Citizendia

Mr. ZIP promoted the use of ZIP codes for the USPS during the 1960s and 1970s.
Mr. ZIP promoted the use of ZIP codes for the USPS during the 1960s and 1970s. Mr ZIP, informally "Zippy" is a Cartoon character used in the 1960s by the United States Post Office Department, and in the 1970s by its successor

The ZIP code is the system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service (USPS). A postal code (known in various countries as a post code, postcode, or ZIP code) is a series of letters and/or digits appended to a The letters ZIP, an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan,[1] are written properly in capital letters and were chosen to suggest that the mail travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly, when senders use it. Acronyms, initialisms, and alphabetisms are Abbreviations that are formed using the initial components in a phrase or name Mail, or post, is a method for transmitting information and tangible objects wherein written Documents typically enclosed in Envelopes and also The basic format consists of five numerical digits. In Mathematics and Computer science, a digit is a symbol (a number symbol e An extended ZIP + 4 code includes the five digits of the ZIP code, a hyphen and then four more digits, which enables a piece of mail to be directed to a more precise location than by the ZIP code alone. A hyphen ( -) is a Punctuation mark It is used for both Words to join and to separate Syllables It is often confused with the dashes Mail, or post, is a method for transmitting information and tangible objects wherein written Documents typically enclosed in Envelopes and also The term ZIP Code was originally registered as a servicemark (a type of trademark) by the U. In some countries notably the United States, a Trademark used to identify a service rather than a product is called a service mark or servicemark A trademark or trade mark, represented by the symbols ™ and ®, or mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual S. Postal Service but its registration has since expired. [2]

Contents

Background

The United States Post Office (USPO) implemented postal zones for large cities in 1943. Year 1943 ( MCMXLIII) was a Common year starting on Friday (the link will display full 1943 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. For example:

Mr. John Smith
3256 Epiphenomenal Avenue
Minneapolis 16, Minnesota (or "Minn. ")
Wikimedia Foundation Inc.
200 2nd Ave. South #358
St. Petersburg 1, Florida (or "Fla. ")

The "16" in the first example and "1" in the second is the number of the postal zone within the city.

By the early 1960s a more general system was needed, and on July 1, 1963, non-mandatory ZIP codes were announced for the whole country. The 1960s decade refers to the years from the beginning of 1960 to the end of 1969 "July 1st" redirects here For the Ayumi Hamasaki song see H (song. Year 1963 ( MCMLXIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Robert Moon, an employee of the post office, is considered the father of the ZIP code. Robert Aurand Moon ( April 15, 1917, Pennsylvania, USA– April 11, 2001, Florida, USA sometimes called 'Mr He submitted his proposal in 1944 while working as a postal inspector. The United States Postal Inspection Service (or USPIS) is the law enforcement arm of the United States Postal Service.

The post office only gives credit to Moon for the first three digits of the ZIP code, which describe the sectional center facility, or SCF, also called "sec center. A Destination Sectional Center Facility ( SCF) is a Processing and Distribution Center (P&DC of the United States Postal Service (USPS that serves a designated geographical " An SCF is a central mail processing facility with those 3 digits. The SCF sorts mail to all post offices with those first 3 digits in their ZIP codes, mail is sorted according to the final 2 digits of the ZIP code and the mail is sent to these post offices in the early morning. Sectional centers do not deliver mail and are not open to the public (though the building may include a post office open to the public), and most of the workers are employed during the overnight. Mail picked up at post offices is sent to their own SCF in the afternoon, where the mail is sorted overnight. In the cases of large cities, the last two digits coincide with the older postal zone number, thus:

Mr. John Smith
3256 Epiphenomenal Avenue
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55416 (or "MN")
Wikimedia Foundation Inc.
200 2nd Ave. South #358
St. Petersburg, Florida 33701 (or "FL")

In 1967, these were made mandatory for second- and third-class bulk mailers, and the system was soon adopted generally. Year 1967 ( MCMLXVII) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the 1967 Gregorian calendar. Bulk mail broadly refers to Mail that is mailed and processed in bulk at reduced rates The United States Post Office used a cartoon character, Mr. ZIP, to promote use of the ZIP code. Mr ZIP, informally "Zippy" is a Cartoon character used in the 1960s by the United States Post Office Department, and in the 1970s by its successor He was often depicted with a legend such as "USE ZIP CODES" in the selvage of panes of stamps or on labels contained in, or the covers of, booklet panes of stamps. In a woven fabric the selvage (or selvedge) is the uncut edge of the fabric which is on the right- and left-hand edges as it comes out of the Loom A postage stamp is an adhesive paper evidence of pre-paying a fee for postal services Curiously enough, the only time the Postal Service issued a stamp promoting the ZIP code, in 1974, Mr. Year 1974 ( MCMLXXIV) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the 1974 Gregorian calendar. ZIP was not depicted.

ZIP + 4

In 1983, the U. Year 1983 ( MCMLXXXIII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays the 1983 Gregorian calendar) S. Postal Service began using an expanded ZIP code system called "ZIP + 4", often called "plus-four codes" or "add-on codes. "

Wikimedia Foundation Inc.
P. O. Box 78350
San Francisco, CA 94107-8350

Recently the Postal Service started a "Find a ZIP Code" feature on its website, which provides an address format that is most compatible with its optical character recognition, or OCR, scanners:

WIKIMEDIA FOUNDATION INC
PO BOX 78350
SAN FRANCISCO CA 94107-8350

A ZIP + 4 code uses the basic five-digit code plus four additional digits to identify a geographic segment within the five-digit delivery area, such as a city block, a group of apartments, an individual high-volume receiver of mail or any other unit that could use an extra identifier to aid in efficient mail sorting and delivery. Optical character recognition, usually abbreviated to OCR, is the Mechanical or electronic translation of Images of handwritten typewritten Use of the plus-four code is not required except for certain presorted mailings. In general, mail is read by a multiline optical character reader (MLOCR) that instantly determines the correct ZIP + 4 code from the address and — along with the even more specific delivery point — sprays a Postnet barcode on the face of the mailpiece that corresponds to 11 digits. A Multiline Optical Character Reader, or MLOCR is a type of mail sorting machine that uses Optical Character Recognition (OCR technology to determine how to route mail through In a postal System, a delivery point (sometimes DP) is a single mailbox or other place at which Mail is delivered Example The above-mentioned example of 55555-1237 yields Sum is 38 The check digit is therefore 2 The data encoded will This technology has greatly increased the speed and accuracy of mail delivery and kept costs nearly constant for over a decade.

For post-office boxes, the general (but not invariable) rule is that each box has its own ZIP + 4 code. A post office box (often abbreviated PO Box or PO Box) is a uniquely-addressable lockable box located on the premises of a Post office station The add-on code is often one of the following: the last four digits of the box number (e. g. , PO Box 58001, Washington DC 20037-8001), zero plus the last three digits of the box number (e. g. , PO Box 12344, Chicago IL 60612-0344), or, if the box number consists of fewer than four digits, enough zeros prepended to the front of the box number to produce a four-digit number (e. g. , PO Box 52, Garrett Park MD 20896-0052). However, there is no uniform rule, so the ZIP + 4 code must be looked up individually for each box.

It is common to use add-on code 9998 for mail addressed to the postmaster (to which requests for pictorial cancellations are usually addressed), 9999 for general delivery and other high-numbered add-on codes for business reply mail. On Mail, a cancellation (or cancel for short is a Postal marking applied to a Postage stamp or Postal stationery indicating that Poste restante ( French, trans post which remains) is a service where the Post office holds Mail until the recipient calls for it Freepost is a postal service provided by various Postal administrations whereby a person sends Mail without affixing Postage, and the recipient pays the For a unique ZIP code (explained below), the add-on code is typically 0001.

Postal bar code

This is the address shown in the text with the Postnet bar code for the 5-digit ZIP Code 55416
This is the address shown in the text with the Postnet bar code for the 5-digit ZIP Code 55416
This is the address shown in the text with the Postnet bar code for the 9-digit ZIP Code 33701-4313
This is the address shown in the text with the Postnet bar code for the 9-digit ZIP Code 33701-4313

The ZIP code is often translated into a barcode called Postnet that is printed on the mailpiece to make it easier for automated machines to sort. A bar code (also barcode) is an optical Machine-readable representation of data Example The above-mentioned example of 55555-1237 yields Sum is 38 The check digit is therefore 2 The data encoded will Unlike most barcode symbologies, Postnet uses long and short bars, not thin and thick bars. The barcode can be printed by the person who sends the mail (some word-processing programs such as WordPerfect and pre-2007 versions of Microsoft Word include the feature), or the post office will put one on when it processes the piece. WordPerfect is a proprietary Word processing application At the height of its popularity in the late 1980s and early 1990s it was the De facto Microsoft Word is Microsoft 's flagship word processing software. The post office generally uses OCR technology, though a human may have to read the address if absolutely necessary. Optical character recognition, usually abbreviated to OCR, is the Mechanical or electronic translation of Images of handwritten typewritten (The automated machinery has the unfortunate tendency to paste the coding over the bottom half-inch of postcards, often obliterating the signature. A postcard or post card is a rectangular piece of thick Paper or thin cardboard intended for writing and mailing without an Envelope and Postcard printers have begun blocking a section off where the barcode will be placed. )

People who send bulk mail can get a discount on postage if they have pre-printed the barcode themselves. Bulk mail broadly refers to Mail that is mailed and processed in bulk at reduced rates Discounts and allowancesIn Finance and Economics, discounting is the process of finding the present value of an amount of cash at some future date and along with Mail, or post, is a method for transmitting information and tangible objects wherein written Documents typically enclosed in Envelopes and also This requires more than just a simple font; mailing lists must be standardized with up-to-date CASS certified software that adds/verifies a full, correct ZIP + 4 code and an additional two digits representing the exact delivery point. In Typography, a typeface is a set of one or more Fonts designed with stylistic unity each comprising a coordinated set of Glyphs A typeface usually comprises CASS may refer to an abbreviation of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences or Cass Business School London. In Mathematics and Computer science, a digit is a symbol (a number symbol e In a postal System, a delivery point (sometimes DP) is a single mailbox or other place at which Mail is delivered Furthermore, mail must be presorted in a specific scheme and be accompanied by documentation verifying this. These steps are usually done with PAVE-certified software that also prints the barcoded address labels and barcoded sack or tray tags.

This means that every single mailable point in the country has its own 12-digit number (at least in theory). The delivery-point digits (the 10th and 11th digits) are calculated based on the primary or secondary number of the address. The USPS publishes the rules for calculating the delivery point in a document called the CASS Technical Guide. [3] The last digit is always a check digit, which is obtained by summing all 5, 9 or 11 digits, taking the Modulo base 10 of this sum (i. A check digit is a form of Redundancy check used for Error detection, the decimal equivalent of a binary Checksum. The word modulo (Latin with respect to a modulus of ___ is the Latin Ablative of Modulus which itself means "a small measure e. the remainder after dividing by 10) and finally subtracting this from 10. Subtraction is one of the four basic Arithmetic operations it is the inverse of Addition, meaning that if we start with any number and add any number and then subtract (Thus, the check digit for 10001-0001 00 would be 7, since 1+1+1=3, 3%10=3 and 10-3=7. ) An application needs only to print something like /100010001007/ in the 12-point Postnet font to create a valid barcode. In Typography, a point is the smallest unit of measure being a subdivision of the larger pica. The slashes "/" are translated into start/stop characters (one long bar), and each digit is translated into a sequence of two long bars and three short bars. In Telecommunication, a two-out-of-five code is an m of n code that provides exactly ten possible combinations and thus is popular for representing decimal digits

On business-reply mail, the FIM code primarily indicates the orientation (facing) of the mailpiece, since there is generally not a stamp or postage meter imprint containing fluorescent ink (which is usually used by the facing machine to orient mail. The Facing Identification Mark or FIM is a Bar code designed by the United States Postal Service to assist in the automated processing of Mail A postage stamp is an adhesive paper evidence of pre-paying a fee for postal services A postage meter is an electro-mechanical device for producing evidence of Postage. ) Additionally, FIM codes A and C indicate that a Postnet bar code is present, allowing this mail to bypass the MOCR and go straight to a barcode scanning machine. A Multiline Optical Character Reader, or MLOCR is a type of mail sorting machine that uses Optical Character Recognition (OCR technology to determine how to route mail through For that reason, even though courtesy reply mail and metered reply mail are mailed with a stamp or a postage-meter imprint, they typically carry an FIM code, namely FIM A, to indicate that the Postnet bar code is present. Courtesy reply mail or CRM is a type of mail in which a business sends pre-printed self-addressed Envelopes or Postcards to customers who then affix Metered reply mail or MRM is a type of mail in which a business sends pre-printed self-addressed envelopes or postcards to customers with postage prepaid on the envelopes The FIM D barcode is used for computer-generated indicia from online postage meters.

Structure and allocation

By geography

Main article: ZIP code prefixes

ZIP codes are numbered with the first digit representing a certain group of U.S. states, the second and third digits together representing a region in that group (or perhaps a large city) and the fourth and fifth digits representing a group of delivery addresses within that region. This table lists 3-digit ZIP Code prefixes each of which represents a United States Postal Service (USPS Sectional center facility (SCF A US state is any one of the fifty subnational entities of the United States of America that share Sovereignty with the federal government The article is about the geographic sense of the term For other uses including Regions and Regional, see Region (disambiguation. The main town in a region (if applicable) often gets the first ZIP codes for that region; afterward, the numerical order often follows the alphabetical order. Because ZIP codes are intended for efficient postal delivery, there are unusual cases where a ZIP Code crosses state boundaries, such as a military facility spanning multiple states or remote areas of one state most easily serviced from an adjacent state (q. v. ).

Generally, the first three digits designate a sectional center facility, the mail-sorting and -distribution center for an area. A Destination Sectional Center Facility ( SCF) is a Processing and Distribution Center (P&DC of the United States Postal Service (USPS that serves a designated geographical A sectional center facility may have more than one three-digit code assigned to it. For example, the Northern Virginia sectional center facility in Merrifield is assigned codes 220, 221, 222 and 223. In some cases, a sectional center facility may serve an area in an adjacent state, usually due to the lack of an appropriate location for a center in that region. For example, 739 in Oklahoma is assigned to Liberal, Kansas; 865 in Arizona is assigned to Gallup, New Mexico; and 961 in California to Reno, Nevada. Oklahoma ( is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. Liberal is a city in Seward County, Kansas, United States. The population was 19666 at the United States Census 2000. The State of Arizona ( is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. Gallup (Naʼnízhoozhí is a city in McKinley County, New Mexico, United States. California ( is a US state on the West Coast of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean.

Geographically, many of the lowest ZIP codes are in the New England region, since these begin with '0'. History See also History of New England New England's earliest inhabitants were Algonquian -speaking Native Americans including the Also in the '0' region are New Jersey (non-contiguous with the remainder of the '0' area), Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and APO/FPO military addresses for personnel stationed in Europe. New Jersey ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. Puerto Rico (ˌpwertoˈriko officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ("Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico" {{lang-en|"Associated Free State of Puerto Rico"}} The United States Virgin Islands is a group of Islands in the Caribbean that are an Insular area of the United States. Military mail is a special Military postal system used to integrate the civil postal system in a given country with that country's military posted overseas The lowest ZIP code is in Holtsville, New York (00501, a ZIP Code exclusively for the U.S. Internal Revenue Service center there). Holtsville is a hamlet (and Census-designated place) in Suffolk County, New York, United States. The Other low ZIP codes are 00601 for Adjuntas, Puerto Rico; 01001 for Agawam, Massachusetts, and 01002 for Amherst, Massachusetts. Adjuntas /að'xuntas/ is a small mountainside municipality in Puerto Rico located central midwest of the island on the The Town of Agawam is a city in Hampden County, Massachusetts, United States. Amherst is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States in the Connecticut River valley Up until 2001 there were also six zip codes even lower than 00501 that were numbered from 00210 to 00215 (located in Portsmouth, New Hampshire) and were used by the Diversity Immigrant Visa program to receive applications from non-US citizens. Portsmouth is a City in Rockingham County, New Hampshire in the United States. The Diversity Immigrant Visa program is a United States congressionally mandated Lottery program for receiving a United States Permanent Resident Card.

The numbers increase southward along the East Coast, such as 02115 (Boston), 10001 (New York City), 19103 (Philadelphia), 20008 (Washington, D.C.), 30303 (Atlanta) and 33130 (Miami) (these are only examples as each of these cities contain several zip codes in the same range). The City of New York Philadelphia (ˌfɪləˈdɛlfiə Washington DC ( formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D From there, the numbers increase heading westward and northward east of the Mississippi River, southward west of the Mississippi River, and northward on the west coast. . For example, 40202 is in Louisville, 50309 in Des Moines, Iowa, 60601 in Chicago, 77063 in Houston, 80202 in Denver, 94111 in San Francisco, 98101 in Seattle, and 99950 in Ketchikan, Alaska (the highest ZIP code). Chicago (ʃɪˈkɑːgoʊ is the largest City by population in the state of Illinois and the American Midwest of the United States. The City and County of Denver (pronounced /ˈdɛnvɚ/ is the Capital and the most populous city of Colorado, in the United States The City and County of San Francisco is the fourth most populous city Ketchikan (ˈkɛtʃɪkæn is a city in Ketchikan Gateway Borough, Alaska, United States and the southeasternmost sizable city in that state

The first digit of the ZIP code is allocated as follows:

The next two digits represent the sectional center facility (e. g. 432xx = Columbus OH), and the fourth and fifth digits represents the area of the city (if in a metropolitan area), or a village/town (outside metro areas): 43209 (4=Ohio,32=Columbus,09=Bexley). When a sectional center facility's area crosses state lines, that facility is assigned separate three-digit prefixes for the states that it serves; thus, it is possible to identify the state associated with any ZIP Code just by looking at the first three digits.

Despite the geographic derivation of most ZIP codes, the codes themselves do not represent geographic regions; they generally correspond to address groups or delivery routes. Consequently, ZIP Code "areas" can overlap, be subsets of each other, or be artificial constructs with no geographic area. Similarly, in areas without regular postal routes (rural route areas) or no mail delivery (undeveloped areas), ZIP Codes are not assigned or are based on sparse delivery routes, and hence the boundary between ZIP code areas is undefined.

For example, U. S. government agencies in and around the nation's capital are assigned ZIP codes starting with 20200 to 20599, which are Washington, D.C., ZIP codes, even if they are not located in Washington itself. Washington DC ( formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D While the White House itself is located in ZIP code 20006, it has the ZIP code 20500. See also Executive Office of the President of the United States The White House, formerly known as the Executive Mansion, is the Official residence The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is located in Rockville, Maryland, at ZIP code 20852, but has been assigned by the Postal Service the address "Washington, DC 20555". Nuclear Regulatory Commission (or NRC) is a United States government agency that was established by the Energy Reorganization Act in 1974 and was first Rockville is the County seat of Montgomery County Maryland, United States. The United States Patent and Trademark Office used to be located in Crystal City, Virginia at ZIP Code 22202 but was assigned by the Postal Service the address "Washington, DC 20231"; however, since its move to Alexandria, Virginia, it uses the ZIP + 4 code 22313-1450. The United States Patent and Trademark Office ( PTO or USPTO) is an agency in the United States Department of Commerce that issues Patents to Alexandria is an Independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Similarly, the ZIP code for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, a federally-chartered independent authority, is 20001-6000, even though the physical address of the Authority's office, "1 Aviation Circle", is in Arlington, Virginia. Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority is an independent Airport authority, created by the United States Congress to oversee management operations and capital [4]

Rarely, a locality is assigned a ZIP code that does not match the rest of the state; in other words, a zip code may cross state lines. Generally, the locality is so isolated that it is most conveniently served from a sectional center in another state. Examples:

ZIP codes only loosely tied to cities

A ZIP code's address and the "city" name written on the same line do not necessarily mean that that address is within that city. The Postal Service designates a single "default" place name for each ZIP code. This may be an actual incorporated town or city, a subentity of a town or city or an unincorporated census-designated place. Additional place names, also of any of these types, may be recognized as "acceptable" for a certain ZIP code. Still others are deemed "not acceptable", and if used may result in a delay in mail delivery.

Default place names are typically the actual city or town that the address is located in. However, for many cities that have incorporated since ZIP codes were introduced the actual city name is only "acceptable" and not the "default" place name. Many databases automatically assign the "default" place name for a ZIP code, without regard to any "acceptable" place names. For example, Centennial, Colorado is divided among seven ZIP codes assigned to "Aurora", "Englewood" or "Littleton" as its "default" place names. This page discusses the City of Centennial Colorado For the fictitious city of the same name see Centennial (novel. The City of Aurora is a Home Rule Municipality that is the third most populous city in the State of Colorado and the 59th most populous city The City of Englewood is a Home Rule Municipality located in Arapahoe County, Colorado, United States. The City of Littleton is a suburb of the Denver-Aurora Metropolitan Statistical Area and a Home Rule Municipality in Arapahoe County, Jefferson Thus, from the perspective of the U. S. Postal Service, the city of Centennial and its 100,000 residents do not exist - they are part of Aurora, Englewood or Littleton. In the ZIP-code directory, Centennial addresses are listed under those three cities. And since it is "acceptable" to write "Centennial" in conjunction with any of the seven ZIP codes, one can write "Centennial" in an address that is actually in Aurora, Englewood, or Littleton, as long as it is in one of the shared ZIP Codes.

"Acceptable" place names are often added to a ZIP code in cases where the ZIP-code boundaries divide them between two or more cities, as in the case of Centennial. However, in many cases only the "default" name can be used, even when many addresses in the ZIP code are in another city. For example, approximately 85% of the area served by the ZIP code 85254, to which the place name "Scottsdale, Arizona," is assigned, is actually inside the city limits of neighboring Phoenix. Scottsdale ( O'odham Vaṣai S-vaṣonĭ; Yaqui Eskatel) is a city in the eastern part of Maricopa County, Arizona, Phoenix (ˈfiːˌnɪks O'odham Skikik, Yavapai Wasinka, Western Apache Fiinigis, Navajo Hoozdo, This is because the post office that serves this area is in Scottsdale. This has led some residents of the ZIP code to believe that they live in Scottsdale when they actually live in Phoenix. A Scottsdale website listing the positive and negative aspects of the city mentioned the 85254 ZIP code as a positive aspect because "Scottsdale" is being used for businesses located outside the Scottsdale city limits.

The result of this is that sometimes people must use the name of a different city than their own. An interesting example is Missouri City, Texas, which is in both Harris and Fort Bend counties and is a suburb of Houston. The portion which is within Harris county is within the zip code 77071, which must use the city "Houston" instead of Missouri City. A tiny portion of the city of Houston is in Fort Bend county in the zip code 77489, and residents there must use the city "Missouri City" for their address even though they are within the city limits of Houston. A former mayor and city council member in Houston lived in Fort Bend counties and were accused of not living in Houston since they had an address of Missouri City.

This phenomenon is repeated across the country. The previously mentioned Englewood is an inner-ring suburb that was built out by the 1960s. The 1960s decade refers to the years from the beginning of 1960 to the end of 1969 Its post office served the area that is now the high-growth southern tier of the Denver metropolitan area, and ZIP codes in this area were assigned "Englewood" as their "default" place name. The Denver-Aurora Metropolitan Statistical Area is a United States Census Bureau defined Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA in the State of Colorado An employment center as large as downtown Denver has grown in this area, and its office parks are the headquarters for many internationally recognized corporations. Even though they are actually located in other cities, they indicate "Englewood" as their location, as this is the "default" postal place name. As a result, there are really two "Englewoods" — the actual city, small and with a largely working-class residential population, and, a number of miles away, the postal "Englewood," a vast suburban area of upscale subdivisions and office parks that have nothing to do with the City of Englewood yet share a split identity with it solely because of ZIP codes. People who say that they live or work in "Englewood" and identify closely with it may rarely enter the actual city of that name. In Indiana the zip code for a town usually indicates the zip code for its corresponding township as nearly all of Indiana's small town post offices have rural routes.

"Acceptable place names" also come into play in areas of the country where many citizens identify more strongly with a particular urban center than the municipality they actually live in. For example, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania has 130 distinct municipalities, but many of the county's residents, and even some residents of adjacent counties, commonly use "Pittsburgh, PA" as their postal address. Allegheny County is a County in the southwestern part of the U The same thing applies in many cities that have more than one zip code, like Evansville, Indiana or Jacksonville, Florida.

Finally, many ZIP codes are for villages, census-designated places, portions of cities, or other entities that are not municipalities. A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet, but smaller than a Town or City. A census-designated place ( CDP) is a type of place (a concentration of population identified by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes For example, ZIP code 03750 is for Etna, New Hampshire, but Etna is not a city or town; it is actually a village district in the town of Hanover, which itself is assigned the ZIP code 03755. Etna, originally named "Mill Village" is a small village within the town of Hanover New Hampshire, in the United States. In the United States a Village is a term sometimes informal for a type of Administrative division at the local government level Hanover is a town along the Connecticut River in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. Another example is ZIP code 08043, which corresponds to the census-designated place of Kirkwood, NJ but actually serves the entirety of Voorhees Township, NJ. Kirkwood is an unincorporated area within Voorhees Township in Camden County, New Jersey, United States. Voorhees Township is a township in Camden County, New Jersey, United States. This is also the case in LaGrange, New York, a portion of which is served by the 12603 ZIP code based in the neighboring Town of Poughkeepsie. There is also a Lagrange in Orange County and a Lagrange in Wyoming County. Poughkeepsie is a Town in Dutchess County, New York, United States. The rest of LaGrange is served by the LaGrangeville Post Office. LaGrangeville is itself, not a town at all, but a section of LaGrange. Another example is Armstrong Township of Vanderburgh County, Indiana. Vanderburgh County is a County located in the US state of Indiana. While the rest of the county uses the 477 prefix, Armstrong Township, despite having no incorporated town, uses the zip code 47617 and addresses itself "Armstrong, Indiana". Furthermore, non-municipal place names may also share zip codes with municipal place names. For example, West Windsor Township, New Jersey is commonly referred to as Princeton Junction in most mailing databases, despite the fact that Princeton Junction is not a city at all. West Windsor Township is a Township in Mercer County, New Jersey, in the United States. Princeton Junction could refer to Princeton Junction New Jersey, a Census-designated place located in West Windsor in Instead, it refers to a census-designated area within West Windsor.

The postal designations for place names become de facto locations for their addresses, and as a result it is difficult to convince residents and businesses that they actually are located in another city or town different from the "default" place name associated with their ZIP codes. Because of the confusion and lack of identity generated by this situation, some cities, such as Signal Hill, California, have successfully petitioned the Postal Service to change ZIP-code boundaries or create new ZIP codes so that their cities can be the "default" place name for addresses within the ZIP code. Signal Hill is a small City (22 mi², 58 km² in Los Angeles County, California that is an Enclave (completely surrounded by the

This confusion also can have financial implications for local governments, because mail volume is among the factors used by the U. S. Census Bureau to estimate population changes between decennial census enumerations. Sometimes local officials in a community that is not the "default" place name for a zip code but is an "acceptable" place name will advise residents to always use the name of the community, because if the census estimate of that town's population is low they will get fewer State and Federal funds that are computed based on population.

Division and reallocation of ZIP codes

Like area codes, ZIP codes are sometimes divided and changed, especially when a rural area becomes suburban. A telephone numbering plan is a plan for allocating Telephone number ranges to countries regions areas and exchanges and to non-fixed telephone networks Rural areas can be large and isolated (also referred to as "the country" and/or "the countryside over the course of time South San Jose (cropjpg||thumb|A suburban development in San Jose California. Typically, the new codes become effective once announced, and a grace period (e. g. , one year) is provided in which the new and old codes are used concurrently so that postal patrons in the affected area can notify correspondents, order new stationery, etc. [5]

Most significantly, in rapidly developing suburbs it is sometimes necessary to open a new sectional center facility, which must then be allocated its own three-digit ZIP-code prefix or prefixes. Such allocation can be done in various ways. For example, when a new sectional center facility was opened at Dulles Airport in Virginia, the prefix 201 was allocated to that facility; therefore, for all post offices to be served by that sectional center facility the ZIP code changed from an old code beginning with 220 or 221 to a new code or codes beginning with 201. Washington Dulles International Airport is a public Airport located 25 miles (40 km) west of the Central business district of Washington D However, when a new sectional center facility was opened to serve Montgomery County, Maryland, no new prefix was assigned. Montgomery County of the US state of Maryland is situated just north of Washington D Instead, ZIP codes in the 207 and 208 ranges, which had previously been assigned alphabetically, were reshuffled so that 207xx ZIP codes in the county were changed to 208xx codes, while 208xx codes outside that county were changed to 207xx codes. Because Silver Spring (whose postal area includes Wheaton) has its own prefix, 209, there was no need to apply the reshuffling to Silver Spring; instead, all mail going to 209xx ZIP codes was simply rerouted to the new sectional center facility. Silver Spring is an urbanized Unincorporated area in Montgomery County Maryland, USA Wheaton is an unincorporated urbanized area in Montgomery County Maryland, USA, north of Washington D

ZIP codes also change when postal boundaries are realigned. For example, at the same time at which the above-noted change in Montgomery County took place, and under pressure from then-D. C. Mayor Marion Barry, the USPS realigned the postal boundaries between the District of Columbia and Maryland to match the actual boundary. Marion Shepilov Barry Jr (born March 6, 1936) is an American politician who served as the second elected mayor of the District of Columbia Previously, many inner suburbs, such as Bethesda and Takoma Park, had been in the Washington, D. Bethesda is an Unincorporated area in southern Montgomery County Maryland, just Northwest of Washington D Takoma Park is a city in Montgomery County, Maryland. The population was 17299 at the 2000 census C. , postal area. As a result of the change, ZIP codes in Maryland beginning with 200 were changed to new ZIP codes beginning with 207, 208 or 209, depending on their location, and ZIP codes straddling the D. C. -Maryland line were split. For example, 20014 (Bethesda) became 20814, while the Maryland portion of 20012 (Takoma Park) became 20912.

By type/use

There are four types of ZIP codes: Unique (assigned to a single high-volume address), P. O. -box-only (used only for P. O. boxes at a given facility, not for any other type of delivery), Military (used to route mail for the U. S. military) and Standard (all other ZIP codes). As examples of Unique ZIP codes, certain governmental agencies, universities, businesses or buildings that receive extremely high volumes of mail have their own ZIP codes, such as 81009[6] for the Federal Citizen Information Center of the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA)[7] in Pueblo, Colorado; 30385 for BellSouth in Atlanta; 21412 for Bancroft Hall, the midshipman dormitory at the United States Naval Academy; and 12345 for General Electric in Schenectady, New York. Mail, or post, is a method for transmitting information and tangible objects wherein written Documents typically enclosed in Envelopes and also The General Services Administration ( GSA) is an Independent agency of the United States government, established in 1949 to help manage and support the basic functioning The City of Pueblo (ˈpwɛbloʊ is a Home Rule Municipality that is the County seat and the most populous city of Pueblo County BellSouth Corporation is an American Telecommunications holding company based in Atlanta Georgia. Bancroft Hall at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, is the largest single Dormitory in the world The United States Naval Academy is an undergraduate college in Annapolis, Maryland, United States that educates and commissions officers of the United States Schenectady (skəˈnɛktədi Θkahnéhtati in Tuscarora) is a City in Schenectady County, New York, United States An example of a P. O. -box-only ZIP code is 22313, which is used for P. O. boxes at the main post office in Alexandria, Virginia, as well as for the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Alexandria is an Independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The United States Patent and Trademark Office ( PTO or USPTO) is an agency in the United States Department of Commerce that issues Patents to In the area surrounding that post office, home and business mail delivery addresses use ZIP code 22314, which is thus a Standard ZIP code.

The above will be made clearer by examining the allocation of ZIP codes in Princeton, New Jersey:

Non-standard examples

  1. While ZIP codes classified as Unique by the USPS always serve a single address, it should not be assumed that a zip code is Unique simply because it serves a single building, complex, or address. See also Princeton Township New Jersey, Borough of Princeton New Jersey Princeton Borough New Jersey Princeton Township New Jersey this The Educational Testing Service (or ETS) is the world's largest private educational testing and measurement organization operating on an annual budget of approximately $1 Princeton University is a private Coeducational research university located in Princeton, New Jersey. Large facilities are often given P. O. -box-only or Standard ZIP codes rather than Unique ZIP codes, because USPS carriers must distribute the mail to multiple boxes, offices, or buildings within the facility. In a Unique ZIP code, mail distribution within the single address is handled internally, rather than by USPS employees.
  2. A few ZIP codes fall outside the three types. APO and FPO ZIP codes are codes in use for U.S Armed Forces members and their dependents overseas. Military mail is a special Military postal system used to integrate the civil postal system in a given country with that country's military posted overseas Military mail is a special Military postal system used to integrate the civil postal system in a given country with that country's military posted overseas The United States Armed Forces are the overall unified military forces of the United States The state postal abbreviations AP (Armed Forces Pacific), AA (Armed Forces Americas) and AE (Armed Forces Europe)[8] were created in 1991 to serve these communities; previously, APO and FPO mail was addressed to APO San Francisco, APO Miami and APO New York respectively, and APO/FPO ZIP codes were numerically close to the allocations for those cities. Year 1991 ( MCMXCI) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar. The City and County of San Francisco is the fourth most populous city The City of New York The creation of these new state codes necessitated the rewrite of thousands of pieces of postal software and still occasionally causes confusion, as the actual numeric ZIP codes used by the APO/FPO system did not change and are still in use.
  3. New York City, NY is an extreme example. It is composed of five counties that are also boroughs within the city. They each have one or more SCF Codes.
  • Brooklyn: 112
  • Bronx: 104
  • New York, NY (Manhattan):
100 (Standard);
101 (P. O. Boxes and Unique);
102 (P. O. Boxes and Unique).
  • Queens:
110 (Floral Park);
111 (Long Island City);
113 (Flushing);
114 (Jamaica);
116 (Far Rockaway)
  • Staten Island: 103
In the case of the four boroughs other than Queens, the official, “accepted” names are the same, while in the case of Queens the borough name is not accepted as an address; the SCF name is. In addition, the numerous “Accepted” names are official as well.
In the case of SCF 110 (Floral Park), it serves both eastern Jamaica, eastern Flushing, and northwestern Nassau as well. There is also a Town of Nassau in Rensselaer County. Nassau County is a suburban county in the New York Metropolitan

Other uses

Delivery services

Delivery services other than the USPS, such as FedEx, United Parcel Service and DHL require a ZIP code for optimal internal routing of a package. FedEx Corporation ( is a Logistics services company based in the United States. United Parcel Service Inc ( commonly referred to as UPS, is one of the world's largest Package delivery companies DHL (originally standing for Dalsey Hillblom and Lynn) is a Deutsche Post World Net company of Germany that provides international mail This spares customers from being required to use some other routing designator, such as the IATA code of the destination airport or railhead. An IATA airport code, also known an IATA location identifier, IATA station code or simply a location identifier, is a three-letter code designating many A railhead is a terminus of a railway line that interfaces with another Transport mode, such as Shipping.

Statistics

ZIP codes are used not only for tracking of mail but in gathering geographical statistics in the United States. The U.S. Census Bureau has data that include the latitude and longitude of the center-point of some ZIP codes (called ZIP Code Tabulation Areas or ZCTAs). The United States Census Bureau (officially Bureau of the Census as defined in Title) is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census Latitude, usually denoted symbolically by the Greek letter phi ( Φ) gives the location of a place on Earth (or other planetary body north or south of the Longitude (ˈlɒndʒɪˌtjuːd or ˈlɒŋgɪˌtjuːd symbolized by the Greek character Lambda (λ is the east-west Geographic coordinate measurement The Census Bureau does not keep up-to-date datasets of all ZIP codes. Complete datasets are commercially available.

Marketing

The data are often used in direct-mail campaigns in a process called ZIP-code marketing, developed by Martin Baier. Direct mail, also known as junk mail, advertising mail or admail, is the delivery of advertising material to recipients of postal Mail. Point-of-sale cashiers sometimes ask consumers their home ZIP code. Point of sale or point of service ( POS or PoS) can mean a retail shop, a checkout counter in a shop or the location where a transaction Besides providing purchasing-pattern data useful in determining the location of new business establishments, retailers can use directories to correlate this ZIP code with the name on a credit card to obtain a consumer's full address and telephone number. ZIP-coded data are also used in analyzing geographic factors in risk, an insurance-industry and banking practice pejoratively known as redlining. Insurance, in Law and Economics, is a form of Risk management primarily used to hedge against the Risk of a contingent loss For other uses of this term see Industry (disambiguation An industry (from Latin industrius, "diligent industrious" A banker or bank is a Financial institution whose primary activity is to act as a payment agent for customers and to borrow and lend money Words and phrases are pejorative if they imply disapproval or contempt Redlining is the practice of denying or increasing the cost of services such as Banking, Insurance, access to jobs access to health care or even Supermarkets This can cause problems (e. g. expensive insurance) for people living near a town with a high crime rate and sharing its ZIP code, while they themselves actually live in a relatively crime free town (e. g. south west part of 94303 [Palo Alto, CA]).

Internet

ZIP code data is an integral part of dealer/store locator software on many web sites, especially brick-and-click websites. Locator software is an Electronic commerce Software module on a Website that allows a visitor to find nearby stores and business locations A website (alternatively web site or Web site, a back-construction from the Proper noun World Wide Web) is a collection of Web pages Bricks-and-clicks is a Business model by which a company integrates both offline (''bricks'' and online (''clicks'' presences This software processes a user-input ZIP code and returns a list of store or business locations, usually in order of increasing distance from the input ZIP code.

Pop culture

Miscellaneous

See also

U. A postal code (known in various countries as a post code, postcode, or ZIP code) is a series of letters and/or digits appended to a S. Postal Service codes

References

  1. ^ "ZIP Code," from International Paper Knowledge Center glossary
  2. ^ Trademark status information, from United States Patent and Trademark Office
  3. ^ CASS Technical GuidePDF (2. This table lists 3-digit ZIP Code prefixes each of which represents a United States Postal Service (USPS Sectional center facility (SCF The United States Patent and Trademark Office ( PTO or USPTO) is an agency in the United States Department of Commerce that issues Patents to 95 MiB)
  4. ^ Contact Us
  5. ^ Sam Roberts, "An Elite ZIP Code Becomes Harder to Crack," The New York Times, March 21, 2007, page C15
  6. ^ About ZIP Code 81009
  7. ^ FCIC – About US
  8. ^ USPS State Abbreviations. A mebibyte (a contraction of me ga bi nary byte) is a unit of Information or Computer storage, abbreviated MiB. Events 630 - Byzantine emperor Heraclius restores the True Cross to Jerusalem. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. USPS. Retrieved on 2007-12-15. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 533 - Byzantine general Belisarius defeats the Vandals, commanded by King Gelimer, at the Battle of
  9. ^ Gish, Jennifer (2005-12-17), “Where Letters to Santa End Up”, Laredo Morning Times: 19A, <http://airwolf.lmtonline.com/news/archive/121705/pagea19.pdf> 
  10. ^ United States Postal Service (2005-09-05). Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Events 546 - Gothic War (535–554: The Ostrogoths of King Totila Year 2005 ( MMV) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Events 1590 - Alexander Farnese 's army forces Henry IV of France to raise the siege of Paris. "Postal service moves to reconnect with customers in Katrina's wake". Press release. A news release, media release, press release or press statement is a written or recorded Communication directed at members of the News Retrieved on 2007-03-27. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 196 BC - Ptolemy V ascends to the throne of Egypt. 1309 - Pope Clement V excommunicates
  11. ^ "Presidential Pen Pals," Time, January 27, 1997

External links

Dictionary

ZIP code

-noun

  1. (US) A postal code, especially for addresses served by the US Postal Service, consisting of a five- or nine-figure number.
  2. (US) A region within which all addresses share a certain five-digit postal code.
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