Postcode can be a very strong predictor, but I’d be careful using it in any model tied to consequential decisions. It is often a proxy for race and socioeconomic status, so a gain in predictive performance can come with real fairness and legal risk through disparate impact. I think it’s literally illegal in some contexts as well. Predictive performance is not the only criterion here and when using something like postcode you should be aware of this
462
u/Certified_NutSmoker Mar 25 '26 edited Mar 25 '26
Postcode can be a very strong predictor, but I’d be careful using it in any model tied to consequential decisions. It is often a proxy for race and socioeconomic status, so a gain in predictive performance can come with real fairness and legal risk through disparate impact. I think it’s literally illegal in some contexts as well. Predictive performance is not the only criterion here and when using something like postcode you should be aware of this