List of U.S. state and territory abbreviations

Several sets of codes and abbreviations are used to represent the political divisions of the United States. These help us quickly write and understand names for all the states and territories, whether we are sending mail, using computers, or just talking about places. Knowing these abbreviations is important because they make communication easier and faster. For example, instead of writing out "California," we can simply use "CA." This helps everyone understand which state or territory we are talking about without any confusion.

Table

See also: List of states and territories of the United States

This table shows short ways to write the names of places in the United States. It includes some special codes for three countries that have agreements with the United States, as well as older codes that are no longer used.

Codes and abbreviations for U.S. states, federal district, territories, and other regions

Name	Status of region	ISO	ANSI	USPS (& ANSI)	USCG	GPO	AP	Court	Others
United States of America	Federal state (not defined by USPS)	US USA 840	00	US		U.S.			U.S.A.
Alabama	State	US-AL	01	AL		Ala.
Alaska	State	US-AK	02	AK		Alaska			Ak.
Arizona	State	US-AZ	04	AZ		Ariz.
Arkansas	State	US-AR	05	AR		Ark.
California	State	US-CA	06	CA	CF	Calif.		Cal.	Cal.
Colorado	State	US-CO	08	CO	CL	Colo.
Connecticut	State	US-CT	09	CT		Conn.
Delaware	State	US-DE	10	DE	DL	Del.
District of Columbia	Federal district	US-DC	11	DC		D.C.			Dis. Col.
Florida	State	US-FL	12	FL		Fla.
Georgia	State	US-GA	13	GA		Ga.			Geo.
Hawaii	State	US-HI	15	HI	HA	Hawaii		Haw.	Hi.; Haw.
Idaho	State	US-ID	16	ID		Idaho			Ida.
Illinois	State	US-IL	17	IL		Ill.
Indiana	State	US-IN	18	IN		Ind.
Iowa	State	US-IA	19	IA		Iowa			Ioa.
Kansas	State	US-KS	20	KS	KA	Kans.	Kan.	Kan.	Ka.
Kentucky	State	US-KY	21	KY		Ky.			Ken., Kent.
Louisiana	State	US-LA	22	LA		La.
Maine	State	US-ME	23	ME		Maine		Me.
Maryland	State	US-MD	24	MD		Md.			Mar., Mary.
Massachusetts	State	US-MA	25	MA	MS	Mass.
Michigan	State	US-MI	26	MI	MC	Mich.
Minnesota	State	US-MN	27	MN		Minn.
Mississippi	State	US-MS	28	MS	MI	Miss.
Missouri	State	US-MO	29	MO		Mo.
Montana	State	US-MT	30	MT		Mont.
Nebraska	State	US-NE	31	NE	NB	Nebr.	Neb.
Nevada	State	US-NV	32	NV		Nev.
New Hampshire	State	US-NH	33	NH		N.H.
New Jersey	State	US-NJ	34	NJ		N.J.			N. Jersey
New Mexico	State	US-NM	35	NM		N. Mex.	N.M.		New M., New Mex.
New York	State	US-NY	36	NY		N.Y.			N. York
North Carolina	State	US-NC	37	NC		N.C.			N. Car.
North Dakota	State	US-ND	38	ND		N. Dak.	N.D.
Ohio	State	US-OH	39	OH		Ohio			O., Oh.
Oklahoma	State	US-OK	40	OK		Okla.
Oregon	State	US-OR	41	OR		Oreg.	Ore.	Or.
Pennsylvania	State	US-PA	42	PA		Pa.			Penn., Penna.
Rhode Island	State	US-RI	44	RI		R.I.			R.I. & P.P.
South Carolina	State	US-SC	45	SC		S.C.			S. Car.
South Dakota	State	US-SD	46	SD		S. Dak.	S.D.		SoDak
Tennessee	State	US-TN	47	TN		Tenn.
Texas	State	US-TX	48	TX		Tex.	Texas	Tex.
Utah	State	US-UT	49	UT		Utah			Ut.
Vermont	State	US-VT	50	VT		Vt.			Verm.
Virginia	State	US-VA	51	VA		Va.			Virg.
Washington	State	US-WA	53	WA	WN	Wash.			Wn.
West Virginia	State	US-WV	54	WV		W. Va.	W.Va.	W. Va.	W.V., W. Virg.
Wisconsin	State	US-WI	55	WI	WS	Wis.			Wisc.
Wyoming	State	US-WY	56	WY		Wyo.
American Samoa	Insular area (Territory)	AS ASM 016 US-AS	60	AS		A.S.
Guam	Insular area (Territory)	GU GUM 316 US-GU	66	GU		Guam		Guam
Northern Mariana Islands	Insular area (Commonwealth)	MP MNP 580 US-MP	69	MP	CM	M.P.		N. Mar. I.	CNMI
Puerto Rico	Insular area (Commonwealth)	PR PRI 630 US-PR	72	PR		P.R.		P.R.
U.S. Virgin Islands	Insular area (Territory)	VI VIR 850 US-VI	78	VI		V.I.		V.I.	U.S.V.I.
U.S. Minor Outlying Islands	Insular areas	UM UMI 581 US-UM	74	UM
Baker Island	Island	UM-81	81						XB
Howland Island	Island	UM-84	84						XH
Jarvis Island	Island	UM-86	86						XQ
Johnston Atoll	Atoll	UM-67	67						XU
Kingman Reef	Atoll	UM-89	89						XM
Midway Atoll	Atoll	UM-71	71						QM
Navassa Island	Island	UM-76	76						XV
Palmyra Atoll	Atoll	UM-95	95						XL
Wake Island	Atoll	UM-79	79						QW
Marshall Islands	Freely associated state	MH MHL 584	68	MH
Micronesia	Freely associated state	FM FSM 583	64	FM
Palau	Freely associated state	PW PLW 585	70	PW
U.S. Armed Forces – Americas	US military mail code (not in the ANSI standard)			AA
U.S. Armed Forces – Europe	US military mail code (not in the ANSI standard)			AE
U.S. Armed Forces – Pacific	US military mail code (not in the ANSI standard)			AP
Nebraska	Obsolete postal code			NB
Northern Mariana Islands	Obsolete postal code			CM
Panama Canal Zone	Obsolete postal code	PZ PCZ 594		CZ
Philippine Islands	Obsolete postal code	PH PHL 608		PI
Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands	Obsolete postal code	PC PCI 582		TT

History

The United States Postal Service started recognizing common abbreviations for states and territories as early as October 1831. But they preferred people to spell out the full names to avoid confusion.

Before 1963, people used traditional abbreviations for mailing addresses. In October 1963, the Postal Service introduced two-letter codes to fit addresses into a limited space with ZIP codes. Only one abbreviation has changed since then: Nebraska changed from "NB" to "NE" in 1969 to avoid confusion with New Brunswick in Canada.

Today, places like legal citation manuals use these traditional abbreviations.

Codes for states and territories

Main article: ISO 3166-2:US

The United States uses special codes to represent its states and territories. These codes help with mail delivery, data processing, and other tasks. There are different sets of codes, such as those from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), and the United States Postal Service (USPS).

The USPS uses two-letter abbreviations for each state to make sorting mail easier. These are different from older, shorter forms like Calif. or Tex. The USPS codes match the ISO codes for all fifty states. The U.S. Coast Guard also uses two-letter prefixes for vessel numbers, which are often the same as the USPS codes.