The quantity of information available to businesses and governments about people from their home postcodes threatens to create class ghettos, a conference was told.

Postcode databanks contain so much personal detail, from spending power to health prospects, that they were described yesterday as “frighteningly accurate” at this year’s British Association festival of science in York.

Research into social classifications of areas by postcode, each containing an average of 14 households, showed that there is little chance of escaping class stereotyping. Classification systems use the census, purchasing patterns and other techniques to provide detailed snapshots of people’s lifestyles.

They are used as an aid to marketing, crime fighting and planning but are increasingly seen as a hidden infringement of privacy. In the United States websites have already sprung up that allow people to choose where they can live on the basis of the social class according to zip codes, the American equivalent of postcodes.

Such facilities lead to “ghettoisa-tion” by class and will increasingly be used in Britain over the next few years, according to Roger Burrows, of the University of York.

Residents are already being stereotyped by their neighbours’ lifestyles because classification systems such as Mosaic and Acorn regard everyone living in one postcode as being the same. When a postcode is on the cusp of two classifications, merely the type of drink that is preferred by a neighbour can make the difference between which definition is used for the area.

The distinction can affect insurance premiums, healthcare provision, the type of shops that open near by and how quickly telephone calls are answered by call centres.

“The fact that your neighbour has a taste for a lager when you prefer fine wine could be the tipping point that pushes you from one classification to another,” Professor Burrows said.

“There are always two or three people who don’t match the dominant type. That’s a problem for them. It means the actions of their neighbours impact on them.”

Professor Burrows led research that assessed the classification systems’ accuracy and concluded that they were pretty much spot on in their assessment of people’s age, occupation, health, attitudes and even the number of children they had. His team looked at four streets that possessed at least two different classifications.

Two of the streets were in York, one of which was affluent and the other poor. The third street was in Howden, East Yorkshire, and represented an economically mixed area, and the fourth was in Hoxton, East London, which included poverty-ridden homes and wealthy households.

Professor Burrows said that the school results of children living in postcode classification areas closely matched the expectations based on class type, as did the health and even the tastes of the inhabitants.

Few of the residents spoken to by the research team had any idea that so much personal detail was held in databanks and most of them agreed that the information was correct. Information held by the Government and corporations is likely to become more extensive as radio frequency identification (RFID) tags become common.

They can already be used to enable others to pinpoint where a mobile telephone is located. Extending their use is likely to mean that people’s route to work, or where they shop, can be used for product marketing.

Street wise

Affluent suburban street in York

Two postcode classifications:

1) Symbols of success

2) Cultural leadership

— Little difference between the two. Average house price: £400,000. Most likely first names: Jacob and Annabel. Wealthy professionals with conservative attitudes; well-educated; decision-makers

Poor street in York

1) Municipal dependency: Ex-industrial legacy

2) Municipal dependency: low horizons

3) Metropolitan strugglers

— Little difference between them except that the strugglers are slightly less poverty-stricken. One end of the street is in the top 10 per cent most deprived areas. The other end is in the top 20 per cent. Mainly run-down council houses. House price: £130,000. High crime rates. Most live in cramped, rented properties. Low-paid jobs such as office cleaners, parking attendants

Street in Howden, market town

Two classifications

1) Close to retirement

2) Local professionals and small business owners

Self-reliant; high incomes; grown children; close to retirement group is slightly older and wealthier

Street in Hoxton, East London

1) City adventurers: high-salaried twenty-something singles in smart flats in inner urban areas. Names Tim and Claudia are emblematic

2) Counter-cultural mix: young, mobile population in a mix of service economy and professional employment living in run-down urban zone; José and Ana typical names. Stylish and creative

3) Welfare borderline: mainly white, live in high-rise social housing, watch a lot of television, lots of children, few work

Source: British Association

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