United States postal abbreviations

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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] There are also official USPS abbreviations for other parts of the address, such as street designators (street, avenue, road, etc.).

These postal abbreviations are distinguished from traditional abbreviations for U.S. States (such as Calif., Fla., or Tex.). In contexts other than mailing addresses, the traditional state abbreviations should be used^[2].

Postal codes alphabetized by state (not postal code). Postal abbreviation is same as ISO 3166-2 subdivision code for all fifty states.

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

State Abbr. FIPS State Code State LA 22 Louisiana ME 23 Maine MD 24 Maryland MA 25 Massachusetts MI 26 Michigan MN 27 Minnesota MS 28 Mississippi[3] MO 29 Missouri MT 30 Montana NE 31 Nebraska NV 32 Nevada NH 33 New Hampshire NJ 34 New Jersey NM 35 New Mexico NY 36 New York NC 37 North Carolina ND 38 North Dakota

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 VT 50 Vermont VA 51 Virginia WA 53 Washington WV 54 West Virginia WI 55 Wisconsin WY 56 Wyoming

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

Contents 1 Other codes 1.1 Federal districts 1.2 Insular areas 1.3 Freely associated states 1.4 Armed forces 1.5 Obsolete codes 2 Example of address 3 Methodology 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

[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
UM	(see here for each island)	U.S. Minor Outlying Islands UM is the FIPS alphabetic code. The U.S. Postal Service does not employ the term U.S. Minor Outlying Islands, as mail for any of these islands is routed indirectly (use PR, HI, AA or AP).

[edit] Freely associated states

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

[edit] Armed forces

For more details on this topic, see military mail.

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
CM		Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands changed to MP in 1988 to match ISO 3166-1 and FIPS Alpha Code.
CZ		Canal Zone
TT		Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands
PI		Philippine Islands

[edit] Example of address

JOHN DOE
359 OAK LN
GIBBSBORO NJ 08026

Adding the line "UNITED STATES" to the bottom of the address is necessary if the envelope or package is being mailed from outside the United States. In this case, international postage rates will apply. It is not necessary if the item is being mailed domestically via the United States Postal Service or military mail service (including overseas locations which pay domestic mail rates). This includes all of the areas served by the postal codes mentioned above, except those noted as obsolete. ZIP codes are assigned to every area served by the USPS.

[edit] Methodology

For each state, the initial letter of the abbreviation is the initial letter of the state's name. The second letter of each abbreviation fits at least one of the following patterns:

• Each of the 10 two-word state names is abbreviated with the initial of each word:

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

• 19 states' names are each abbreviated with the first two letters of the name:

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

• 15 states' names are each abbreviated with the initial and final letters of the state's name:

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

• 9 states' names are each abbreviated with the initial and another letter from the state's name, often the second consonant:

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

* six states (California, Colorado, Delaware, Missouri, Mississippi, Tennessee) have the same second letter and last letter.

[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] References

[edit] External links

• Official addressing instructions and abbreviations from the USPS (including abbreviations for street addresses)
• Official FIPS Abbreviations (Alpha and Numeric)

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