List of U.S. state abbreviations

Several sets of codes and abbreviations are used to represent the political divisions of the United States for postal addresses, data processing, general abbreviations, and other purposes.

Table

This table includes abbreviations for three independent nations related to the United States through Compacts of Free Association, and other comparable postal abbreviations, including those now obsolete.

Legend of column headers:

ISO

ISO 3166 codes. 2-letter, 3-letter and 3-digit codes are from ISO 3166-1; 2+2-letter codes are from ISO 3166-2.

ANSI

2-letter and 2-digit codes from the ANSI standard INCITS 38:2009

USPS

2-letter codes used by the United States Postal Service

USCG

2-letter codes used by the United States Coast Guard

Old GPO

Official, older, variable length US Government abbreviations

AP

Abbreviations are from the AP Stylebook

Region		Codes					Abbreviations
Name	Status	ISO	ANSI	ANSI	USPS	USCG	Old GPO	AP	Other
United States of America	Federal state	US USA 840	US	00			U.S.	U.S.	U.S.A.
Alabama	State	US-AL	AL	01	AL	AL	Ala.	Ala.
Alaska	State	US-AK	AK	02	AK	AK	Alaska	Alaska	Alas.
Arizona	State	US-AZ	AZ	04	AZ	AZ	Ariz.	Ariz.	Az.
Arkansas	State	US-AR	AR	05	AR	AR	Ark.	Ark.
California	State	US-CA	CA	06	CA	CF	Calif.	Calif.	Ca., Cal.
Colorado	State	US-CO	CO	08	CO	CL	Colo.	Colo.	Col.
Connecticut	State	US-CT	CT	09	CT	CT	Conn.	Conn.	Ct.
Delaware	State	US-DE	DE	10	DE	DL	Del.	Del.	De.
District of Columbia	Federal district	US-DC	DC	11	DC	DC	D.C.	D.C.	Wash. D.C.
Florida	State	US-FL	FL	12	FL	FL	Fla.	Fla.	Fl., Flor.
Georgia	State	US-GA	GA	13	GA	GA	Ga.	Ga.
Hawaii	State	US-HI	HI	15	HI	HA	Hawaii	Hawaii	H.I.
Idaho	State	US-ID	ID	16	ID	ID	Idaho	Idaho	Id., Ida.
Illinois	State	US-IL	IL	17	IL	IL	Ill.	Ill.	Il., Ills., Ill's
Indiana	State	US-IN	IN	18	IN	IN	Ind.	Ind.	In.
Iowa	State	US-IA	IA	19	IA	IA	Iowa	Iowa	Ia., Ioa.[1]
Kansas	State	US-KS	KS	20	KS	KA	Kans.	Kan.	Ks., Ka.
Kentucky	State (Commonwealth)	US-KY	KY	21	KY	KY	Ky.	Ky.	Ken., Kent.
Louisiana	State	US-LA	LA	22	LA	LA	La.	La.
Maine	State	US-ME	ME	23	ME	ME	Maine	Maine	Me.
Maryland	State	US-MD	MD	24	MD	MD	Md.	Md.
Massachusetts	State (Commonwealth)	US-MA	MA	25	MA	MS	Mass.	Mass.
Michigan	State	US-MI	MI	26	MI	MC	Mich.	Mich.
Minnesota	State	US-MN	MN	27	MN	MN	Minn.	Minn.	Mn.
Mississippi	State	US-MS	MS	28	MS	MI	Miss.	Miss.
Missouri	State	US-MO	MO	29	MO	MO	Mo.	Mo.
Montana	State	US-MT	MT	30	MT	MT	Mont.	Mont.
Nebraska	State	US-NE	NE	31	NE	NB	Nebr.	Neb.
Nevada	State	US-NV	NV	32	NV	NV	Nev.	Nev.	Nv.
New Hampshire	State	US-NH	NH	33	NH	NH	N.H.	N.H.
New Jersey	State	US-NJ	NJ	34	NJ	NJ	N.J.	N.J.
New Mexico	State	US-NM	NM	35	NM	NM	N. Mex.	N.M.	New M.
New York	State	US-NY	NY	36	NY	NY	N.Y.	N.Y.	N. York
North Carolina	State	US-NC	NC	37	NC	NC	N.C.	N.C.	N. Car.
North Dakota	State	US-ND	ND	38	ND	ND	N. Dak.	N.D.	NoDak
Ohio	State	US-OH	OH	39	OH	OH	Ohio	Ohio	O., Oh.
Oklahoma	State	US-OK	OK	40	OK	OK	Okla.	Okla.	Ok.
Oregon	State	US-OR	OR	41	OR	OR	Oreg.	Ore.	Or.
Pennsylvania	State (Commonwealth)	US-PA	PA	42	PA	PA	Pa.	Pa.	Penn., Penna.
Rhode Island	State	US-RI	RI	44	RI	RI	R.I.	R.I.	R.I. & P.P., R. Isl.
South Carolina	State	US-SC	SC	45	SC	SC	S.C.	S.C.	S. Car.
South Dakota	State	US-SD	SD	46	SD	SD	S. Dak.	S.D.	SoDak
Tennessee	State	US-TN	TN	47	TN	TN	Tenn.	Tenn.
Texas	State	US-TX	TX	48	TX	TX	Tex.	Texas	Tx.
Utah	State	US-UT	UT	49	UT	UT	Utah	Utah	Ut.
Vermont	State	US-VT	VT	50	VT	VT	Vt.	Vt.
Virginia	State (Commonwealth)	US-VA	VA	51	VA	VA	Va.	Va.	Virg.
Washington	State	US-WA	WA	53	WA	WN	Wash.	Wash.	Wa., Wn.[2]
West Virginia	State	US-WV	WV	54	WV	WV	W. Va.	W.Va.	W.V., W. Virg.
Wisconsin	State	US-WI	WI	55	WI	WS	Wis.	Wis.	Wi., Wisc.
Wyoming	State	US-WY	WY	56	WY	WY	Wyo.	Wyo.	Wy.
American Samoa	Insular area (Territory)	AS ASM 016 US-AS	AS	60	AS	AS	A.S.
Guam	Insular area (Territory)	GU GUM 316 US-GU	GU	66	GU	GU	Guam
Northern Mariana Islands	Insular area (Commonwealth)	MP MNP 580 US-MP	MP	69	MP	CM	M.P.
Puerto Rico	Insular area (Commonwealth)	PR PRI 630 US-PR	PR	72	PR	PR	P.R.
U.S. Virgin Islands	Insular area (Territory)	VI VIR 850 US-VI	VI	78	VI	VI	V.I.		U.S.V.I.
U.S. Minor Outlying Islands	Insular areas	UM UMI 581 US-UM	UM	74
Baker Island	island	UM-81		81
Howland Island	island	UM-84		84
Jarvis Island	island	UM-86		86
Johnston Atoll	atoll	UM-67		67
Kingman Reef	atoll	UM-89		89
Midway Islands	atoll	UM-71		71
Navassa Island	island	UM-76		76
Palmyra Atoll[3]	atoll[3]	UM-95		95
Wake Island	atoll	UM-79		79
Micronesia	Freely associated state	FM FSM 583	FM	64	FM
Marshall Islands	Freely associated state	MH MHL 584	MH	68	MH
Palau	Freely associated state	PW PLW 585	PW	70	PW
U.S. Armed Forces – Americas[4]	US military mail code				AA
U.S. Armed Forces – Europe[5]	US military mail code				AE
U.S. Armed Forces – Pacific[6]	US military mail code				AP
Northern Mariana Islands	Obsolete postal code[7]				CM
Panama Canal Zone	Obsolete postal code	PZ PCZ 594			CZ
Nebraska	Obsolete postal code[8]				NB
Philippine Islands	Obsolete postal code	PH PHL 608[9]			PI
Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands	Obsolete postal code	PC PCI 582			TT

History

As early as October 1874, the United States Post Office recognized common abbreviations for states and territories. However, they only accepted these abbreviations because of their popularity, preferring that patrons spell names out in full to avoid confusion.^[10]

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.^[11]

Modern two-letter abbreviated codes for the states and territories originated when the Post Office introduced ZIP codes in 1963. The purpose was to make room for ZIP codes in the address, rather than to standardize state abbreviations per se.^[10]

Since 1963, only one state abbreviation has changed. Originally Nebraska was "NB"; but, in November 1969, the Post Office changed it to "NE" to avoid confusion with New Brunswick in Canada.^[10]

The two-letter postal abbreviation system is complicated by the fact that several state names begin with the same letter (e.g., eight state names begin with M and eight begin with N, four "New" and two "North"). To avoid duplications, some abbreviations are not intuitive.

Prior to 1987, when the U.S. Secretary of Commerce approved the two-letter codes for use in government documents,^[12] the United States Government Printing Office (GPO) suggested its own set of abbreviations, with some states left unabbreviated. Today, the GPO supports United States Postal Service standard.^[13]

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, "Santa Ana, Calif."). AP suggests spelling out the names of Alaska, Hawaii, and all states 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 The ALWD Citation Manual, typically use these "traditional abbreviations" as well.

Codes for states and territories

ISO standard 3166

ANSI standard INCITS 38:2009

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) established alphabetic and numeric codes for each state and outlying areas in ANSI standard INCITS 38:2009. ANSI standard INCITS 38:2009 replaced the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) standards FIPS 5-2, FIPS 6-4, and FIPS 10-4. The ANSI alphabetic state code is the same as the USPS state code except for U.S. Minor Outlying Islands, which have an ANSI code "UM" but no USPS code—and U.S. Military Mail locations, which have USPS codes ("AA", "AE", "AP") but no ANSI code.

Postal codes

The United States Postal Service has established a set of uppercase abbreviations to help process mail with optical character recognition and other automated equipment.^[14] 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.^[15] However, the Chicago Manual of Style now recommends use of the uppercase two-letter abbreviations, with the traditional forms as an option.^[16]

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

These codes do not overlap with the 13 Canadian subnational postal abbreviations. The code for Nebraska changed from NB to NE in November 1969 to avoid a conflict with New Brunswick.^[10] Canada likewise chose MB for Manitoba to prevent conflict with various U.S. states.

Coast Guard vessel prefixes

The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) uses a set of two-letter prefixes for vessel numbers;^[17] 39 states and the District of Columbia have the same USPS and USCG abbreviations. USCG prefixes have also been established for five outlying territories; all are the same as the USPS abbreviations except the Mariana Islands. The twelve cases where USPS and USCG abbreviations differ are listed below and marked in red in the table above.

Mis-matches between USPS and USCG codes

	California	Colorado	Delaware	Hawaii	Kansas	Michigan	Mississippi	Massachusetts	Nebraska	Washington	Wisconsin	Mariana Islands
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

See also

• Australian abbreviation system
• Canadian abbreviation system
• ISO 3166-2:US
• Address (geography)#United States - USPS address formatting info

References

1. "Ioa." or (more typically) "IOA" found in Iowa post office cancellations from the 1870s.
2. search on WN
3. The Palmyra Atoll is an unorganized incorporated territory of the United States that was previously a part of the Territory of Hawaii.
4. The U.S. Armed Forces – Americas include the Caribbean Sea and exclude the United States, Canada, and Greenland.
5. The U.S. Armed Forces – Europe include the Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, Canada, Greenland, Africa, and Southwest Asia.
6. The U.S. Armed Forces – Pacific include the Indian Ocean, Oceania, and Asia except Southwest Asia.
7. Former USPS code "CM" for the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands is now obsolete; it was changed to MP in 1988 to match ISO 3166-1.
8. Former USPS code "NB" for Nebraska is now obsolete; it was changed to NE in November 1969 to avoid confusion with New Brunswick, Canada.
9. "Philippine diplomats will now use PH or PHL instead of RP". GMA News. 28 October 2010. Retrieved 17 March 2013.
10. USPS Postal History: State Abbreviations Accessed November 7, 2011.
11. USPS Postal News, "It's Okay to Say 'I Don't Know,' So Long As You Find Out!" January 9, 2009
12. Federal Information Processing Standards Publication 5-2, May 28, 1987 Accessed April 21, 2009.
13. U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual, 30th Edition Accessed April 21, 2009.
14. United States Postal Service Publication 28 - Postal Addressing Standards. Accessed February 4, 2007.
15. State Abbreviations
16. Major Rule Changes in The Chicago Manual of Style, Fifteenth Edition Accessed May 23, 2009
17. 33 C.F.R. 173, App. A

External links

• USPS acronyms and abbreviations