List of U.S. state and territory 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 countries related to the United States through Compacts of Free Association, and other comparable postal abbreviations, including those now obsolete.

Codes:
ISO	ISO 3166 codes (2-letter, 3-letter, and 3-digit codes from ISO 3166-1; 2+2-letter codes from ISO 3166-2)
ANSI	2-digit codes from the ANSI standard INCITS 38:2009 (supersedes FIPS 5-2)
USPS	2-letter codes used by the United States Postal Service and ANSI INCITS 38:2009 (bold red text shows differences between USPS and ANSI)
USCG	2-letter codes used by the United States Coast Guard (bold red text shows differences between ANSI and USCG)
Abbreviations:
GPO	Older variable-length official US Government Printing Office abbreviations
AP	Abbreviations from the AP Stylebook (bold red text shows differences between GPO and AP)
Court	Abbreviations used by the United States federal judiciary system

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

History

As early as October 1831, the United 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.

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.

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

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.

Prior to 1987, when the U.S. Secretary of Commerce approved the two-letter codes for use in government documents, 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.

Current use of traditional abbreviations

Legal citation manuals, such as The Bluebook and The ALWD Citation Manual, typically use the "traditional abbreviations" or variants thereof.

Codes for states and territories

ISO standard 3166

ISO 3166-2:US is the entry for the United States in ISO 3166-2, part of the ISO 3166 standard published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), which defines codes for the names of the principal subdivisions (e.g., provinces or states) of all countries coded in ISO 3166-1.

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. Military Mail locations, which have USPS codes ("AA", "AE", "AP") but no ANSI code.

Postal codes

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

These two-letter codes 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. However, the Chicago Manual of Style now recommends use of the uppercase two-letter abbreviations, with the traditional forms as an option.

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. 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

The U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) uses a set of two-letter prefixes for vessel numbers; 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 bold 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 the ISO 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

See also

• Australian abbreviation system
• Canadian abbreviation system
• ISO 3166-2:US
• United States Postal Service address formatting information

External links

• USPS acronyms and abbreviations
• U.S. Census Bureau