State ZIP Codes
Find out the logic behind the ZIP Codes in the United States
The United States has been divided by the US Postal Service into areas called ZIP Codes. While it is true that these ZIP Codes do not follow city or county boundaries (for the most part they are simply the most efficient mail route available), the United States ZIP Codes do follow some logic from state to state.
You can sort ZIP Codes by state easily if you know the logic behind which ZIP Codes belong in which states. This is easy to see visually using the zipdecode graph created by Ben Fry.
ZIP Codes generally go from the eastern United States to the western United States. For example, ZIP Codes that begin with a 0 are in New England and Washington, Oregon, and California ZIP Codes begin with a 9. This chart demonstrates the general area where these ZIP Codes are located:
ZIP Code |
States |
0 |
Maine (ME), New Hampshire (NH), Vermont (VT), Massachusetts (MA), Rhode Island (RI), Connecticut (CT), New Jersey (NJ) |
1 |
New York (NY), Pennsylvania (PA), Delaware (DE) |
2 |
Delaware (DE), Washington DC (DC), West Virginia (WV), Virginia (VA), North Carolina (NC), South Carolina (SC) |
3 |
Tennessee (TN), Georgia (GA), Alabama (AL), Mississippi (MS), Florida (FL) |
4 |
Michigan (MI), Ohio (OH), Indiana (IN), Kentucky (KY) |
5 |
Montana (MT), North Dakota (ND), South Dakota (SD), Minnesota (MN), Iowa (IA), Wisconsin (WI) |
6 |
Nebraska (NE), Iowa (IA), Illinois (IL), Kansas (KS) |
7 |
Texas (TX), Oklahoma (OK), Louisiana (LA) |
8 |
Idaho (ID), Wyoming (WY), Utah (UT), Colorado (CO), New Mexico (NM), Arizona (AZ) |
9 |
Alaska (AK), California (CA), Washington (WA), Oregon (OR), Hawaii (HI) |
You can download a complete list of ZIP Codes for any state in the United States by visiting ZIP Code Download.
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