This is a list of address formats by country and area in alphabetical order.
A Argentina In Argentina, an address must be mailed this way: Format Example Name Street name, number Complements, Neighbourhood (if needed) Postal code, Municipality
The postal code has been changed from a four digit format to an eight digit format, which is shown in the example. The new format adds a district or province letter code at the beginning, which allows it to be identified. As the system has been changed recently, the four digit format can still be used: in that case it is necessary to add the name of the province or district.
Old Format (4d) New Format (8d) Luis Escala French 392 Banfield (1828) Lomas de Zamora, Pcia Buenos Aires
Australia
In common with the rest of 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 locality – 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 8,000 localities in Victoria (cf. List of localities in Victoria and List of Melbourne suburbs), yet around 700 unique geographic postcodes.Australia Post. (29 September 2009). Full postcode datafile . Retrieved 1 October 2009 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 recommendsAustralia Post. (nd). Address presentation standards. Retrieved 1 October 2009 that the last line of the 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.
Apartment, flat and unit numbers, if necessary, are shown immediately prior to the street number (which might be a range), and, as noted above, are separated from the street number by a forward slash. These conventions can cause confusion. To clarify, 3/17 Adam Street would mean Apartment 3 (before the slash) at 17 Adam Street (in the case of a residential address) or Unit 3 at 17 Adam St (in the case of a business park). On the other hand, 3–17 Adam Street would specify a large building (or cluster of related buildings) occupying the lots spanning street numbers 3 to 17 on one side of Adam St (without specifying any particular place within the buildings). These forms can be combined, so 3/5–9 Eve Street signifies Apartment 3 (before the slash) in a building which spans street numbers 5 to 9 on one side of Eve Street.
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 NameOther recipient information(etc.)Street (Subunit Number Name)Locality State Postcode Ms H WilliamsFinance and AccountingAustralia Post219–241 Cleveland StSTRAWBERRY HILLS NSW 1427 Other delivery type Recipient NameOther recipient information (etc.)Type NumberLocality State Postcode Mr J. O'DonnellLighthouse PromotionsPO Box 215SPRINGVALE VIC 3171
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
Australian Post Addressing Guidelines
In rural areas, "Property numbers are worked out based on the distance from the start of the road to the entrance of the property. That distance (in metres) is divided by ten. Even numbers are on the right and odd numbers are on the left. For example: the entrance to a property 5,080 metres from the start of the road on the right hand side becomes number 508. The start of the road is determined as the fastest and safest road accessed from the nearest major road or town. Rural road maps are being drawn up to define the name, the start point and direction of every rural road." Material was copied from this source, which is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License .
Austria In Austria, the address is generally formatted as follows: Format Example Addressee (Natural person/Organization) More detailed description of addressee (optional) Street name + number Postal code + town Country (if other than Austria)
The postal code always consists of four digits.
B Bangladesh In Bangladesh, the format used for rural and urban addresses is different.
Urban Addresses Format Example Addressee (Natural person/Organization) More detailed description of addressee (optional) Flat Number, Building Name (if available)Street name + number Town + postal code Country (for international mail) Sheikh Mujibur Rahman -- -- Dhanmondi. 32 Dhaka-1209 Bangladesh The postal code always consists of four digits.
Rural Addresses Format ExampleNameMore detailed description of addressee (optional)Village NamePost office Thana NameDistrict Name Country (for international mail)Sheikh Mujibur Rahman --Village: TungiparaP.O.: TungiparaThana: TungiparaDistrict: GopalganjBangladesh
Belarus In Belarus, some neighbourhoods 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 neighbourhoods, 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 vul. Lenina, d. 123 (123 Lenin St) An address may also cover one or more subsidiary buildings behind the main building, addressed as vul. Lenina, d. 123, bud. 2 (123 Lenin St, unit 2, where bud. (abbreviation for , ) means a '(subsidiary) building'). In newer areas with more regular street plans, apartment buildings that do not face a named street may be designated with Cyrillic letters appended to the building number, e.g. , , etc., in Cyrillic alphabetical order.
In some microraion neighbourhoods, 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.
Format Cyrillic example Latin example Name of addressee Street name, number, apartment/room Village (in rural areas when different from post office) Postal code, post office (in rural areas) or city/town Raion Region Country (for international mail)
Source: Belposhta
Belgium In Belgium, the address starts with the most specific information (addressee individual identification) and ends with the most general information (postcode and town for domestic mail or country for cross border mail.) Spatial information of a physical address (including building, wing, stairwell, floor and door) may be useful for internal path of delivery, but is not allowed in the delivery point location line (i.e. the line containing street, number and box number). If needed, this information will appear on a line above the delivery point location line.
The street number is placed after the thoroughfare name (unlike in France), separated by a space. Separators such as punctuation (point, comma or other signs) or "nº", or "nr" are not allowed. Extension designation (box numbers), if present, appears in the delivery point location line, preceded by the word for "box" ( in Dutch, in French). Symbols such as b, Bt, #, -, / are not allowed as separators between the street number element and the box number element.
Examples of a correctly formatted postal address:
Format Example (French) Example (Dutch) Addressee individual information Function / department (optional) Organization (if applicable) Spatial/dispatching information (if applicable) thoroughfare + street number + box number Postal code + town Country (only for international mail)
The Belgian addressing guidelines are registered with the Universal Postal Union (UPU and see the link Universal Postal Union – Postal addressing systems in member countries). These guidelines indicate exactly how to combine the various address components to obtain a correctly formatted postal address.
The complete set of addressing guidelines can be found on the website of the Belgian postal operator (bpost). The correct representation of an address is not limited to the correct structure of address components but also relates to the content of addresses and their position on envelopes (see bpost – Lettres & cartes – Envoi – Comment addresser ? (in French)).
It is also possible to validate a Belgian postal address on bpost's website and to receive feedback on the content and the format of an address.
Brazil In Brazil, an address must be written this way: Format Example Name Street type (avenue/terrace), Street name, number, apartment/room (if needed) Neighbourhood (optional) Municipality, State abbreviation Postal Code
States can have their name written in full, abbreviated in some way, or totally abbreviated to two letters (SP = São Paulo, RJ = Rio de Janeiro, etc.).
Only towns with 60,000 inhabitants and above have postal codes individualized for streets, roads, avenues, etc. One street can have several postal codes (by odd/even numbers side or by segment). These postcodes range from −000 to −899. Other towns have only a generic postcode with the suffix −000. Recipients of bulk mail (large companies, condos, etc.) have specific postcodes, with a suffix ranging from −900 to −959. P.O. boxes are mailed to offices, with suffixes ranging from −970 to −979. Some rural settlements have community postboxes with suffix −990.
Bulgaria Similar to Belgium and most other European countries, in Bulgaria the address starts with the most specific information (addressee individual identification) and ends with the most general information (town and postcode for domestic mail or country for cross border (international) mail.) Spatial information of a physical address (including building, wing, stairwell, floor and door) may be useful for internal path of delivery, but is not allowed in the delivery point location line (i.e. the line containing street, number and box number). If needed, this information will appear on a line above the delivery point location line.
The street number is placed after the thoroughfare name (unlike in France), separated by a space and the symbol 'No. '. Separators such as punctuation (point, comma or other signs) are allowed if needed. Extension designation (box numbers), if present, appears in the delivery point location line, preceded by the word for "box" (" {numeral}", " {numeral}", or " {numeral}"). Symbols such as #, -, / are not strictly disallowed as separators between the street number element and the box number element. Note that there may sometimes be a confusion between (, postal code (of the local post office)) and (, P.O. (post office box), the individual physical P.O. box of a specific address or a subscription-based physical P.O. box inside a post-office branch).