Canadian Postal Code

Understanding the Canadian postal code system

While the USA uses either a 5-digit or 9-digit ZIP code to track mail, the Canadian Postal Code follows a completely different system. The Canadian Postal Code consists of numbers and letters in a system similar to the British system. While the United States has about 43,000 ZIP codes, there are approximately 800,000 Canadian Postal Codes.

The Canadian Postal Code will always follow this system: LNL NLN. L represents a letter and N represents a number. A space is placed between the third and fourth character of the Canadian Postal Code.

The first three characters of the Canadian Postal Code represent the forward sortation area or FSA. The first letter represents the postal territory, which in most cases is the Canadian province. The only exceptions to this are Quebec and Ontario, which are divided into districts within the province. Nunavut and the Northwest Territories are combined into one district because of the small population. The number in the FSA indicates whether or not the area is rural or urban. If the area is an urban area, the Canadian Postal Code will have a zero (0) as the number in the FSA. All other numbers indicate that the postal code belongs to a city. The last letter in the FSA makes the postal code unique and specifies the area.

The last three characters represent the Canadian Postal Code's local deliver unit, or LDU. The LDU represents a single address or a group of addresses. Canada Post will add or remove the LDU from their postal codes monthly, which makes current data very important.