TC Design

Addresses

Owned by Tim Renczes (Unlicensed)
Nov 16, 2021
3 min read

Problem

As a rule, the Canada Post Addressing Guidelines should be followed when formatting addresses. Occasionally, there are scenarios requiring specialized formatting.

Canadian addresses

Civic addresses have the following information:

  • Addressee (line 1)

  • Delivery civic address (line 2)

    • Street number

    • Street name

    • Street type

    • Street direction

  • Additional address information (line 3 - optional)

    • P.O. Box

    • Apartment

    • Suite

    • Unit

    • Building

    • Floor

  • Municipality, Province or Territory and Postal code (line 3/4 if optional information provided)

    • City

    • Province (abbreviation)

    • Postal code

Non-civic addresses have the following information:

  • Addressee (line 1)

  • Delivery non-civic address (line 2)

    • Postal box number or Rural Route identifier or General Delivery identifier

    • Station information

  • Municipality, Province or Territory and Postal code (line 3)

    • City

    • Province

    • Postal code

U.S. addresses

U.S. addresses have the following information:

  • Addressee (line 1)

  • Delivery address (line 2)

    • Street number

    • Street name

    • Street type

    • Street direction

    • Secondary address identifier

    • Secondary address

  • Additional address information (line 3 - optional)

    • Apartment

    • Suite

    • Unit

    • Building

    • Floor

  • City name, state, and ZIP code (line 4)

    • State (abbreviation)

    • ZIP Code

      • 5 digits

      • 9 digits (5 digits hyphenated with 4 digits or ZIP+4)

  • Country (line 5)

International addresses

International addresses have the following information:

  • Addressee (line 1)

  • Delivery address (line 2)

  • Additional address information (line 3 - optional)

  • Municipality name, state or province, and postal or ZIP code (line 4)

    • State/province/region (optional)

    • Postal/ZIP code

  • Country (line 5)

Not all countries have states/provinces/regions, such as Vatican City, Turks & Caicos, Falkland Islands etc…

Solution

Canada

United States

International (with state/province/region)

International (without state/province/region)

Canada

United States

International (with state/province/region)

International (without state/province/region)

[Addressee]
[Delivery civic/non-civic address]
[Additional address information]
[City], [Province abbreviation] [Postal code]

[Addressee]
[Delivery address]
[Additional address information]
[City], [State abbreviation] [ZIP code/ZIP+4 code]
[Country]

[Addressee]
[Delivery address]
[Additional address information]
[City], [State/province/region] [Postal/ZIP code]
[Country]

[Addressee]
[Delivery address]
[Additional address information]
[City] [Postal/ZIP code]
[Country]

For domestic mailing in Canada, the country does not need to be displayed.

For bilingual documents, the country should be displayed in both languages: {English country} / {French country}. Otherwise, the country displayed is based on the language of the user’s page.

French street type variation

When displaying a French address, it should be placed before the Street name. However, if the street name begins with a number, then the street type is displayed after the street name.

[Street number] [Street type] [Street name] [Street direction]

Examples

 

Variation

Example

1

If Civic suffix is a letter, there is no space between it and the Civic number

123A Main St NW
Ottawa, ON K2K 2K2

2

If Civic suffix is 1/4, 1/2, or 3/4, include a space between it and the Civic number

123 1/2 Main St NW
Ottawa, ON K2K 2K2

3

If Street type is French, place it before Street name

123 Rue Main SO
Montreal, QC H3R 1K2

4

If Street type is French and Street name begins with a number, place Street type after Street name

123 1ÈRE Rue SO
Montreal, QC H3R 1K2

5

Addressee on the first line

ABC Nursing Home
123 Main Way
Ottawa, ON K2K 2K2

6

Addressee and Additional delivery information on the first and second lines

John Jones
Department of Widgets
150 Techno Park
Ottawa, ON K1A 0T6

7

Single string - apply the same variations as above for Civic suffix and Street type

123A Main St SW, Ottawa, ON K2K 2K2

123 1/4 Main St SW, Ottawa, ON K2K 2K2

123 Rue Main SO, Montreal, QC H3R 1K2

123 1ÈRE Rue SO, Montreal, QC H3R 1K2

8

Single string including Apartment number/label

123A Main St, Ottawa, ON K2K 2K2 Unit: Lower

123A Main St, Ottawa, ON K2K 2K2 Unit: 10A

9

Apartment number/label - begins with a number

10A-123 Main St NW
Ottawa, ON K2K 2K2

10

Apartment number/label - begins with a letter

123A Main St NW Unit: Lower
Ottawa, ON K2K 2K2

Use when

  • Multiple line display should be used on addressed envelopes or shipping purposes

What are the French street types?

The following are the French street types where the above formatting rules apply:

  • Aire

  • Allée

  • Aut (Autoroute)

  • Av (Avenue)

  • Baie

  • Boul (Boulevard)

  • Brge (Barrage)

  • C (Centre)

  • Car (Carré)

  • Carref (Carrefour)

  • Cds (Cul-de-sac)

  • Cercle

  • Ch (Chemin)

  • Circt (Circuit)

  • Côté

  • Cours

  • Crois (Croissant)

  • Drpass (Droit de passage)

  • Éch (Échangeur)

  • Espl (Esplanade)

  • Île

  • Imp (Impasse)

  • Montée

  • Parc

  • Pass (Passage)

  • Place

  • Plat (Plateau)

  • Prom (Promenade)

  • Quai

  • Rang

  • Rdpt (Rond-Point)

  • Rle (Ruelle)

  • Route

  • Rte (Route)

  • Rue

  • Sent (Sentier)

  • Tsse (Terrasse)

  • Voie



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