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{{Expand section|date=June 2008}}
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==Current addressing schemes==
===House numbering or naming===
{{Main|House numbering}}
In most English-speaking countries the standard is an alternating numbering scheme progressing in one direction along a street, with odd numbers on one side (usually west or south) and even numbers on the other (usually north or east), although there is significant variation on this basic pattern. Cities in [[North America]], particularly those planned on a [[grid plan]], often incorporate [[city block|block]] numbers, quadrants (explained below), and [[cardinal directions]] into their street numbers, so that in many such cities, addresses roughly follow a [[Cartesian coordinate system]]. Some other cities around the world have their own schemes.

Although house numbering is the principal identification scheme in many parts of the world, it is also common for houses in the [[United Kingdom]] and [[Republic of Ireland|Ireland]] to be identified by name, rather than number, especially in small towns. In these cases, the street name will usually follow the house name. Such an address might read: "Smith Cottage, Frog Lane, Barchester, Barsetshire, BA9 9BA" or "Dunroamin, Emo, Co. Laois, Ireland" (fictional examples).

==={{anchor|cartesian}}Quadrants===
In cities with Cartesian-coordinate-based addressing systems, the streets that form the north-south and east-west dividing lines constitute the ''x'' and ''y'' axes of a [[Cartesian coordinate plane]] and thus divide the city into '''quadrants.''' The quadrants are typically identified in the street names, although the manner of doing so varies from city to city. For example, in one city, all streets in the northeast quadrant may have "NE" prefixed or suffixed to their street names, while in another, the intersection of ''North'' Calvert Street and ''East'' 27th Street can be only in the northeast quadrant.

===Street-naming conventions===
[[Street name]]s may follow a variety of themes. In many [[North America]]n cities, such as, [[San Francisco]] USA, and [[Edmonton]], Canada, streets are simply [[numbered street|numbered sequentially]] across the street grid. [[Washington, D.C.]] has its [[numbered street]]s running north-south and lettered or alphabetically named streets running east-west, while diagonal avenues are typically named after states. In [[Salt Lake City]], and many other [[Utah]] cities, streets are in a large grid and are numbered in increments of 100 based on their location relative to the center of the city in blocks. A similar system is in use in [[Detroit]] with the [[Mile Road System (Detroit)|Mile Road System]]. In some housing developments in North America, streets may all follow the same theme (for example, [[bird]] species), or start with the same letter. Streets in [[Continental Europe]] and [[Latin America]] are usually named after famous people or auspicious dates.

===Postal codes===
[[Postal code]]s are a relatively recent development in addressing, designed to speed the sorting and processing of mail by assigning unique numeric or alphanumeric codes to each [[geographical locality]].

===Postal alternatives to physical addresses===
For privacy and other purposes, postal services have made it possible to receive mail without revealing one's physical address or even having a fixed physical address. Examples are [[post office box]]es and [[poste restante]] (general delivery).


==Address format==
==Address format==

Revision as of 08:25, 8 July 2010

An address is a collection of information, presented in a mostly fixed format, used for describing the location of a building, apartment, or other structure or a plot of land, generally using political boundaries and street names as references, along with other identifiers such as house or apartment numbers. Some addresses also contain special codes to aid routing of mail and packages, such as a ZIP code or post code.

Functions

Addresses have several functions:

  1. Providing a means of physically locating a building, especially in a city where there are many buildings and streets,
  2. Identifying buildings as the end points of a postal system,
  3. A social function: someone's address can have a profound effect on their social standing,
  4. As parameters in statistics collection, especially in census-taking or the insurance industry.

History

Until the advent of modern postal systems, most houses and buildings were not numbered. Streets may have been named for landmarks, such as a city gate or market, or for the professions of their inhabitants. In many cities in Asia, most minor streets were never named. This is still the case today in much of Japan. When postal systems were introduced, it became necessary to number buildings to aid in mail delivery.

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Address format

In most of the world, addresses are written in order from most specific to general information, starting with the addressee and ending with the largest geographical unit. For example[1]:

Example Format
Mr. G. A. Payne
ARAMARK Ltd.
30 Commercial Rd.
Fratton
PORTSMOUTH
Hampshire
PO1 1AA
Name
Company Name
Street
City Area/District
City/Town/Village
County
Postal Code

In English-speaking countries, the postal code usually comes last. In much of Europe, the code precedes the town name, thus: "1010 Lausanne". Often, the country code is still placed in front of the postal code: "CH-1010 Lausanne". However, this is no longer demanded by postal authorities.[2]

If a house number is provided, it is written on the same line as the street name; a house name is written on the previous line. When addresses are written inline, line breaks are replaced by commas. Conventions on the placing of house numbers differ: either before or after the street name. Similarly, there are differences in the placement of postal codes: in the UK, they are written on a separate line at the end of the address; in Australia, Canada and the United States, they usually appear immediately after the state or province, on the same line; in Austria, Belgium, Germany and The Netherlands they appear before the city, on the same line.

East Asian addressing systems, including Chinese, Japanese and Korean addressing systems, when written in their native scripts, use the opposite ordering, starting with the province/prefecture, ending with the addressee. However both have the same order as western countries when written in the Latin alphabet. The Hungarian system also goes from large to small units, except the name of the addressee is put into the first line.

The Universal Postal Convention strongly recommends the following:

"The addressee's address shall be worded in a precise and complete manner. It shall be written very legibly in roman letters and arabic numerals. If other letters and numerals are used in the country of destination, it shall be recommended that the address be given also in these letters and numerals. The name of the place of destination and the name of the country of destination shall be written in capital letters together with the correct postcode number or delivery zone number, if any. The name of the country of destination shall be written preferably in the language of the country of origin. To avoid any difficulty in the countries of transit, it is desirable for the name of the country of destination to be added in an internationally known language. Administrations may recommend that, on items addressed to countries where the recommended position of the postcode is in front of the name of the location of destination, the postcode should be preceded by the EN ISO 3166–1 Alpha 2 country code followed by a hyphen. This shall in no way detract from the requirement for the name of the destination country to be printed in full."[3]

Mailing address format by country

Argentina

In Argentina, an address must be mailed this way:

Format Example
Name
Streetname, number
Complements, Neighbourhood (if needed)
Postal code, Municipality
Luis Escala
Piedras 623
Piso 2, depto 4
C1070AAM, Capital Federal

The postal code has been changed from a 4 digits format to a 8 digits format, which is showed at the example. The new format adds a district or province letter code at the beginning that allows to identify it. As the system has been recently changed the 4 digits format still can be found or used, in that case is needed to add an explicit reference regarding the province or district intended to reach.

Old Format (4d) New Format (8d)
Luis Escala
French 392
Banfield (1828)
Lomas de Zamora, Pcia Buenos Aires
Luis Escala
French 392
Banfield
B1828HKH, Lomas de Zamora

Australia

In common with the English-speaking world, addresses in Australia put the street number—which may be a range—before the street name, and the placename before the postcode. Unlike addresses in most other comparable places, the city is not included in the address, but rather a much more fine-grained locality is used, usually referred to in Australia as a suburb or town is — although these words are understood in a different way than in other countries. Because the suburb or town serves to locate the street or delivery type, the postcode serves only as routing information rather than to distinguish previous other parts of an address. As an example, there are around 8000 localities in Victoria (cf. List of localities in Victoria (Australia) and List of Melbourne suburbs), yet around 700 unique geographic postcodes[4]. For certain large volume receivers or post offices, the "locality" may be an institution or street name. It is always considered incorrect to include the city or metropolis name in an address (unless this happens to be the name of the suburb), and doing so may delay delivery.

Australia Post recommends[5] that the whole address should be set in capital letters. In Australia, subunits are essential and should be separated from the street by two spaces; apartments, flats and units are typically separated with a forward slash instead. As in the US, the state/territory is crucial information as many placenames are reused in different states/territories; it is usually separated from the suburb with two spaces and abbreviated. In printed matter, the postcode follows after two spaces; in handwritten matter, the postcode should be written in the boxes provided.

Format Example
Street address
Recipient Name

Other recipient information
(etc.)
Street (Subunit  Number Name)
Locality  State  Postcode

MS H WILLIAMS

FINANCE AND ACCOUNTING
AUSTRALIA POST
219-241 CLEVELAND ST
STRAWBERRY HILLS  NSW  1427

Other delivery type
Recipient Name

Other recipient information (etc.)
Type Number
Locality  State  Postcode

MR J. O'DONNELL

Lighthouse Promotions
PO BOX 215
ABECKETT STREET  VIC  8006

In addition to PO Boxes, other delivery types (which are typically abbreviated) may include:

Delivery type Abbreviation
Care of post office CARE PO
Community mail bag CMB
General Post Box (in capital cities) GPO BOX
Mail service MS
Roadside delivery RSD
Roadside mail service RMS
Community mail agent CMA
Community postal agent CPA
Locked bag LOCKED BAG
Roadside mail box/bag RMB
Private bag PRIVATE BAG

Belgium

In Belgium it is standard to use an alternating numbering scheme progressing in one direction along a street. The numbering starts at the side of the centre of the municipality. Always with odd numbers on the left side and even numbers on the right side when driving from the centre of the municipality outward. A cul-de-sac (/dead end street) is an exception. The numbering starts at the side where the street starts but without the alternating number scheme. The numbering starts, odd and even, at the left side and at the end of the streets turns back via the other side adding up back to the beginning of the street.

The address can be written in Dutch or in French. When you receive a Belgian address in German, this is also correct as Belgium has 3 official languages. When unsure of the recipient's language, it can be better to write it in Dutch and in French. This is usual for this country.

Canada

Canada uses a similar system to the United States (below), but there are key differences.

  • Only Canada Post can deliver to a P.O. Box. For this reason, the recipient may choose to insert their physical (also known as street) address as line two, expanding the complete address to four lines. Providing both allows a sender to ship via the Canada Post or via a private carrier. Some locations have special drop-off points for couriers, like a convenience store (for items delivered from certain stores such as Sears or other departments) envelopes are delivered to a separate building; a post office (P.O.). This is common in small communities of roughly 300-1500 people that are not near a city.
  • Mail will be delivered to the line immediately above the city, province, postal code line.
  • The province and type of street, e.g. Lane, is often abbreviated as shown in the PO standard.
  • Do not use periods or commas. Cardinal directions like North, North West, etc. can be abbreviated in either English or French, and appear after the street name. Ordinal numbered streets (e.g. 6th, 2nd) can be written in either English or French.
  • The postal code is used in the same way as the US Zip code. Postal codes come in a letter-number-letter-space-number-letter-number format, for example: A1A 1A1. There should be two spaces between the province abbreviation and the postal code.
  • If sending a parcel from outside Canada, the word "CANADA" must be placed at the very bottom.
  • See Canada Post's Addressing Guidelines for accurate, up-to-date information.

Chile

Chilean urban addresses require only the street name, house number, apartment number (if necessary) and municipality; however, more information is frequently included, such as neighbourhood, city, region, and postal code. All postal codes have eight digits, the first three indicating the municipality, the next five identifying a block or in large and scarcely populated areas a quadrant within the municipal territory.

The territories of most of the larger cities comprise several adjacent municipalities, so it is important to mention it.

Format Example
Recipient name
Street and number
Apartment (if needed)
Postal code (rarely used)
Municipality
City (not needed)
Sr. Rodrigo Domínguez
Av. Bellavista N° 185
Dep. 609
8420507
Recoleta
Santiago

Smaller cities often consist of only one municipality with several unofficial neighbourhoods that are usually mentioned even for official addressing purposes.

Format Example
Recipient name
Street and number, Apartment number
Neighbourhood
Municipality
Sra. Isidora Retamal
Nelson N° 10, Dep. 415
Cerro Barón
Valparaíso

Several large and mostly rural municipalities contain more than one small town, in such cases, the recipient address must mention either the town, the postal code or both.

Format Example
Recipient name
Street and number
Town or village
Postal code
Municipality
Inversiones Aldunate y Cía. S.A.
Los Aromos N° 12185
Maitencillo
25000311
Puchuncaví

People's Republic of China

The postal address in the People's Republic of China, when written in Chinese characters (preferably Simplified Chinese characters), has the order of the largest unit first, ending with the addressee, i.e. country, province, municipality, town, street or road, building name, floor/level, house/flat number, company name, addressee. This is the most common language used when posting within the mainland China.

Chinese
Example
P.R. China 528400
北京市 南开 7栋702室

张小明先生收
P.R. China 528400
Beijing Province, Beijing City, East District, Hengda Garden, 7th Building, Room 702
To: Mr Xiaoming Zhang
Chinese
Format
Country, Postal Code
Province, City, District, Building Name, House Number
Addressee

The whole address is commonly written as a string of characters with no particular format regarding where a new line would start, similar to one long sentence, with any new lines appearing depending on the space available on the envelope. Generally, the country is omitted when posting within PRC.

Hong Kong, which became a special territory of China in 1997, maintains its own postal system and has a slightly different address format. See the Hong Kong section of this article for detail.

However, when written in English, the format is similar to English-speaking countries, with largest unit first, ending in the smallest.[6]

Example Format
Mr. Zhimin Li
62 Renmin lu, Qingdao Shi
266033 SHANDONG
P.R. CHINA
civil status, first name and family name
thoroughfare name and number, city
postcode and province
country
Mrs. Jiaying Chen
6 Xujiazhai, Huaqiaocun
Xinzhong Xiang, Tiantai Xian
317204 ZHEJIANG
P.R. CHINA
civil status, first name and family name
locality name and number, village
county’s subdivision and county city
postcode and province
country
Postal Science Research and Planning Academy
65 Jiancaicheng Xilu, Haidian Qu
100096 BEIJING
P.R. CHINA
company name
thoroughfare name and number, district
postcode and province
country

Czech Republic

Common format in Czech Republic:

Format Company
Name or Department
Street name + number
Postal code + Town

Postal code is in format "### ##" (i.e. 158 00 = Prague 58) or "CZ-### ##".

Denmark

Format Example
Name
Streetname + number
Postal code + town
Stig Jensen
Solvej 5
5000 Odense

Finland

Format Example
Company
Name or Department
Street name + number + *apartment number (optional)
Postal code + Town
Country
Eduskunta
Matti Mallikainen
Mannerheimintie 30 as 5
FIN-00102 Eduskunta
Finland

If a person's name is written before the company name in the address field of a letter, then that person is considered the recipient. In this case, no other employee is allowed to open the letter but the indicated recipient. If the company name is before the person's name, then the company is the recipient and any employee is allowed to open the letter.

* apartment number can formulated as "as 5" (as = asunto, 'apartment' in English) or as "C 55" (the letter A, B, C ... indicates the correct staircase in apartment blocks with several entrances)

Finland uses a five-digit postal code. Note that some of the larger companies and organizations have their own postal codes.

France

In France, the address is generally formatted as follows:

Example Format
Entreprise ABC
M. Frank Bender
12, rue de la montagne
01234 Exampleville

Addressee (Natural person/Organization)
More detailed description of addressee (optional)
Housenumber, Streetname
Postal code + town
Country (if other than France)

The postal code always consists of five digits.

Germany

In Germany, the address is generally formatted as follows:

Example Format
Firma ABC
Kundendienst
Hauptstr. 5
01234 Musterstadt

Addressee (Natural person/Organization)
More detailed description of addressee (optional)
Streetname + number
Postal code + town
Country (if other than Germany)

The postal code always consists of five digits.

Hong Kong

The official languages of Hong Kong are English and Chinese. For a domestic mail within Hong Kong, the address may be written entirely in either English or Chinese. For an overseas mail going out from Hong Kong, the address may be written in the language of the destination country, provided that the city name and the country name are in English [7]. However, for an overseas mail from Hong Kong to China, Macau, Taiwan or Singapore, the address may be written entirely in Chinese. While traditional Chinese characters are commonly used in Hong Kong, simplified Chinese characters are also understood by Hong Kong's post officers.

An address written in English should begin with the smallest unit and end with the largest unit, as in the following example for a domestic mail within Hong Kong.

Example Format
Mr. Jackie CHAN
Flat 25, 12/F, Acacia Building
150 Kennedy Road
WAN CHAI
HONG KONG
Name of addressee (with surname in CAPITAL LETTERS)
Apartment number, Floor number, Name of building
Street number and street name
Name of village, town or district (in CAPITAL LETTERS)
"HONG KONG" for Hong Kong Island / "KOWLOON" for Kowloon Peninsula / "N.T." for the New Territories

Note that this format is very different from what is used in the United States. First, the term "flat" is used instead of "apartment", as in the United Kingdom, Ireland and most Commonwealth countries. Second, the flat number and floor number is written before the name of the building.

An address written in Chinese should begin with the largest unit and end with the smallest unit, as in the following example for a domestic mail within Hong Kong. Traditional Chinese characters are used in this example.

Example Format
香港
灣仔堅尼地道 105 號
雅佳大廈 12 樓 25 室
陳港生先生
"香港" for Hong Kong Island / "九龍" for Kowloon Peninsula / "新界" for the New Territories
[Name of village, town or district] [Street name and street number]
[Name of building] [Floor number] [Flat number]
[Name of addressee]

For mails to Hong Kong from overseas, "Hong Kong" should be added at the end of an address in English, and "香港" should be added at the beginning of an address in Chinese. Although Hong Kong has become a special territory of China in 1997, the postal services of Hong Kong are still handled by Hongkong Post, which is entirely separate from China Post. It is not recommended to include "China" in the address of any mail to Hong Kong, or the mail would have to go through China Post before being transferred to Hongkong Post, and this would cause unnecessary delay in delivery.

Hungary

In Hungarian mail addresses, the town name precedes the street address.

Format[8] Example
Addressee (name or company name)
City or town
Street name and number or P.O.Box number
Postal code
Kis János
Budapest
Fiktív utca 82.
2800

Iceland

Format Example
Name
Streetname + number
Postal code + town
Jón Jónsson
Bárðagata 5
860 Hvolsvöllur

Italy

An internal address, in Italy, must be composed of three to five rows. Up to six rows can be used if the mail is sent abroad:

Format Addressee's name and surname or company name
Optional - Additional information about the addressee
Optional - Additional information about the building (building number, floor, apartment number)
Street name and number (via/viale/corso/piazza...) or CASELLA POSTALE (P.O.Box number)
Postcode Town Province_abbreviation
Foreign State name

Line ordering may not be changed.

Indonesia

In Indonesia, the address format is like this:

Format Name
Street name, number
Building name (if needed)
Neighbourhood
Municipality, Postal Code
State

Generally "Jalan" or "Jl." means 'street' and should go before the street name, e.g. Jalan Cemara.

Iraq

Format Example
Name of Addressee
Name of the District
Mahla (Area) + Number
Zuqaq (Alley) + Number
Building number
Name of Province
Postal code
Country
Ali Hassan
Al-Mansour
Mahla 609
Zuqaq 8
House no. 12
Baghdad
10013
Iraq

Iran

Format
country+ name of province+ +name of city+Street Name + alley number+building number, name of adrdressee

Postal Code

example: Iran, Mashhad, sanabd street, 27th sanabad, number293,Nazanin mostashari

Japan

Republic of Korea

Malaysia

Format Example
Name
Company name (if any)
Building name (if any)
Number Street address
Region
Postcode Town/city
State
Zack Ahmad


44, Jalan Bunga,
Pasir Puteh,
31650 Ipoh,
Perak Darul Ridzuan.

New Zealand

New Zealand Post recommends the following format:

Format Example
Recipent name
Company name
Flat number/House number Street address or PO Box number
Suburb or RD Number or PO Box lobby name (if not the same as the town/city)
Town/City Postcode
COUNTRY (if other than New Zealand)
Mr D Smith
NEV Refuse Limited
138 Baldwin Street
North East Valley
Dunedin 9010
 

Note that no space or full stops exists between P and O in PO Box or R and D in RD. One should put only one space between the town/city and the postcode.

Note for Auckland and Wellington metropolitan areas, users should use the city name (i.e. Auckland, North Shore, Waitakere, Manukau, Wellington, Lower Hutt, Upper Hutt, Porirua), not the metropoitan area name. For example:

Incorrect Correct
Great North Road
Henderson
Auckland 0610
Great North Road
Henderson
Waitakere 0610

One anomaly about this system is the Wellington Mail Centre, which is addressed as Wellington Mail Centre, Lower Hutt 5045 - not Wellington.

Netherlands

In the Netherlands, the address is generally formatted as follows:

Example Format
Thomas van der Landen

Boschdijk 1092
5631 AV EINDHOVEN
NEDERLAND
Name
(Businesspark name etc.)

Streetname + number
Postal code + town
&Country - Optional

The postal code is unique, and always consists of four numbers followed by a space and then 2 capital letters. TNT Post, the descendant of the Dutch state-run PTT, recommends putting two spaces between postal code and town, and also printing the town in capital letters.

Because the Dutch postal code is unique, a shortened format may also be used. This method only needs the postal code and the number. The ideal format for this method is the number after the postal code, meaning that this: '5631 AV 1092' will still get the letter delivered to the correct location.

It is also possible to replace the street name line with a PO box (e.g. "Postbus 1200") or freepost number (e.g. "Antwoordnummer 150"), which have their own postal code.

Norway

In Norway, the address is generally formatted as follows:

Format Name
(Businesspark name etc.)
Streetname + number

Postal code + town

The postal code is unique, and is a four-digit number. It is also possible to replace the street name line with a PO box (e.g. Postboks 250).

eg: Nancy Vanderon

   Passion 21
   6415 Bergan

Poland

In Poland, the address is generally formatted as follows::

Format Example
Surname & name
or Company Name & Department
ul. Streetname + House (building) number / Flat number
or al. Boulevardname + House (building) number / Flat number
or pl. Squarename + House (building) number / Flat number
or Little city name + House number
Postal code + town
Country "(optional)"
Jan Kowalski

ul. Polna 24 / 15



00-630 Warszawa
POLAND (POLSKA)

ul. = Str. (Street)
al. = Blvd. (Boulevard)
pl. = Sqr. (Square)
The postal code is unique, and it always consists with five figures (in format "XX-XXX"), i.e. 00-486 (00=Warsaw); 20-486 (20=Lublin), etc.

Russian Federation

Some neighborhoods may be planned in such a way that some, or most, apartment buildings face no named street. In this case, a number of expedients can be used. In older neighbourhoods, such as the historical center of Moscow, a "main" building may have the same number as one or more "subsidiary" buildings accessible via driveways behind the main building. They will be addressed as, for example, ul. Lenina, d. 123, that is, 123 Lenin St). An address may also cover one or more subsidiary buildings behind the main building, addressed as ul. Lenina, d. 123, str. 2 (123 Lenin St, Unit 2, where str. (abbreviation for строение, stroenie) means a '(subsidiary) building'. In newer areas with more regular street plans, apartment buildings that face no named street may be designated with Cyrillic letters appended to the building number, such as 123-а, 123-б, etc., in alphabetic order.

In some microraion neighborhoods, with few, if any, buildings facing named streets, the name (or more likely number of the microraion (planned housing development)) would be used instead of the street name; thus someone may live at 4-th microrayon, d. 123, kv. 56, that is, 123 - 4th Microraion, apt. 56.

Singapore

SingPost recommends the following format for addresses:[9][10]

Example Format
Ms. Tan Bee Soo
16 Sandilands Road
SINGAPORE 546080
SINGAPORE
Name of addressee
Street number and name
Name of town + Postcode
 
Mr. M. Rajendran
Blk 35 Mandalay Road
# 13–37 Mandalay Towers
SINGAPORE 308215
SINGAPORE
Name of addressee
Block number and street name
Floor – Apartment number + Building name
Name of town + Postcode
 

Generally, the last line SINGAPORE is omitted when posting within the country. Addresses are usually written in the English language.

Slovakia

Common format in Slovakia:

Format Addressee (Name or Company)
Company or Department or Landlord (if applicable)
Street name + number
Postal code + Town
COUNTRY (if sent abroad)

Postal code is in format "### ##" (i.e. 851 01 = Bratislava 5) or "SK-### ##".

Street number can be written as orientation number (related to street) or descriptive number (unique within town) or their combination separated by slash (descriptive/orientation). Descriptive numbers are also used within small villages that don't have named streets.

If the delivery is intended exclusively for specific person at company site, the address should begin with Name and Company name should follow. The standard format of address (in above table) enables anyone at Company to receive the delivery.

Slovenia

Format Company
Name or Department
Street name + number
Postal code + Town

Slovenia uses a four-digit postal number.

Sweden

In Sweden, the address is generally formatted as follows:

Format Name
(Businesspark name, c/o-address etc.)
Street name + number
Postal code + TOWN

The postal code is unique, and is always a five-digit number divided into groups of three and two (e.g. 414 73). Town (or village) name should be written in CAPITAL letters. It is also possible to replace the street name line with a PO box (e.g. Box 51).

Turkey

Turkish addressing system is as follows [11]:

Format Name
Neighbourhood name
Street name + number
Building name + flat number (if applicable)
Postal code + town + district name (if applicable) + province

However, in rural areas with decidedly little population and with no street addresses, address format is much simpler:

Format Name
Village name
Postal code + district name + province

Ukraine,Belarus

Some neighborhoods may be planned in such a way that some, or most, apartment buildings don't face a named street. In this case, a number of expedients can be used. In older neighborhoods, a "main" building may have the same number as one or more "subsidiary" buildings accessible via driveways behind the main building. They will be addressed as e.g. ul. Lenina, d. 123, i.e. 123 Lenin St) An address may also cover one or more subsidiary buildings behind the main building, addressed as ul. Lenina, d. 123, str. 2 (123 Lenin St, unit 2, where str. (abbreviation for строение, stroenie) means a '(subsidiary) building'. In newer areas with more regular street plans, apartment buildings that don't face a named street may be designated with Cyrillic letters appended to the building number, e.g. 123-а, 123-б, etc., in alphabetic order.

In some microraion neighborhoods, with few, if any, buildings facing named streets, the name (or more likely number of the microraion (planned housing development)) would be used instead of the street name; thus someone may live at 4-th microrayon, d. 123, kv. 56, i.e. 123 - 4th Microraion, apt. 56.

United Kingdom

The minimum required format for an address is:

Format Addressee's Name
Number + Street Name
Locality
POST TOWN
POSTCODE

This is the format preferred by Royal Mail. The locality is required only where its absence would be ambiguous. Post towns rarely correspond to political boundaries and often group places that for all other purposes are quite separate. The Royal Mail asks that postal towns be written in block capitals, but in practice they rarely are. Sometimes the local authority or postal county is included after the post town. Additionally, many people in the UK either prefer to use an older format of their address, include unnecessary information, or simply don't know what the correct format is. An address such as as 1, Linclare Place, ST NEOTS PE19 7AG might typically be written as 1, Linclare Place, Eaton Ford (locality), St Neots, Huntingdon (district), Cambs. (County) PE19 7AG.

Because each UK postcode covers only around 15 addresses, you could technically address a letter to "1, SW1A 0AA" and it should arrive, although with some delay.

The postcode should be on its own line and should be the last line unless the country is also included.

United States

Example Format
Jeremy Martinson
455 Larkspur Dr.
California Springs, CA 92926
 
Name of addressee
Street number and name
Name of town, State abbreviation + ZIP code
(typical handwritten format)
JEREMY MARTINSON
455 LARKSPUR DR
CALIFORNIA SPRINGS CA 92926‑4601
 
Name of addressee
Street number and name
Name of town + State abbreviation + ZIP (+ 4) code
(USPS-recommended format)

Notes:

  • Only the United States Postal Service (USPS) can deliver to a P.O. Box. For this reason the recipient may choose to insert their physical (aka street) address as line two, expanding the complete address to four lines. Providing both allows a sender to ship via the USPS or via a private carrier.
  • Mail will be delivered to the line immediately above the city, state, zip code line.
  • The state and type of street, e.g. Lane, is often abbreviated as shown in the PO standard.
  • The USPS discourages the use of periods and commas.

See also

References

  1. ^ Addressing your mail: Guidelines, Royal Mail
  2. ^ Formatting an international address: International Addressing, Universal Posting Union
  3. ^ Universal Postal Convention, Article 12, RL123. In: Universal Postal Union – Letter Post Manual, page D.5
  4. ^ Australia Post. (2009, September 29). Full postcode datafile. Retrieved 1 October 2009 from [1]
  5. ^ Australia Post. (nd). Address presentation standards. Retrieved 1 October 2009 from [2]
  6. ^ Universal Postal Union: China Guide
  7. ^ Post Office Guide (Section 6) of Hongkong Post
  8. ^ [3] Mail address schemes. Hungarian Post Office
  9. ^ SingPost Webpage
  10. ^ Universal Postal Union: Singapore Guide
  11. ^ PTT webpage. Retrieved 14-04-2010 Template:Tr icon

External links