Postcode in the UK: All the Facts You Should Know

26 February 2020 7543 Views

We all use postcodes in our daily life but we rarely pay attention to them. It has become a regular part of our everyday routine when we get mail, order something online, or send gifts to our friends and family. But did you know that actually a regular postcode plays a much bigger role than you think?

The idea of a code that would mean a certain area has appeared not a long time ago, but it changed the whole mailing system. So why do we still need postcodes and what is the history behind them? Find out more in this article.

Everything you need to know about post code

Ready to find out more about codes? Here are some of the most interesting facts about postcodes, their history and meaning:

• Postcodes are used to describe different areas and geographic locations in the UK. Another goal of a postcode is to get the mail delivered to us. The postcode consists of different letters and numbers that are combined together with the building number. Even though it does not seem like it, the British mail system is pretty easy in use.

• How did postcodes appear? In the 19th century, the population of London started growing, and in order to find out how is it best to organize the mailing and delivery around the city. This is how a new project was created that divided the area into 10 districts. After some time, other areas and cities were included in the project. By 1974, the last place was recoded.

• But how does this whole system work? To understand if the code is real, you should first take a look at the code and see if it is divided into 2 halves. The first part can have from two to four characters (letters or numbers), while the second part always has three numbers. The second part is also called the inward code, and it is supposed to tell the delivery office what the district and name of the street is.

• What should you do if you don’t a code of an area where you want the mail to arrive? With the help of the post code finder, you can always find any code. Just in a few seconds, you can get any code you need.

• How many post codes are there? There are around 1.7 million postcodes, but this number is changing all the time. Around 2700 codes are created each month, and almost the same number of codes is terminated as well.

Post codes are widely used everywhere and make our life much more comfortable than we could have imagined. This is a small detail of our lifestyle, but it is a pretty important one. It is probably very hard to find at least one person that has never ordered anything. With the help of codes, we can get anything shipped to us in a very short period of time.