Mail Addressing Tips

Learn more about addressing formats

General Information

Addresses should be upper case
Addresses should be formatted with a uniform left margin
Punctuation should not be used unless it is part of a proper name. Accents are not considered to be punctuation
Postal codes must be printed in upper case
The # symbol must never be used
Addresses must be less than 40 characters per line, including spaces
The municipality, province and postal code should always appear on the same line
For mail addressed outside Canada and the U.S.A., the name of the country must be the last entry on the address and the name of the country must be spelled in full.

For more information visit Canada Post >

Preferred Destination Address Format:
The proper sequence for information on a destination address is:

Non-Address Data (i.e. Attention, Confidential etc)
Addressee Information (i.e. Name, Title/Position, Company Name etc)
Delivery Address Information
City Province Postal Code
Country – only if out of Canada

Examples:

Below is an example of how to address mail using sample information.

Sample Delivery Address Information

Street number: 10521
Street number Suffix: D
Street Name: RAINBOW
Street type: COURT
Street direction: SE
Unit designator and identifier: SUITE 101

Place the above information in one of the following formats:

10521D RAINBOW COURT SE SUITE 101
101 – 10521D RAINBOW COURT SE
SUITE 101
10521D RAINBOW COURT SE

Province and State abbreviations

Canada:
AB BC MB NB NL NT NS	Alberta British Columbia Manitoba New Brunswick Newfoundland & Labrador Northwest Territories Nova Scotia	NU ON PE QC SK YT	Nunavut Ontario Prince Edward Island Quebec Saskatchewan Yukon

USA:
AL AK AS AZ AR CA CO CT DE DC FL GA GU HI ID IL IN IA KS KY LA ME MH MD MA MI FM MN MS	Alabama Alaska American Samoa Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Dist. Of Columbia Florida Georgia Guam Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Marshall Islands Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Micronesia (Federated States of) Minnesota Mississippi	MO MT NE NV NH NJ NM NY NC ND MP OH OK OR PW PA PR RI SC SD TN TX UT VT VA VI WA WV WI WY	Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Northern Mariana Islands Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Palau Pennsylvania Puerto Rico Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakot Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Virgin Islands Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming

Preferred Street abbrevations

APT
AVE
BLVD
CTR
CIR
CRT
CRES
CDS
DR
FARM
FOREST
FRY
GDNS
GATE
GD
GREEN
GROVE

Apartment
Avenue
Boulevard
Centre
Circle
Court
Crescent
Cul-de-sac
Drive
Farm
Forest
Freeway
Gardens
Gate
General Delivery
Green
Grove

HARBR
HTS
HWY
HILL
ISLAND
LANE
MTN
PKY
PL
PLAZA
PO BOX
RD
RR
SQ
ST
STE
VLY

Harbour
Heights
Highway
Hill
Island
Lane
Mountain
Parkway
Place
Plaza
Post Office Box
Road
Rural Route
Square
Street
Suite
Valley

Directional abbreviations

N
S
E
W

North
South
East
West

NE
NW
SE
SW

North East
North West
South East
South West