On 17/12/2010 18:47, WereSpielChequers wrote:
I've worked with commercial suppliers of this sort of data, but don't know how much is available as freeware.
Council wards vary greatly in population, the boundary commission seeks to standardise them within individual authorities, but not nationally. Parliamentary constituencies are much more harmonised, though with anomalies especially where Islands are concerned.
There are about a 100 Postcode areas - the leading alphabetic bit. But they vary radically in population size - BT has three times the average and two of the Scottish islands are titchy - I think less than a tenth of average size.
Outward Postcodes (the first half of the Postcode) also vary widely in number of households.
Postal Sectors (the first half of the Postcode and the number at the beginning of the second half) are my favourite, the residential ones usually have around 2,000 households
The interesting thing (if you could call it that) about this problem is that everyone I mention it to has a different take. It's the opposite of there being a solution known to everyone in the trade: suggestions are disparate. Which is not so good if all that is required is one solution fit for the basic purpose ...
Charles