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]
States
A state or the circle indicating any state on the map below may be clicked upon to go to that particular state, or you may use the text links below the map. (The federal District of Columbia represented on this map as DC is not a state.)
Postal codes alphabetized by postal abbreviation (not by state). Postal abbreviation is same as ISO 3166-2 subdivision code for all fifty states.
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These codes do not overlap with the thirteen Canadian subnational postal abbreviations.
Other codes
Federal districts
| Abbreviation | FIPS State Code | Location |
| DC | 11 | District of Columbia |
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 an ISO 3166-1 code. It is not used as a Postal abbreviation because none of the minor islands has a civillian post office. They are all wildlife refuges, though some of these islands have had military personel stationed there. Military personel stationed at these locations use the state abreviations AA for Carribean or AP for the Pacific. The wildlife refuges in the Carribean use the state abbreviation of PR because mail goes through Caribbean Islands NWR Complex in Boqueron. The wildlife refuges in the Pacific use the state abbreviation of HI because mail goes through the Pacific Islands NWR Complex in Honolulu. |
| Abbreviation | FIPS State Code | Location |
| FM | 64 | Federated States of Micronesia |
| MH | 68 | Marshall Islands |
| PW | 70 | Palau |
| 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 |
Obsolete codes
| Abbreviation | FIPS State Code | Location |
| CM | Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands changed to MP to match ISO 3166-1 country code. | |
| CZ | Canal Zone | |
| TT | Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands | |
| PI | Philippine Islands |
Example of address
JOHN DOE
359 OAK LANE
GIBBSBORO NJ 08026
Trivia
This article contains a list of miscellaneous information. (June 2007) |
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 (California, Colorado, Delaware) have the same second letter and last letter.
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
References
- ^ United States Postal Service Publication 28 - Postal Addressing Standards. Accessed February 4, 2007.
External links
- Official addressing instructions and abbreviations from the USPS (including abbreviations for street addresses)
- Official US State Abbreviations (including state capital postal abbreviations)