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.
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2 See also 3 External links |
Formats
; Argentina: LDDDDLLL
; 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 BundeslÃÂänder -- , the last the nearest post office in the area)
; Bangladesh: DDDD
; Belgium: DDDD (in general, the first digit gives the province) list of Belgian postal codes
; Bermuda: LL DD for street addresses, LL LL for PO Box addresses. The second half of the postcode identifies the street delivery walk (eg: Hamilton HM 12) or the PO Box number range (eg: Hamilton HM BX).
; Brazil: DDDDD-DDD
; Canada: LDL DLD. The first letter is for a province or a region, generally in order from east to west: A = Newfoundland and Labrador; B = Nova Scotia; C = Prince Edward Island; E = New Brunswick; G = (eastern) Quebec; H = Montreal, Quebec; J = (western) Quebec; K = (eastern) Ontario; L = (southern-central) Ontario; M = Toronto, Ontario; N = (southwestern) Ontario; P = (northern) Ontario; R = Manitoba; S = Saskatchewan; T = Alberta; V = British Columbia; X = Northwest Territories & Nunavut; Y = Yukon. 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), a single (large) institution such as a university or hospital, or one side of a city block. The later in urban areas may be a specific postal carriers route. In rural areas where direct door to door delivery doesn't happen, a postal code describes a set of postal boxes. W and Z are not used as the first letter of a postal code; while D, F, I, O, Q, and U are never used anywhere.
; China, 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).
The Hong Kong and Macau Special Administrative Regions are developing postcode systems of their own.
; China, 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.
; Cyprus DDDD - postcode system covers whole island, but not used in Northern Cyprus where 'Mersin 10, Turkey' is used instead.
;Denmark: DDDD also used by Greenland, eg: DK-3900 Nuuk
;Estonia: DDDDD
;Faroe Islands: DDD Prefixed with FO, eg: FO-110 Torshavn
; Finland: DDDDD. A lower first number indicates a place in south (for example 00100 Helsinki, a higher indicates a place in far north (99800 in Ivalo). The last number is always 0, exception are the mail boxes in which it is 1. In the Aland Islands, the postcode is prefixed with AX, not FIN.
; France: DDDDD, the first two digits give the dÃÂépartement 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.
- 0 = Connecticut (CT), Massachusetts (MA), Maine (ME), New Hampshire (NH), New Jersey (NJ), Puerto Rico (PR), Rhode Island (RI), Vermont (VT), Virgin Islands (VI)
- 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), Mississippi (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), American Samoa (AS), California (CA), Guam (GU), Hawaii (HI), Oregon (OR), Washington (WA)