Postal address

Postal address is the information written on a letter or parcel to identify the recipient and the place where it should be delivered. The address can direct mail to a street location or a post office box.

Structure

A street address usually gives the recipient's name followed by the street and house number. An apartment number identifies a particular dwelling in a shared building. The town or other locality appears near the end of the address, usually with a postal code.

Some properties are identified by a building name. Addresses in rural settlements may use a village name where streets have no formal numbering. Businesses can specify an employee or department to direct mail after it reaches the premises. Mail sent to a post office box carries the box number, and the postal facility holds it for collection. When a recipient receives mail through another person's address, the notation care of (c/o) names the person receiving it on their behalf.

Address formats

Postal services set the order of address details. In Germany, the street name precedes the house number, with the postcode and town together on the following line. Addresses in the Netherlands use the same street-number order. In the United States, the house number comes first. The city and state appear on a line ending with the ZIP Code. In the United Kingdom, the post town normally appears immediately above the postcode. Apartment addresses in Romania may specify a building block and staircase before the apartment number.

International mail generally follows the address format used in the destination country. The country's name is written on the final line, commonly in capital letters. Local street names are retained, with transliteration used where necessary for addresses written in another script.

Return address

A return address gives the postal service a destination for mail that cannot be delivered. It identifies the sender's chosen correspondence address and is placed separately from the recipient's address on the envelope or parcel. Mail may be returned when the address is incomplete or the recipient is no longer at that location.

See also

• Postal code
• Post office