Postal code

A postal code is a series of letters and/or digits appended to a postal address for the purpose of sorting mail.

Related Topics:
Letter - Digit - Postal address - Mail

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Germany was the world's first country with a postal code system in the early 1960s. The United States followed a couple of years later.

Related Topics:
Germany - United States

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The vast majority of the world's national postal services have postal code systems. A few do not: Ireland (with the exception of Dublin), Hong Kong, Panama, and Jamaica, for example, do not have postal codes1, while New Zealand's post code system is only used for the presorting of mail in bulk, not for addressing individual items.

Related Topics:
Postal service - Ireland - Dublin - Hong Kong - Panama - Jamaica - 1 - New Zealand - Post code system

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Postal services often have their own distinctive formats and placement rules for postal codes. (Service areas, as a rule, are defined by national borders.) In most English-speaking countries, the postal code goes after the name of the city or town, whereas in most continental European countries it goes before it and is sometimes prefixed with a country code (ISO 3166-1 alpha-2).

Related Topics:
Nation - Country code - ISO 3166-1 alpha-2

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Although postal codes are usually assigned to geographical areas, sometimes this is not the case: special codes may be assigned to institutions with large volumes of post, such as government agencies and large commercial companies. One example is the French Cedex system.

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