:

1. In Scotland, the administrative regions which replaced the old counties in 1975 are not referred to at all by the Post Office. The old county names are still used. The old Scottish counties are as follows:

    Aberdeenshire 
    Angus 
    Argyllshire 
    Ayrshire 
    Banffshire 
    Berwickshire 
    Buteshire 
    Caithness 
    Clackmannanshire 
    Dumfriesshire 
    Dunbarton 
    East Lothian 
    Fife 
    Inverness-shire 
    Kincardineshire 
    Kinross-shire 
    Kircudbrightshire 
    Lanarkshire 
    Midlothian 
    Morayshire 
    Nairnshire 
    Peeblesshire 
    Perthshire 
    Renfrewshire 
    Ross & Cromarty 
    Roxburghshire 
    Selkirkshire 
    Stirlingshire 
    Sutherland 
    West Lothian 
    Wigtownshire 

2. For London, the Post Office uses the pre-1965 boundary. So, for example, Harrow is addressed as Middlesex , and Sidcup as Kent. Middlesex no longer exists as a county but is still used in postal addresses.

London boroughs will often be found in addresses. In order to be able to recognise these, a list of the currently existing boroughs follows:

    Barking and Dagenham 
    Barnet 
    Bexley 
    Brent 
    Bromley 
    Camden 
    City of London 
    City of Westminster 
    Croydon 
    Ealing 
    Enfield 
    Greenwich 
    Hackney 
    Hammersmith and Fulham 
    Haringey 
    Harrow 
    Havering 
    Hillingdon 
    Hounslow 
    Islington 
    Kensington and Chelsea 
    Kingston upon Thames 
    Lambeth 
    Lewisham 
    Merton 
    Newham 
    Redbridge 
    Richmond upon Thames 
    Southwark 
    Sutton 
    Tower Hamlets 
    Waltham Forest 
    Wandsworth 

Administrative districts graphic

United Kingdom normal subscriber telephone numbers have 10 or 11 digits and the area code always begins with a 0 (which is dropped when calling numbers from abroad). The aim is to make a 10 digit number standard. Mobile numbers have the area codes 71-75 and 77-79.

   Tables of telephone number information/formats can be acquired – see http://www.grcdi.nl/telephone.htm