United States postal abbreviations

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The following is a list of abbreviations used by the United States Postal Service. They are used to help the postal service process mail with optical character recognition and other automated equipment. [1]

Contents 1 States 2 Other codes 2.1 Federal districts 2.2 Insular areas 2.3 Freely associated states 2.4 Armed Forces 2.5 Obsolete Codes 3 Example of Address 4 Trivia 5 See also 6 External links

[edit] States

Postal codes alphabetized by postal abbreviation (not by state)

State Abbr. FIPS State Code State AK 02 Alaska AL 01 Alabama AR 05 Arkansas AZ 04 Arizona CA 06 California CO 08 Colorado CT 09 Connecticut DE 10 Delaware FL 12 Florida GA 13 Georgia HI 15 Hawaii IA 19 Iowa ID 16 Idaho IL 17 Illinois IN 18 Indiana KS 20 Kansas KY 21 Kentucky

State Abbr. FIPS State Code State LA 22 Louisiana MA 25 Massachusetts MD 24 Maryland ME 23 Maine MI 26 Michigan MN 27 Minnesota MO 29 Missouri MS 28 Mississippi MT 30 Montana NC 37 North Carolina ND 38 North Dakota NE 31 Nebraska NH 33 New Hampshire NJ 34 New Jersey NM 35 New Mexico NV 32 Nevada NY 36 New York

State Abbr. FIPS State Code State OH 39 Ohio OK 40 Oklahoma OR 41 Oregon PA 42 Pennsylvania RI 44 Rhode Island SC 45 South Carolina SD 46 South Dakota TN 47 Tennessee TX 48 Texas UT 49 Utah VA 51 Virginia VT 50 Vermont WA 53 Washington WI 55 Wisconsin WV 54 West Virginia WY 56 Wyoming

These codes do not overlap with the thirteen Canadian subnational postal abbreviations.

[edit] Other codes

[edit] Federal districts

Abbreviation	FIPS State Code	Location
DC	11	District of Columbia

[edit] Insular areas

Abbreviation	FIPS State Code	Location
AS	60	American Samoa
GU	66	Guam
MP	69	Northern Mariana Islands
PR	72	Puerto Rico
VI	78	U.S. Virgin Islands

[edit] Freely associated states

Abbreviation	FIPS State Code	Location
FM	64	Federated States of Micronesia
MH	68	Marshall Islands
PW	70	Palau

[edit] Armed Forces

Abbreviation	FIPS State Code	Location
AA		Armed Forces Americas (except Canada)
AE		Armed Forces Europe (covers all USARAEUR) Armed Forces Canada Armed Forces Middle East Armed Forces Africa
AP		Armed Forces Pacific

[edit] Obsolete Codes

Abbreviation	FIPS State Code	Location
CZ		Canal Zone
TT		Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands
PI		Philippine Islands

[edit] Example of Address

JOHN DOE
358 OAK LANE
FLORHAM PARK NJ 07932

[edit] Trivia

Of the 50 states:

• 19 states are abbreviated by their first two letters:

AL, AR, CA*, CO*, DE*, FL, ID, IL, IN, MA, MI, NE, OH, OK, OR, UT, WA, WI, WY

• 15 state abbreviations are the first and last letter in a state's name:

CA*, CO*, CT, DE*, GA, HI, IA, KS, KY, LA, MD, ME, PA, VA, VT

• 10 two-word states are abbreviated by the first letter of each word:

NC, ND, NH, NJ, NM, NY, RI, SC, SD, WV

• The second letter for 9 states is from elsewhere in the name, often the second consonant:

AK, AZ, MN, MO, MS, MT, NV, TN, TX

* three states (CA*, CO*, DE*) are same for first two letters and first and last letters.

[edit] See also

• List of U.S. states by traditional abbreviation
• ISO 3166-2 International standard codes for subdivisions of countries – lists similar abbreviations for many more countries
• Canadian subnational postal abbreviations
• FIPS state code for the numerical equivalents that should be used by computer systems for storage

[edit] External links

• Official addressing instructions and abbreviations from the USPS (including abbreviations for street addresses)
• Official US State Abbreviations (including state capital postal abbreviations)