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Standard Address in the U.S.

Submitted by Webmaster on Thu, 2022-05-12 17:39

🏠 What is the standard address format?

The standard US address consists of three parts, the first line is the recipient's name, the second line is the delivery address line, the third line is the last line, and for international mail, a fourth line is added, and the fourth line is the country name. An example of a standard address is as follows.


🏠 What is the Delivery Address Line?

Delivery Address Line is address line one. Typically, this line is filled with street address information, and the components of this line are primary address number, predirection, street name, suffix, postdirection, and secondary address in turn.

  • Primary Address
  • The primary address is consist of primary address number, predirection, street name, suffix, and postdirection. The Primary street address is an integral part of the delivery address line, but not all components must be included in the primary street address.

  • Primary Address Number
  • That is, the street number, such as 101 MAIN ST, 101 is the primary address number.

  • Predirection / Postdirection
  • They are usually located as direction words in front of the street name or after the street suffix, sometimes to refer to the direction, sometimes only as part of the address. Sometimes directional word appears between the street name and the suffix, then it appears as part of the street name. In order to prevent confusion with directional words in street name, direction are generally abbreviated, such as S (South), SW (Southwest), etc.

  • Street Name
  • Street names generally consist of numbers or letters and usually do not contain symbols, except for periods, slashes, and hyphens.

  • Suffix
  • Also known as the street suffix. The suffix of the address should conform to the standard suffix abbreviations, such as AVENUE-AVE, STREET-ST, CIRCLE-CIR, etc.

  • Secondary Address
  • The secondary address is generally written in addition to the primary address after the street suffix. Secondary address generally indicates the specific building, unit or room, etc. If your primary address has multiple delivery points that are confusing, you must write the secondary address so that the mail can be delivered accurately. Secondary address usually consists of secondary address identifier (secondary address unit designators) and secondary address number. 

    Secondary address unit designators are required to be given for address locations containing secondary unit designators. The preferred location is at the end of the Delivery Address Line. The pound sign (#) should not be used as a secondary unit designator if the correct designation is known. Secondary address unit designators generally use abbreviations, such as APARTMENT-APT, BUILDING-BLDG, FLOOR-FL, etc.



🏠 What is the Last Line of the address? 

The last line is the address line two, also the last line of the whole address. The components of this line are the city name, state abbreviation, and zip code. The city name is not a geographic city but refers to the local post office name. It may be a city, town, village, place name, etc.



🏠 How to split the address into street, city, and state?

If your address format is not standard, you can distinguish the street, city (post office), state, and zip code from right to left. Five-digit or nine-digit (5+4) is the zip code, two capital letters indicate the abbreviation of the state or territory, and one or more words in front of the state abbr indicate the post office (city designated by USPS), and the remaining part is the street address.


💡 What should I pay attention to when filling in the mailing address?

  • It is recommended that all addresses be in uppercase letters for OCR readability.
  • Each component needs to be separated by a space, and two spaces are preferred between the state abbreviation and ZIP Code.
  • In addition to the daily standard mailing addresses, there are also some special addresses, such as rural route addresses, highway contract addresses, general delivery addresses, etc. We will write blogs to introduce these addresses.
  • If the address at your location is complex, it is recommended that you go directly to usps.com to check the standard mailing address for your location.

📖 Source

Publication 28, Postal Addressing Standards -- https://pe.usps.com

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