List of United States Postal Codes and State Abbreviations

Created: December 17, 2015 Last Modified: August 19, 2021

For as long as the states have been around, people have been abbreviating their names. Whether simply for convenience or to comply with the post office's 23-character per line preference in addresses, state abbreviations are widely used.

State Postal Codes are used all the time and many are immediately obvious. FL stands for Florida, CA for California, and TX for Texas. However not ever abbreviation is so easy. Does AL stand for Alaska or Alabama? (Spoiler: it's Alabama). What is Louisiana's abbreviation, again? (LO for Louisiana, not LA).

These commonly used abbreviations were standardized in October 1963 by the U.S. Post Office (USPS). Before that, the preferred state abbreviations were mostly 4 letters.

Since 1963, the Post Office has changed only one code. In 1969, Nebraska was changed from NB to NE. This change was done for consistency sake. Most other states' abbreviations are the first two letters of the state unless two states start with the same two letters.

Check the sortable table below for a complete list of the official state Postal Codes and abbreviations.

State	Abbreviation	Postal Code
Alabama	Ala.	AL
Alaska	Alaska	AK
American Samoa		AS
Arizona	Ariz.	AZ
Arkansas	Ark.	AR
California	Calif.	CA
Colorado	Colo.	CO
Connecticut	Conn.	CT
Delaware	Del.	DE
District of Columbia	D.C.	DC
Florida	Fla.	FL
Georgia	Ga.	GA
Guam	Guam	GU
Hawaii	Hawaii	HI
Idaho	Idaho	ID
Illinois	Ill.	IL
Indiana	Ind.	IN
Iowa	Iowa	IA
Kansas	Kans.	KS
Kentucky	Ky.	KY
Louisiana	La.	LA
Maine	Maine	ME
Maryland	Md.	MD
Marshall Islands		MH
Massachusetts	Mass.	MA
Michigan	Mich.	MI
Micronesia		FM
Minnesota	Minn.	MN
Mississippi	Miss.	MS
Missouri	Mo.	MO
Montana	Mont.	MT
Nebraska	Nebr.	NE †
Nevada	Nev.	NV
New Hampshire	N.H.	NH
New Jersey	N.J.	NJ
New Mexico	N.M.	NM
New York	N.Y.	NY
North Carolina	N.C.	NC
North Dakota	N.D.	ND
Northern Mariana Islands		MP
Ohio	Ohio	OH
Oklahoma	Okla.	OK
Oregon	Ore.	OR
Palau		PW
Pennsylvania	Pa.	PA
Puerto Rico	P.R.	PR
Rhode Island	R.I.	RI
South Carolina	S.C.	SC
South Dakota	S.D.	SD
Tennessee	Tenn.	TN
Texas	Tex.	TX
Utah	Utah	UT
Vermont	Vt.	VT
Virginia	Va.	VA
Virgin Islands	V.I.	VI
Washington	Wash.	WA
West Virginia	W.Va.	WV
Wisconsin	Wis.	WI
Wyoming	Wyo.	WY