What is an Eircode

Eircode

Eircode is Ireland's national postcode system and has been designed to identify every individual property in the country. It uniquely identifies any property such as houses, apartments and commercial premises. An Eircode is different to the UK postcode, it is a seven character alpha-numeric code and is made up of two parts, a Routing Key, and a Unique Identifier.

The system was introduced in 2015 to help improve the efficiency of Ireland's postal services, and it has been a key factor in the country's success in transitioning to an all-digital postal service.

New Eircodes are assigned every quarter, currently in the months of February, May, August, and November. If you are unsure if your address has an Eircode you can use the Eircode Finder  to check.

Eircode Format:

The Eircode is a 7-character code that is unique to every address in Ireland. Each of the seven characters are assigned to a specific part of an address, which makes it easy to pinpoint the exact location of any house or business across all of Ireland.

The first three characters of an Eircode are known as a Routing Key. There are 139 routing keys in Ireland. The first character is always a letter then 2 numbers. The routing key identifies the region, city or town in Ireland.

The second half of an Eircode consists of alphanumeric characters knows as the Unique Identifier. This is the unique code used to distinguish properties in the area.

Using an Eircode

An Eircode can be used as in many cases to identify a property. Some examples are:

• Online shopping: filling out a delivery address on a form
• Sending letters or parcels: completing the postal address details
• Paper forms: making applications or signing up for information
• Services in your area: checking if utility services cover your location
• Finding locations: identifying anywhere you want to travel to in Ireland

An Eircode should be added to an address in the following sequence:

Name
Street Town
County
EIRCODE
Ireland

Eircode Finder

Ideal Postcode’s Eircode address search includes 2.2 million addresses in Ireland along with additional address data such as geocoordinates and the below data points:

• Gaeltracht
• (Non) Unique Address
• Electoral district
• Local Authority
• Building Type
• Address Type
• Locality Type

Contact us if you are interested in implementing Eircode data to your system.