by MarkC
8. September 2009 09:25
After updating our postcode software with the latest data from Royal Mail last week, I thought it would be interesting to share some of the statistics from our update process.
Each month we receive hundreds of thousands of updates from Royal Mail, containing details of new and changed premises as well as those that are no longer around. This month was no exception, with a total of just over 200,000 changes being applied to the data. If there's one good example of why postcode lookup works as software as a service (SaaS) this is it - imagine missing a CD update that could mean 200,000 households might have problems with your ordering process.
Since the beginning of the recession we have seen a marked change in the types and quantities of data we have passing through our systems. For example, the number of NCOA records we have each month indicating people moving house declined rapidly as people struggled to get mortgages. Now we have reports of "green shoots", I decided to take a look at the changes in PAF for similar indications.
Overall this month, PAF has seen over 60,000 new addresses added to the file, while around 55,000 were removed. The biggest loser was Birmingham, with over 4,500 addresses being removed in the B postcode area. On the rise were Northern Ireland and Glasgow, gaining 3,700 and 2,800 new addresses respectively.
It's worth point out that this isn't rigorous statistical analysis, as additions and removals in the PAF data can simply indicate corrections and other minor changes being made to the data rather than large building projects and new companies being formed, but the picture does seem to be improving month on month, with 4,000 more new addresses being added this month than last.