WN postcode district map, Wigan
Supplier statuses last checked .
The WN postcode area covers 8 districts and 7,289 live postcodes, from WN1 to WN8. It is centred on Hindley and also covers Leigh, Billinge, Standish, Skelmersdale and Ince-in-Makerfield.
It is a dense area by postcode standards: an average of 911 postcodes per district,.
Where the WN districts sit
Where WN sits
It falls across Wigan, Lancashire and St. Helens.
Water supply across WN
All 8 WN districts are supplied by United Utilities. That makes WN simple in a way many areas are not: one company, one set of rules, one status to check.
No hosepipe ban currently applies anywhere in WN.
The shape of the WN area
WN2 is the largest district with 1,274 postcodes around Hindley, and WN4 the smallest with 604. The area divides into 35 postcode sectors.
District by district: WN1 serves Wigan, WN2 serves Hindley, WN3 serves Ince-in-Makerfield, WN4 serves Ashton-in-Makerfield, WN5 serves Billinge, WN6 serves Standish, WN7 serves Leigh and WN8 serves Skelmersdale.
What borders WN
WN sits next to BL (Bolton) to the north east, WA (Warrington) to the south, L (Liverpool) to the west, M (Manchester) to the east and PR (Preston) to the north west.
Its neighbours run in 5 different directions, so WN is landlocked by other postcode areas on most sides.
WN districts, settlements and water supply
| District | Principal settlement | Water company | Hosepipe ban status |
|---|---|---|---|
| WN1 | Wigan | United Utilities | No restrictions |
| WN2 | Hindley | United Utilities | No restrictions |
| WN3 | Ince-in-Makerfield | United Utilities | No restrictions |
| WN4 | Ashton-in-Makerfield | United Utilities | No restrictions |
| WN5 | Billinge | United Utilities | No restrictions |
| WN6 | Standish | United Utilities | No restrictions |
| WN7 | Leigh | United Utilities | No restrictions |
| WN8 | Skelmersdale | United Utilities | No restrictions |
Principal settlement is the town or city each district sits in or nearest to, derived from OS Open Names. It is not the Royal Mail post town, which is licensed data and not published openly. Status is resolved live from each company’s own notice.
Water hardness in WN
No water company covering WN publishes hardness figures as open data. The gap is named per district below so you know who to ask.
United Utilities does not publish hardness as open data, but does publish a water hardness factsheet with a full band table and a postcode water quality checker.
| District | Hardness | As published | Supply zone | Published by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WN1 | Not published by United Utilities. Check with your supplier. | |||
| WN2 | Not published by United Utilities. Check with your supplier. | |||
| WN3 | Not published by United Utilities. Check with your supplier. | |||
| WN4 | Not published by United Utilities. Check with your supplier. | |||
| WN5 | Not published by United Utilities. Check with your supplier. | |||
| WN6 | Not published by United Utilities. Check with your supplier. | |||
| WN7 | Not published by United Utilities. Check with your supplier. | |||
| WN8 | Not published by United Utilities. Check with your supplier. | |||
Hardness is published per census area, not per postcode, so these figures characterise a district rather than measuring one address. They are a scale and taste matter, not a safety one. Hardness data version wessex-water@2022-2025+yorkshire-water@2026.
Download the WN data
No signup, no email wall. GeoJSON carries the district points, the supplier and the live status, so it can be dropped straight into a map.
District positions are averaged postcode centroids from OS Code-Point Open. They show roughly where a district sits, not where its boundary runs, and are not legal boundaries.
Frequently asked questions
How many postcode districts are in the WN area?
There are 8 WN postcode districts, running from WN1 to WN8, and they contain 7,289 live postcodes across 35 sectors.
What towns does the WN postcode area cover?
WN covers Hindley, Leigh, Billinge, Standish, Skelmersdale and Ince-in-Makerfield. The area takes its name from Hindley, and each district is listed with its settlement in the table on this page.
Which water company supplies WN postcodes?
United Utilities supplies all 8 WN districts. Supply boundaries follow the pipe network rather than postcode geography, so confirm against your water bill if you are near the edge of the area.
Can I download a free WN postcode map?
Yes. This page offers the WN districts as GeoJSON, CSV and SVG, free and with no signup or email address required. The GeoJSON carries each district's position, its water company and its current restriction status, so it can be dropped straight into a mapping tool.
Why is the WN area called Wigan when it covers Hindley?
WN takes its letters from Wigan, where the sorting office that served the area was based when the code was allocated. Hindley is the largest settlement in the area today, in WN2, but the area code follows the historic sorting geography rather than current population.
Which councils cover the WN postcode area?
WN reaches into Wigan, Lancashire and St. Helens. A postcode area is not a council area: they were drawn for different purposes and a single district can sit across a council boundary, so your postcode does not tell you which authority you pay.
How many postcode sectors are in WN?
WN contains 35 postcode sectors across its 8 districts. A sector is the district plus the first digit of the second half of the postcode, and it is the level a delivery round is actually planned around.