Free US State Abbreviations Chart: All 50 States and DC with Postal Codes, States and Capitals, and a Mailing Address Guide with Territories, Military Codes and Street Abbreviations (PDF, Word, Excel)

What is on the page

Postal code

The two-letter abbreviation for each state used by the US Postal Service, written in capitals with no periods.

District of Columbia

DC, the federal district containing Washington; it is not a state but has its own postal code.

Territories

Puerto Rico (PR), Guam (GU), the U.S. Virgin Islands (VI), American Samoa (AS) and the Northern Mariana Islands (MP) have their own codes.

Military mail

AA, AE and AP are used instead of a state for APO, FPO and DPO addresses.

Street suffixes

The standard USPS abbreviations, such as ST, AVE and BLVD, used on envelopes and in address databases.

State abbreviations for mail and forms

The two-letter codes were introduced by the Post Office in 1963 along with ZIP codes and are now used everywhere from forms to databases. Write them in capitals without periods. The most common mix-ups are the states starting with M (MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MO, MS, MT) and the A states (AK, AL, AR, AZ). Older abbreviations such as Calif. or Mass. are still seen in newspaper writing but shouldn't be used on mail. Choosing envelopes? See the envelope size chart.

States and capitals

Many capitals are not the largest city in their state: Albany rather than New York City, Sacramento rather than Los Angeles, Springfield rather than Chicago, Tallahassee rather than Miami. The capitals chart is useful for homework and quizzes as well as the office. For the rest of the world, see the world capitals list.

Addressing mail correctly

The Postal Service's machines read addresses best in capital letters without punctuation, with standard abbreviations for street types and units, and with the city, state code and ZIP code on the last line. Put an apartment or suite number on the same line as the street. For military mail, use APO, FPO or DPO in place of the city and AA, AE or AP in place of the state. International callers and senders will find country codes on the country codes chart.

Editing the files

The charts print ready to use. The Excel version is handy for sorting, data validation lists in forms, and lookups.

Questions

What are the 50 state abbreviations?

Two-letter USPS codes such as AL Alabama, AK Alaska, AZ Arizona, AR Arkansas and CA California; the chart lists them all with DC.

What is the abbreviation for Mississippi?

MS. MI is Michigan, MN Minnesota and MO Missouri.

Should state abbreviations have periods?

No. USPS codes are two capital letters without periods.

What does APO mean in an address?

Army Post Office, used with AA, AE or AP for military mail; FPO is Fleet Post Office and DPO Diplomatic Post Office.

What is the abbreviation for Suite?

STE. Apartment is APT, Building BLDG, Floor FL and Unit UNIT.