Postal code
A postal code is a series of letters and digits appended to a postal address for the purpose of sorting mail.
Every postal service (usually having their service area defined by national borders) has a different format and placement for the postal code.
In most English-speaking countries, the postal code goes after the name of the city or town, whereas in most European countries it goes before it and is often prefixed with a country abbreviation.
Though usually postal codes are assigned to geographical areas, sometimes this is not the case: special codes may be assigned to institutions with large volumes of post, such as government agencies and large commercial companies. One example is the French Cedex system.
Before postal codes as described here were used, large cities were often divided into postal zones, usually numbered from 1 up within each city. Postal code systems often incorporate the old zone numbers, as in London, for example.
Formats
- Key: Ds are digits. Ls are letters.
; Australia: known as the post code: DDDD. In general, the first digit identifies the state. 1 = Sydney NSW PO Box and large users, 2 = New South Wales (NSW) & Australian Capital Territory (ACT), 3 = Victoria (Vic), 4 = Queensland (Qld), 5 = South Australia (SA), 6 = Western Australia (WA), 7 = Tasmania ((Tas), 8 = (Melbourne Vic PO Box and large users), 9 = Brisbane Qld PO Box and large users), 0 = Northern Territory (NT).
; Austria: DDDD (the first digit denotes almost one of the nine provinces -- called Bundesländer -- , the last the nearest post office in the area)
; Belgium: DDDD (in general, the first digit gives the province) list of Belgian postal codes
; Brazil: DDDDD-DDD
; Canada: LDL DLD. The first letter is for a province or a region, generally in order from east to west: Newfoundland and Labrador (NL) = A, Nova Scotia (NS) = B, Prince Edward Island (PE) = C, (NB) = E; Quebec (QC) = G (east), H (Montreal), J (west); Ontario (ON) = K (east), L (south central), M (Toronto), N (southwest), P (north); Manitoba (MB) = R, Saskatchewan (SK) = S, Alberta (AB) = T, British Columbia (BC) = V; Northwest Territories (NT) & Nunavut (NU) = X, Yukon (YT) = Y. The next two characters represent a rural district, a city, or a section of a major metropolitan area, and the remaining characters represent an entire small town, a single large building (or part of a very large one), or one side of a city block. W and Z are unused as the first letters of postal codes; while D, F, I, O, Q, and U are never used anywhere.
; China, the People's Republic of (based in Mainland): Known as youbian (邮编): DDDDDD, a subordinate division will have the same first two numbers as its governing one (see Political divisions of China#Levels).
; China, the Republic of (based on Taiwan): Known as youdi chyuhao (郵遞區號): DDD, the first number increases from north to south, and townships of a county all have the same first number, although some counties share the same first numbers. 0 can be found in any position except the first. 1 -9 can exist anywhere. The Sekaku Islands, though Japanese-governed, are assigned 290; the Pratas Islands are 817 and the Spratly Islands 819.
; France: DDDDD, the first two digits give the département number
- Cedex
- NB: In the case of Paris, you can determine the arrondissement of an address from its postal code. The last two digits of a Paris address give the arrondissement; 75018 is the eighteenth for example. The exception to this rule are addresses with the word "CEDEX" appearing in them. See Right Bank.
; Germany: DDDDD since 1993. Before that date, both the Federal Republic and the GDR used 4 digit postal codes.
; Japan: DDD-DDDD. See Japanese addressing system for more.
; Mexico: DDDDD. The first two digits identify the state (or a part thereof), except for Nos. 00 to 16, which indicate delegaciones (boroughs) of the Federal District (Mexico City).
; Netherlands: DDDD LL. The letters 'F', 'I', 'O', 'Q', 'U' and 'Y' are not used, nor are the letter combinations 'SA', 'SD' and 'SS'.
; New Zealand: DDDD, the first two digits are for the geographical area, and the last two digits may indicate the mode of delivery in the case of cities and large towns, e.g in Palmerston North: street addresses - 5301 ; PO Box address - 5315; Private Bag - 5320; and Rural Delivery -5321. However, postcodes in New Zealand are intended for bulk mailing and are not needed for addressing individual items.
; Poland: DD-DDD
; Portugal: DDDD-DDD
; Romania: DDDDDD since 2003. Before that, only 5 digits
; Sealand: DDDD.
- 1001: the main sorting office
- 1002 to 1009: geographical area other than the main fortress areas
- 1010 to 1019: reserved for commercial purposes such as bulk mailing
- others: unallocated
; Serbia and Montenegro: DDDDD
; Singapore: DDDDDD Each building has its own unique postcode.
; South Africa: DDDD last two digits may indicate the mode of delivery in the case of cities and large towns, eig Cape Town: street addresses - 8001; PO Box addresses - 8000.
; Spain: DDDDD The first two digits are for the province, in alphabetical order, hence 08xxx is Barcelona, 28xxx is Madrid.
; Switzerland: DDDD
; UK: known as the postcode: LD DLL, LLD DLL, LDD DLL, or LLDD DLL but other variants are also used. In general the first letter(s) indicate the town, or area, or part of London. See London postal districts for more.
; USA: known as the ZIP code: DDDDD-DDDD (although for most personal mail, only the first five numbers are used). The first digit represents a group of nearby states:
- 0 = Connecticut (CT), Massachusetts (MA), Maine (ME), New Hampshire (NH), New Jersey (NJ), Rhode Island (RI), Vermont (VT)
- 1 = Delaware (DE), New York (NY), Pennsylvania (PA)
- 2 = District of Columbia (DC), Maryland (MD), North Carolina (NC), South Carolina (SC), Virginia (VA), West Virginia (WV)
- 3 = Alabama (AL), Florida (FL), Georgia (GA), (MS), Tennessee (TN)
- 4 = Indiana (IN), Kentucky (KY), Michigan (MI), Ohio (OH)
- 5 = Iowa (IA), Minnesota (MN), Montana (MT), North Dakota (ND), South Dakota (SD), Wisconsin (WI)
- 6 = Illinois (IL), Kansas (KS), Missouri (MO), Nebraska (NE)
- 7 = Arkansas (AR), Louisiana (LA), Oklahoma (OK), Texas (TX)
- 8 = Arizona (AZ), Colorado (CO), Idaho (ID), New Mexico (NM), Nevada (NV), Utah (UT), Wyoming (WY)
- 9 = Alaska (AK), California (CA), Hawaii (HI), Oregon (OR), Washington (WA)
- other US territories have codes starting with either 0 or 9. The next two digits represent the metropolitan distribution point (e.g. 432xx = Columbus OH), and the last two digits represents the area of the city (if in a metropolitan area), or a village/town (outside metro areas): 43209 (4=Ohio,32=Columbus,09=Bexley).
See Also
Universal Postal Union (UPU)
External links
Referenced By
Alberta | Attac | British Columbia | British Columbia, Canada | Communes of Pas-de-Calais | Communes of the Ardennes département | Communes of the Ardèche département | Communes of the Aude département | Communes of the Aveyron département | Communes of the Bouches-du-Rhône département | Communes of the Bouches du Rhone | Communes of the Charente | Communes of the Charente département | Communes of the Corse-du-Sud département | Communes of the Dordogne département | Communes of the Eure département | Communes of the Haute-Corse département | Communes of the Haute-Marne département | Communes of the Hérault département | Communes of the Landes département | Communes of the Nord département | Communes of the Pas-de-Calais département | Communes of the Tarn-et-Garonne département | Communes of the Val-de-Marne département | Communes of the Vaucluse département | Communes of the Vienne département | Communes of the Yonne département | Communes of the Yonne département of France | Communes of the Yvelines département | Communes of the Yvelines département of France | Evry | Forrest J Ackerman | Geographic coding | Geographic coding scheme | Geographical coding | Gosford | Gosford, Australia | Gosford, New South Wales | List of Localities (Victoria) | List of localities in Victoria, Australia | Manitoba | Manitoba, towns and cities | New Brunswick | New Brunswick, Canada | Newfoundland and Labrador | North-West Territories | Northwest Territories | Northwest Territory, Canada | Northwest Terrritory | Nova Scotia | Nunavat | Nunavut | Nunavut/History | Nunavut Act | Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act | Nunavut Territory | Ontarian | Ontario | Ontario, Canada | Ourimbah | P.E.I. | Paddy Roy Bates | Political culture:Quebec | Political culture of Quebec | Prince Edward Island | Princes of Sealand | Principality of Sealand | Province of Quebec | Quebec | Quebec, Canada | Québec | Roughs Tower | Saint-Maur-des-Fossés | Saskatchewan | Sealand | Victorian Localities | Vitry-sur-Seine | Weiach | Wiiija | Wyong | Yukon | Yukon Territory | Évry
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