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Guide to Find my area

Find my area is a simple free tool to let you find areas, such as local authorities, wards or parliamentary constituencies, in which given postcodes or Unique Property Reference Numbers (UPRNs) are located. You need to specify the type(s) of area you want to find and then either provide a single postcode/UPRN or provide a list in comma-separated values (CSV) format.

Selecting an area type

Click on the box under "area types" to see a list of area types from which you can pick as many types as you choose. Popular area types are at the top and all other area types lower down. All area types that are defined in Natural neighbourhoods are included - both official areas maintained by the LG Inform Plus team and ones added by anyone who chooses. A ✓ is shown on the right of the list for each area type you have chosen.

Click outside the list to close the selection and see the area types in the selection box. They're also added to the page URL, e.g. https://findmyarea.esd.org.uk/?areaType=AdministrativeWard, so you can save this if you want to return to the page in future with the same selection.

Note that most area types have areas for England and a few for the whole UK. Some area types only cover small parts of England dependent on their relevance and how much coverage the person who created them has chosen to define.

Finding areas for a single postcode or UPRN

In the "Postcode or UPRN" box, just enter the postcode or UPRN and click on GENERATE.  If your entry starts with a letter, we'll know its a postcode. If it starts with a number, we'll consider it to be a UPRN. Postcodes can be upper or lower case.

We'll then list below the areas found for the centroid of your postcode or for the precise geocoordinates of your UPRN. We show one area for each area type you hav chosen. If your postcode or UPRN is not in an area, we'll show "No areas found".

Finding areas for multiple postcodes or UPRNs

If you want to find areas for multiple postcodes and/or UPRNs, you can upload a spreadsheet file of them. You'll then be emailed a link to the file with areas of your chosen types added as extra columns. Follow these rules for the spreadsheet file up upload:

  • ensure it is in CSV format - from MS Excel, you can use the "save as..." option and pick the CSV format
  • put column headings in the first row of your file
  • include at least one column headed "Postcode" or "UPRN" (case insensitive). You can include both if you wish
  • include as many other columns as you like, these will be returned with values unchanged when we have added areas

You must be signed in to upload a CSV file - that way we know we have a validated email address to which we can send the results. If you don't have a sign-in, register first. Registration and sign-in are free. There is no charge for using this tool.

When you have specified your file for upload, click on GENERATE. We'll then show a message saying the file is being generated. You can leave the page at this point or you can wait for the message to change and say that the result have been emailed to you.

When we have added areas of your chosen types to the CSV file, we'll email you a link to the results file. Click on that link in your email message to get the results CSV file. The results file will be available for seven days from generation, after which we will permananetly delete it.

Interpreting the results

For each area found we'll give you three pieces of information:

  • identifier - for areas official areas managed by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) this is the Government Statistical Service (GSS) code
  • Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) a globally unique identifier which resolves over the internet to a page or data feed providing more information on the area
  • label - the official name of the area

In the CSV results file, this information is provided as three extra columns for each area type chosen. For a single area shown on screen, the URI is provided as a hyperlink from the identifier. If you choose the "Local authority" area type for an area in a two tier council location, you will be given values for both the dirctrict council and the county council. These values will b delimited by the "|" character.

 

Results files of a reasonable size will normally be sent within 10 minutes of you clicking on GENERATE. If you don't received your CSV results file by email, contact the Support team giving yoru user name and the time at which you started the generate.