A postal code (known in various countries as a post code , postcode , or ZIP code ) is a series of letters and/or digits appended to a postal address for the purpose of sorting mail. Once postal codes were introduced, other applications became possible.
In February 2005, 117 of the 190 member countries of the Universal Postal Union had postal code systems. Countries that do not have national systems include Ireland and Panama. Although Hong Kong and Macau are now Special Administrative Regions of China, it maintained their own long-established postal system, and still does not use any postal codes for domestic mail within Hong Kong. Postal codes of Chinese postal system are assigned to Hong Kong (999077) and Macau (999078).
Although postal codes are usually assigned to geographical areas, special codes are sometimes assigned to individual addresses or to institutions that receive large volumes of mail, such as government agencies and large commercial companies. One example is the French Cedex system.
Terms
Many English-speaking countries call the codes, postcode. The term ZIP code is used in the United States and the Philippines. ZIP is a backronym for Zone Improvement Plan. Canada uses "postal code". Postal codes in India are called Postal Index Number.
History
Postal codes were first introduced in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic in December 1932 , but the system was abandoned in 1939. The next country to introduce postal codes was Germany in 1941, followed by Argentina in 1958, United Kingdom in 1959 and United States in 1963.
In February 2005, 117 of the 190 member countries of the Universal Postal Union had postal code systems.
Presentation
Character sets
Characters used in postal codes exclusively are
- arabic numerals
- letters of the Basic Latin alphabet,
- the space " ",
- the hyphen "-"
- the cyrillic У for УКРАІНА = Ukraine.
The space and the hyphen could be omitted in all systems with all information being retained.
In the UK postcode system, when reading from left to right the space contains some information.
ANN could come from AN N(AA) or ANN (NAA). AANN could come from AAN N(AA), AANN (NAA). AN could come from AN(A NAA) or any source of ANN, and AAN could come from AAN(A NAA) or any source of AANN.
If the space is present, all "ANN " must refer to ANN NAA and "AN " to "AN NAA" etc.
Reserved characters
Postal codes in the Netherlands originally did not use the letters 'F', 'I', 'O', 'Q', 'U' and 'Y' for technical reasons. But as almost all existing combinations are now used these letters were allowed for new locations starting 2005. The letter combinations SS, SD and SA are not used for historical reasons.
Postal codes in Canada do not include the letters D, F, I, O, Q, or U, as the OCR equipment used in automated sorting could easily confuse them with other letters. The letters W and Z are used, but are not currently used as the first letter.
Alphanumeric postal codes
Most postal code systems are numeric, only few are alphanumeric (i.e. use both letters and digits). Alphanumeric systems can, given the same number of digits, encode more locations. They are often more precise, as is the case in the United Kingdom or in the Netherlands, where a postal code corresponds to a street or even a building, meaning the post code and the number of the home/business is all that is needed for accurate delivery. The independent nations using alphanumeric postal code systems are:
- Argentina (see table)
- Brunei (see table)
- Canada (see table)
- Jamaica (suspended in 2007 )
- Malta (see table)
- The Netherlands (see table)
- United Kingdom (see table)
- Venezuela (look up at http://www.ipostel.gob.ve/nlinea/codigo_postal.php)
Country code prefixes
Usage of ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes was recommended to be used starting in 1994, but did not become widely used. The European Committee for Standardization recommends use of ISO Alpha-2 codes for international postcodes and a UPU guide on international addressing states that "administrations may recommend" the use of ISO Alpha-2 codes.
Andorra, Ecuador, Latvia, Moldova, Slovenia use the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 as prefix in their postal codes.
In some countries (such as those of continental Europe, where a postcode format of four or five numeric digits is commonly used) the numeric postal code is sometimes prefixed with a country code to avoid confusion when sending international mail to or from that country. Recommendations by official bodies responsible for postal communications are confusing regarding this practice. For many years, licence plate codes — for instance "D-" for Germany or "F-" for France — were used, although this was not accepted by the Universal Postal Union (UPU).
Placement of the code
Postal services have their own formats and placement rules for postal codes. In most English-speaking countries, the postal code forms the last item of the address, following the city or town name, whereas in most continental European countries it precedes the name of the city or town.
When it follows the city it may be on the same line or on a new line.
In Japan, China, Korea and the Russian Federation, it is written more to the beginning of an address.
Geographic coverage
Postal codes are usually assigned to geographical areas. Sometimes codes are assigned to individual addresses or to institutions that receive large volumes of mail, e.g. government agencies or large commercial companies. One example is the French Cedex system.
Postal zone numbers
Before postal codes as described here were used, large cities were often divided into postal zones or postal districts , usually numbered from 1 upwards within each city. The newer postal code systems often incorporate the old zone numbers, as with London postal district numbers, for example. Ireland still uses postal district numbers in Dublin. In New Zealand, Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch were divided into postal zones, but these fell into disuse, and have now become redundant as a result of a new postcode system being introduced.
Codes defined along administrative borders
Some postal code system, like the one of Ecuador and Costa Rica show an exact agreement with the hierarchy of the administrative country subdivisions.
Format of 6 digit numeric (8 digit alphanumeric) postal codes in Ecuador, introduced in December 2007: ECAABBCC
Format of 5 digit numeric Postal codes in Costa Rica, introduced in 2007: ABBCC
In Costa Rica these codes are also used by the National Institute for Statistics and Census (INSEC).
The first two digits of the postal codes in Turkey correspond to the provinces and each province has assigned only one number. They are the same for them as in ISO 3166-2:TR.
The first two digits of the postal codes in Vietnam indicate a province. Some provinces have one, other have several two digit numbers assigned. The numbers differ from the number used in ISO 3166-2:VN.
Codes defined close to administrative borders
In France the numeric code for the departments is used in the first digits of the postal code, except for the two departments in Corsica that have codes 2A and 2B and use 20 as postal code. Furthermore the codes are only the codes for the department in charge of delivery of the post, so it can be that is location in one department has the postal code starting with a number of a neighboring department.
Codes defined distantly to administrative borders
The first digit of the postal codes in the United States defines an area including several states. From the first three digits under exclusion of some exceptions, one can derive the state.
Codes defined independently from administrative borders
The first two digits of the postal codes in Germany define areas independent from administrative regions. The coding space of the first digit is fully used (0-9) that of the first two combined is used to 89%, i.e. there are 89 postal zones defined. The zone 11 is none geographic.
The UK post designed the postal codes in the United Kingdom mostly for efficient distribution. Nevertheless with the time people begun to associate codes with certain areas, leading to certain people wanting to have or to not have a certain code. See: postcode lottery.
Precision
Postal codes in the Netherlands are alphanumeric, consisting of four digits followed by a space and two letters (NNNN AA). Adding the house number to the postcode will identify the address, making the street n
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