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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] (This article concentrates on the abbreviations for states & other areas. There are also official USPS abbreviations for other parts of the address, such as street designators (street, avenue, road, etc.). Details of these are given in the External Links.)

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 29 Mississippi MO 28 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

Abbreviation	FIPS State Code	Location
DC	11	District of Columbia

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).

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

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

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

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.

Of the 50 states:

• 10 two-word states are abbreviated by the first letter of each word:

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

• 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

• 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

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

• 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

• Official addressing instructions and abbreviations from the USPS (including abbreviations for street addresses)
• Official US State Abbreviations (including state capital postal abbreviations)
• Official FIPS Abbreviations (Alpha and Numeric)

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