List of U.S. state and territory abbreviations

Abbreviations and codes for the states and possessions of the United States are used for postal addresses, data processing, general abbreviations and other purposes.

History

As early as October 1874, the United States Post Office recognized common abbreviations for states and territories. However, abbreviations were only accepted because of their popularity; the Post Office preferred all names spelled out in full to avoid confusion.^[1]

The traditional abbreviations for U.S. states and territories, widely used in mailing addresses prior to the introduction of two-letter U.S. postal abbreviations, are still commonly used for other purposes (such as legal citation), and are still recognized (though discouraged) by the Postal Service.^[2]

The modern two-letter abbreviated codes for the states and territories originated during the Post Office's switch to ZIP codes in 1963. The purpose was to make room for the ZIP codes in the address, rather than to standardize state abbreviations per se.^[1]

Since 1963, only one state abbreviation has been changed. Originally Nebraska was shortened to "NB", but this was changed to "NE" to avoid conflict with New Brunswick in Canada.^[1]

Prior to 1987, when the U.S. Secretary of Commerce approved the two-letter codes for use in government documents, ^[3] the United States Government Printing Office (GPO) suggested their own set of abbreviations, with some states being left unabbreviated. Today, the GPO supports United States Postal Service standard.^[4]

List

State or Territory	USPS	Old GPO	AP	Other (status)	FIPS
Alabama	AL	Ala.	Ala.		01
Alaska	AK	Alaska	Alaska	Alas.	02
Arizona	AZ	Ariz.	Ariz.		04
Arkansas	AR	Ark.	Ark.	A.R.	05
California	CA	Calif.	Calif.	Cal., CF (USCG)	06
Colorado	CO	Colo.	Colo.	Col., CL (USCG)	08
Connecticut	CT	Conn.	Conn.		09
Delaware	DE	Del.	Del.	DL (USCG)	10
District of Columbia	DC	D.C.	D.C.	(Federal district)	11
Florida	FL	Fla.	Fla.	Flor.	12
Georgia	GA	Ga.	Ga.		13
Hawaii	HI	Hawaii	Hawaii	H.I., HA (USCG)	15
Idaho	ID	Idaho	Idaho	Id. or Ida.	16
Illinois	IL	Ill.	Ill.	Ills.	17
Indiana	IN	Ind.	Ind.		18
Iowa	IA	Iowa	Iowa	Ia.	19
Kansas	KS	Kans.	Kan.	KA (USCG)	20
Kentucky	KY	Ky.	Ky.	Ken. or Kent.	21
Louisiana	LA	La.	La.		22
Maine	ME	Maine	Maine	Me.	23
Maryland	MD	Md.	Md.		24
Massachusetts	MA	Mass.	Mass.	MS (USCG)	25
Michigan	MI	Mich.	Mich.	MC (USCG)	26
Minnesota	MN	Minn.	Minn.		27
Mississippi	MS	Miss.	Miss.	MI (USCG)	28
Missouri	MO	Mo.	Mo.		29
Montana	MT	Mont.	Mont.		30
Nebraska	NE	Nebr.	Neb.	NB (USCG)	31
Nevada	NV	Nev.	Nev.		32
New Hampshire	NH	N.H.	N.H.		33
New Jersey	NJ	N.J.	N.J.		34
New Mexico	NM	N. Mex.	N.M.	New M.	35
New York	NY	N.Y.	N.Y.	N. York	36
North Carolina	NC	N.C.	N.C.	N. Car.	37
North Dakota	ND	N. Dak.	N.D.		38
Ohio	OH	Ohio	Ohio	O.	39
Oklahoma	OK	Okla.	Okla.		40
Oregon	OR	Oreg.	Ore.		41
Pennsylvania	PA	Pa.	Pa.	Penn. or Penna.	42
Rhode Island and Providence Plantations	RI	R.I.	R.I.	R.I. and P.P.	44
South Carolina	SC	S.C.	S.C.	S. Car.	45
South Dakota	SD	S. Dak.	S.D.		46
Tennessee	TN	Tenn.	Tenn.		47
Texas	TX	Tex.	Texas		48
Utah	UT	Utah	Utah	Ut.	49
Vermont	VT	Vt.	Vt.		50
Virginia	VA	Va.	Va.		51
Washington	WA	Wash.	Wash.	Wn., WN (USCG)	53
West Virginia	WV	W. Va.	W.Va.	W.V.	54
Wisconsin	WI	Wis.	Wis.	Wisc., WS (USCG)	55
Wyoming	WY	Wyo.	Wyo.		56
American Samoa	AS	A.S.		(Insular area) AS (USCG)	60
Guam	GU	Guam		(Insular area) GU (USCG)	66
Northern Mariana Islands	MP	M.P.		(Insular area) CM (USCG)	69
Puerto Rico	PR	P.R.		(Insular area) PR (USCG)	72
Virgin Islands	VI	V.I.		(Insular area) U.S.V.I., VI (USCG)	78
U.S. Minor Outlying Islands				(Insular area) 'UM' is the FIPS alphabetic code for the entire group. Each individual has a separate numeric FIPS state code listed here. 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)
Federated States of Micronesia	FM			(Freely associated state)	64
Marshall Islands	MH			(Freely associated state)	68
Palau	PW			(Freely associated state)	70
Armed Forces Americas (except Canada)	AA			(US Military mail)
Armed Forces - Europe - Canada - Middle East - Africa	AE			(US Military mail)
Armed Forces Pacific	AP			(US Military mail)
Canal Zone	CZ	C.Z.		(Obsolete code)
Philippine Islands	PI			(Obsolete code)
Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands	TT			(Obsolete code)
Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands	CM			(Obsolete code) Changed to MP in 1988 to match ISO 3166-1 and FIPS Alpha Code.

Current use of traditional abbreviations

The Associated Press Stylebook, the usage guide for most United States newspapers, counsels the use of abbreviations for most state names, when appended to a city name (for example, "Miami, Fla."). AP suggests spelling out "Alaska," "Hawaii," and all state names with five or fewer letters; and, unlike the old GPO recommendations, AP suggests spelling out the names of all non-state territories, with the exception of the District of Columbia (D.C.). Legal citation manuals, such as the Bluebook and ALWD Citation Manual, typically use these "traditional abbreviations" as well.

Postal abbreviations

The United States Postal Service has established a set of abbreviations to help process mail with optical character recognition and other automated equipment.^[5] 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 such as Calif., Fla., or Tex. The Associated Press Stylebook states that in contexts other than mailing addresses, the traditional state abbreviations should be used.^[6] However, the Chicago Manual of Style now recommends use of the two-letter abbreviations, with the traditional forms as an option.^[7]

The postal abbreviation is same as ISO 3166-2 subdivision code for all fifty states.

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

Other abbreviations and codes

The Federal Information Processing Standard establishes numeric and alphabetic state codes for each state and for many outlying areas. The FIPS numeric code is marked 'FIPS' on the table above. The FIPS alphabetic state code is the same as the USPS code except for U.S. Minor Outlying Islands which have a FIPS code (UM) but no USPS code, and the U.S. Military Mail locations which have USPS codes (AA, AE, AP) but no FIPS code.

The U.S. Coast Guard uses a set of 2-letter prefixes for vessel numbers^[8], which are marked (USCG) on the table above but are not shown for the 39 states and District of Columbia where it is the same as the USPS abbreviation. USCG prefixes have also been established for five outlying territories, all of which are listed above, though it is only different from the USPS code for the Mariana islands.

Mis-matches between USPS and USCG codes
USPS	CA	CO	DE	HI	KS	MI	MS	MA	NE	WA	WI	MP
USCG	CF	CL	DL	HA	KA	MC	MI	MS	NB	WN	WS	CM

References

^ ^a ^b ^c USPS History: State Abbreviations [1] Accessed April 21, 2009.
^ USPS Postal News, "It’s Okay to Say 'I Don’t Know,' So Long As You Find Out!", January 9, 2009 [2]
^ Federal Information Processing Standards Publication 5-2, May 28, 1987 [3] Accessed April 21, 2009.
^ U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual, 30th Edition [4] Accessed April 21, 2009.
^ United States Postal Service Publication 28 - Postal Addressing Standards. Accessed February 4, 2007.
^ State Abbreviations
^ Major Rule Changes in The Chicago Manual of Style, Fifteenth Edition Accessed May 23, 2009
^ 33 C.F.R. Pt. 173, App. A

External links

The Riverside Publishing Company. (1984). Webster's II New Riverside University Dictionary. ISBN 0-395-33957-X
Chicago Manual of Style and AP Style Manual state abbreviations
FIPS State Codes of the US and Outlying Areas
search on WN
Official addressing instructions and abbreviations from the USPS (including abbreviations for street addresses)

[USPS_History-1] USPS History: State Abbreviations [1] Accessed April 21, 2009.

[2] USPS Postal News, "It’s Okay to Say 'I Don’t Know,' So Long As You Find Out!", January 9, 2009 [2]

[3] Federal Information Processing Standards Publication 5-2, May 28, 1987 [3] Accessed April 21, 2009.

[4] U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual, 30th Edition [4] Accessed April 21, 2009.

[uspspub28-5] United States Postal Service Publication 28 - Postal Addressing Standards. Accessed February 4, 2007.

[Style_Manuals_on_State_Abbreviations-6] State Abbreviations

[7] Major Rule Changes in The Chicago Manual of Style, Fifteenth Edition Accessed May 23, 2009

[8] 33 C.F.R. Pt. 173, App. A

[1]

[2]

[3]

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