14th September 2015 - Following the launch this summer of Eircodes, the Republic of Ireland's new postal addressing system, an enhanced Eircode dataset has been released by the allmapdata team at Mapmechanics, including map coordinates for all addresses plus free boundary data for principal post towns.
Mapmechanics is a leading specialist in UK and worldwide mapping, business and demographic data, business intelligence (BI) and geographic information systems (GIS).
The allmapdata Eircodes dataset is ideal for any business delivering to homes or businesses in the Irish Republic, and is also invaluable for business intelligence activities, insurance premium calculation, rural service provision and mailing for marketing applications.
Until this year the Republic of Ireland had no postcode system comparable to that in the UK. Up to 600,000 Irish street addresses (more than a third of all addresses) were duplicated. This made it difficult to automate delivery scheduling, and to use address data in computer-based business planning and analysis or geographic information systems (GIS).
The new Eircode system, developed by the Irish Government, has tackled this problem by allocating individual codes to all 2.2 million Irish addresses. Their use is not compulsory, but the expectation is that they will be adopted quickly throughout the business community.
In some respects Eircodes are more precise than the UK's postcodes. While UK postcodes mostly apply to groups of properties, each seven-character alphanumeric Eircode is unique to a single premise. In blocks of flats, each individual flat even has its own code. This makes the codes particularly accurate for delivery management, and for very precise business analysis and planning.
The allmapdata Eircodes dataset includes location information in both Irish National Grid reference and latitude and longitude. Addresses are included in both English and Irish, and the data Identifies the DED (district electoral division) in which it lies, together with other details for each premise.
Not only is the data invaluable in its own right; it also enables users to link addresses with other Irish datasets held at different levels of geography. The data therefore represents both a compelling aid to delivery scheduling and an effective analytical tool.
The first three characters of each Eircode make up a "routing key", containing details of the post town applying to the address, while the final four digits represent a "unique identifier" for each property. A typical code looks like A65 F4E2.
However, Eircodes do not include any equivalent to the sector, district and area information incorporated in UK postcodes, which positions groups of addresses within the their broader geographical context. To make the new codes more effective in thematic mapping and analysis (for instance, for shading the areas covered by groups of codes), the allmapdata team has created boundaries for each of the 3-digit routing keys. These created boundaries represent 139 principal post towns. This makes it possible to shade the mapping thematically at principal town level. These polygons have been included in the dataset free of charge.
Details of the Eircodes from allmapdata dataset are available on the allmapdata web site,
www.allmapdata.com, and the allmapdata team can advise and assist customers on the most effective way to apply the new Eircodes in their business.
About allmapdata from Mapmechanics
- The allmapdata team from Mapmechanics assembles, configures, formats and distributes a wide range of data products for use with IoT, smart cities, logistics, retail, business intelligence and insurance telematics. The company's extensive worldwide portfolio includes products originated by HERE Maps, GfK and MBR geodemographics, GeoConcept GIS, Maponics US boundaries, DnB business data and many more.
- The products are used in a diverse range of fields such as depot planning, retail site location analysis, marketing, healthcare, environmental planning and management, transport and logistics, territory allocation and telematics.
Contact:
Zoe Fowke
MAPMECHANICS
Canal Court, 155 High Street,
Brentford, London, TW8 8JA
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Tel: +44 (020) 8568 7000 Fax:+44 (020) 8568 7400
Web: www.allmapdata.com
Web: www.allmapdata.com