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List of U.S. state and territory abbreviations

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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

Table

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

Codes:
ISO	ISO 3166 codes (2-letter,3-letter, and3-digit codes fromISO 3166-1;2+2-letter codes fromISO 3166-2)
ANSI	2-digit codes from theANSI standardINCITS 38:2009 (supersedesFIPS 5-2)
USPS	2-letter codes used by theUnited States Postal Service and ANSIINCITS 38:2009 (bold red text shows differences between USPS and ANSI)
USCG	2-letter codes used by theUnited States Coast Guard (bold red text shows differences between ANSI and USCG)
Abbreviations:
GPO	Older variable-length officialUS Government Printing Office abbreviations
AP	Abbreviations from theAP Stylebook^[1] (bold red text shows differences between GPO and AP)
Court	Abbreviations used by theUnited States federal judiciary system^[2]

Codes and abbreviations for U.S. states, federal district, territories, and other regions
Name	Status of region	ISO	ANSI	USPS (& ANSI)	USCG	GPO	AP	Court	Others
Name	Status of region					GPO	AP	Court	Others
United States of America	Federal state (not defined by USPS)	US USA 840	00	US		U.S.			U.S.A.
Alabama	State	US-AL	01	AL		Ala.
Alaska	State	US-AK	02	AK		Alaska			Ak.^[3]
Arizona	State	US-AZ	04	AZ		Ariz.
Arkansas	State	US-AR	05	AR		Ark.
California	State	US-CA	06	CA	CF	Calif.		Cal.	Cal.
Colorado	State	US-CO	08	CO	CL	Colo.
Connecticut	State	US-CT	09	CT		Conn.
Delaware	State	US-DE	10	DE	DL	Del.
District of Columbia	Federal district	US-DC	11	DC		D.C.			Dis. Col.^[4]
Florida	State	US-FL	12	FL		Fla.
Georgia	State	US-GA	13	GA		Ga.			Geo.^[3]
Hawaii	State	US-HI	15	HI	HA	Hawaii		Haw.	Hi.;^[3] Haw.
Idaho	State	US-ID	16	ID		Idaho			Ida.^[3]
Illinois	State	US-IL	17	IL		Ill.
Indiana	State	US-IN	18	IN		Ind.
Iowa	State	US-IA	19	IA		Iowa			Ioa.^[a]
Kansas	State	US-KS	20	KS	KA	Kans.	Kan.	Kan.	Ka.
Kentucky	State	US-KY	21	KY		Ky.			Ken., Kent.^[b]
Louisiana	State	US-LA	22	LA		La.
Maine	State	US-ME	23	ME		Maine		Me.
Maryland	State	US-MD	24	MD		Md.			Mar., Mary.
Massachusetts	State	US-MA	25	MA	MS	Mass.
Michigan	State	US-MI	26	MI	MC	Mich.
Minnesota	State	US-MN	27	MN		Minn.
Mississippi	State	US-MS	28	MS	MI	Miss.
Missouri	State	US-MO	29	MO		Mo.
Montana	State	US-MT	30	MT		Mont.
Nebraska	State	US-NE	31	NE	NB	Nebr.	Neb.
Nevada	State	US-NV	32	NV		Nev.
New Hampshire	State	US-NH	33	NH		N.H.
New Jersey	State	US-NJ	34	NJ		N.J.			N. Jersey^[4]
New Mexico	State	US-NM	35	NM		N. Mex.	N.M.		New M., New Mex.
New York	State	US-NY	36	NY		N.Y.			N. York^[4]
North Carolina	State	US-NC	37	NC		N.C.			N. Car.
North Dakota	State	US-ND	38	ND		N. Dak.	N.D.
Ohio	State	US-OH	39	OH		Ohio			O.,^[5] Oh.^[3]
Oklahoma	State	US-OK	40	OK		Okla.
Oregon	State	US-OR	41	OR		Oreg.	Ore.	Or.
Pennsylvania	State	US-PA	42	PA		Pa.			Penn.,^[3] Penna.^[6]
Rhode Island	State	US-RI	44	RI		R.I.			R.I. & P.P.
South Carolina	State	US-SC	45	SC		S.C.			S. Car.
South Dakota	State	US-SD	46	SD		S. Dak.	S.D.		SoDak
Tennessee	State	US-TN	47	TN		Tenn.
Texas	State	US-TX	48	TX		Tex.	Texas	Tex.
Utah	State	US-UT	49	UT		Utah			Ut.^[3]
Vermont	State	US-VT	50	VT		Vt.			Verm.^[7]
Virginia	State	US-VA	51	VA		Va.			Virg.
Washington	State	US-WA	53	WA	WN	Wash.			Wn.^[8]
West Virginia	State	US-WV	54	WV		W. Va.	W.Va.	W. Va.	W.V., W. Virg.
Wisconsin	State	US-WI	55	WI	WS	Wis.			Wisc.
Wyoming	State	US-WY	56	WY		Wyo.
American Samoa	Insular area (Territory)	AS ASM 016 US-AS	60	AS		A.S.
Guam	Insular area (Territory)	GU GUM 316 US-GU	66	GU		Guam		Guam
Northern Mariana Islands	Insular area (Commonwealth)	MP MNP 580 US-MP	69	MP	CM	M.P.		N. Mar. I.	CNMI^[9]
Puerto Rico	Insular area (Commonwealth)	PR PRI 630 US-PR	72	PR		P.R.		P.R.
U.S. Virgin Islands	Insular area (Territory)	VI VIR 850 US-VI	78	VI		V.I.		V.I.	U.S.V.I.
U.S. Minor Outlying Islands	Insular areas	UM UMI 581 US-UM	74	UM^[10]
Baker Island	Island	UM-81	81						XB^[11]
Howland Island	Island	UM-84	84						XH^[11]
Jarvis Island	Island	UM-86	86						XQ^[11]
Johnston Atoll	Atoll	UM-67	67						XU^[11]
Kingman Reef	Atoll	UM-89	89						XM^[11]
Midway Atoll	Atoll	UM-71	71						QM^[11]
Navassa Island	Island	UM-76	76						XV^[11]
Palmyra Atoll^[c]	Atoll^[c]	UM-95	95						XL^[11]
Wake Island	Atoll	UM-79	79						QW^[11]
Marshall Islands	Freely associated state	MH MHL 584	68	MH
Micronesia	Freely associated state	FM FSM 583	64	FM
Palau	Freely associated state	PW PLW 585	70	PW
U.S. Armed Forces –Americas^[d]	US military mail code (not in the ANSI standard)			AA
U.S. Armed Forces –Europe^[e]	US military mail code (not in the ANSI standard)			AE
U.S. Armed Forces –Pacific^[f]	US military mail code (not in the ANSI standard)			AP
Nebraska	Obsolete postal code^[g]			NB
Northern Mariana Islands	Obsolete postal code^[h]			CM
Panama Canal Zone	Obsolete postal code	PZ PCZ 594		CZ
Philippine Islands	Obsolete postal code	PH PHL 608^[12]		PI
Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands	Obsolete postal code	PC PCI 582		TT

History

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As early as October 1831, theUnited States Postal Service recognized common abbreviations for states and territories. However, they accepted these abbreviations only because of their popularity, preferring that patrons spell names out in full to avoid confusion.^[5]

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 aslegal citation), and are still recognized (though discouraged) by the Postal Service.^[13]

Modern two-letter abbreviated codes for the states and territories originated in October 1963, with the issuance ofPublication 59: Abbreviations for Use with ZIP Code, three months after the Post Office introducedZIP codes in July 1963. The purpose, rather than to standardize state abbreviationsper se, was to make room in a line of no more than 23 characters for the city, the state, and the ZIP code.^[5]

Since 1963, only one state abbreviation has changed. OriginallyNebraska was "NB"; but, in November 1969, the Post Office changed it to "NE" to avoid confusion withNew Brunswick inCanada.^[5]

Prior to 1987, when the U.S.Secretary of Commerce approved the two-letter codes for use in government documents,^[14] theUnited 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.^[15]

Current use of traditional abbreviations

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Legal citation manuals, such asThe Bluebook andThe ALWD Citation Manual, typically use the "traditional abbreviations" or variants thereof.

Codes for states and territories

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ISO standard 3166

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Main article:ISO 3166-2:US

ISO 3166-2:US is the entry for theUnited States inISO 3166-2, part of theISO 3166 standard published by theInternational Organization for Standardization (ISO), which definescodes for the names of the principalsubdivisions (e.g.,provinces orstates) of allcountries coded inISO 3166-1.

ANSI standard INCITS 38:2009

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TheAmerican National Standards Institute (ANSI) established alphabetic and numeric codes for each state and outlying areas inANSI standard INCITS 38:2009. ANSI standard INCITS 38:2009 replaced theFederal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) standardsFIPS 5-2,FIPS 6-4, andFIPS 10-4. The ANSI alphabetic state code is the same as the USPS state code except for U.S. Military Mail locations, which have USPS codes ("AA", "AE", "AP") but no ANSI code.

Postal codes

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The United States Postal Service (USPS) has established a set of uppercase abbreviations to help process mail withoptical character recognition and other automated equipment.^[16] There are also official USPS abbreviations for other parts of the address, such asstreet designators (street, avenue, road, etc.).

These two-letter codes are distinguished fromtraditional abbreviations such as Calif., Fla., or Tex. TheAssociated Press Stylebook states that in contexts other than mailing addresses, the traditional state abbreviations should be used.^[17] However,the Chicago Manual of Style now recommends use of the uppercase two-letter abbreviations, with the traditional forms as an option.^[18]

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

These codes do not overlap with the 13Canadian subnational postal abbreviations. The code for Nebraska changed from NB to NE in November 1969 to avoid a conflict with New Brunswick.^[5] Canada likewise chose MB for Manitoba to prevent conflict with either Massachusetts (MA), Michigan (MI), Minnesota (MN), Missouri (MO), or Montana (MT).

Coast Guard vessel prefixes

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TheU.S. Coast Guard (USCG) uses a set of two-letter prefixes for vessel numbers;^[19] 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 inbold red in the table above; they include three inland states with a small Coast Guard contingent. These twelve abbreviations were changed to avoid conflicting with theISO 3166 two-digit country codes.

Mismatched USPS and USCG state codes
State	USPS Code	USCG Code
California	CA	CF
Colorado	CO	CL
Delaware	DE	DL
Hawaii	HI	HA
Kansas	KS	KA
Michigan	MI	MC
Mississippi	MS	MI
Massachusetts	MA	MS
Nebraska	NE	NB
Washington	WA	WN
Wisconsin	WI	WS
Mariana Islands	MP	CM

Notes

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^"Ioa." or (more typically) "IOA" found in Iowa post office cancellations from the 1870s.
^Not to be confused withKent,England
^^a ^bThePalmyra Atoll is anunorganized incorporated territory of the United States that was previously a part of theTerritory of Hawaii.
^The U.S. Armed Forces – Americas include theCaribbean Sea and exclude the United States,Canada, andGreenland.
^The U.S. Armed Forces – Europe include theAtlantic Ocean, theMediterranean Sea, Canada, Greenland,Africa, andSouthwest Asia.
^The U.S. Armed Forces – Pacific include theIndian Ocean,Oceania, andAsia except Southwest Asia.
^FormerUSPS code "NB" forNebraska is now obsolete; it was changed to NE in November 1969 to avoid confusion withNew Brunswick,Canada.
^FormerUSPS code "CM" for the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands is now obsolete; it was changed to MP in 1988 to matchISO 3166-1.

References

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^"AP Style – Purdue OWL – Purdue University".owl.purdue.edu. RetrievedAugust 1, 2024.
^"Basic Legal Citation".www.law.cornell.edu. RetrievedJune 13, 2025.
^^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^gConsolidated Listing of FAA Certificated Repair Stations. U.S. Dept. of Transportation. December 9, 1970. RetrievedMarch 12, 2020.
^^a ^b ^cRegister of the Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the Navy of the United States. Washington, D.C.: [U.S.] Government Printing Office. January 1, 1863. RetrievedMarch 12, 2020.
^^a ^b ^c ^d ^e"USPS Postal History: State Abbreviations"(PDF).USPS. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on March 9, 2012. RetrievedNovember 7, 2011.. See[1] for a live page with the same table in HTML form.
^Arthur, Andy."Penna. the Abbreviation".AndyArthur.org. RetrievedFebruary 15, 2021.
^Fisher, Richard S. (1857).A new and complete statistical gazetteer of the United States of America.J. H. Colton and Company. RetrievedMarch 12, 2020.
^"search on WN". Digitum.washingtonhistory.org. RetrievedFebruary 26, 2018.
^"Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands".www.doi.gov. RetrievedJanuary 7, 2018.
^"United States of America Minor Outlying Islands"(PDF). Universal Postal Union. March 2005. RetrievedFebruary 23, 2024.
^^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ"Geopolitical Entities, Names, and Codes Standard".NSG Standards Registry. RetrievedFebruary 6, 2017.
^"Philippine diplomats will now use PH or PHL instead of RP".GMA News. October 28, 2010. RetrievedMarch 17, 2013.
^"USPS Postal News, "It's Okay to Say 'I Don't Know,' So Long As You Find Out!" January 9, 2009". About.usps.com. January 9, 2009. RetrievedFebruary 26, 2018.
^Hawes, Kristi G. (May 28, 1987)."Information Technology Laboratory".NIST. Archived fromthe original on July 5, 2009. RetrievedApril 21, 2009.
^U.S. Government Printing Office Style Manual, 30th Edition[2] Accessed April 21, 2009.
^United States Postal Service (June 2020)."Appendix B. Two–Letter State and Possession Abbreviations. Postal Addressing Standards".Postal Explorer. RetrievedJanuary 21, 2020.
^Robbins, Sonia J. (January 4, 2004)."State Abbreviations".New York University. Archived fromthe original on April 27, 2009.
^Harper, Russell David, ed. (2017) [1906]. "10.27 Abbreviations for US states and territories".The Chicago manual of style (17th ed.). The University of Chicago Press.doi:10.7208/cmos17.ISBN 9780226287058.LCCN 2017020712.In bibliographies, tabular matter, lists, and mailing addresses, they are usually abbreviated. In all such contexts, Chicago prefers the two-letter postal codes to the conventional abbreviations.
^33 CFR 173, App. A

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