Postal abbreviations for provinces and territories of Canada

The following article deals with the official postal abbreviations for provinces and territories of Canada as recommended by the Canadian Post Canada Post Corporation or Société canadienne des postes as the addressing standard.

The abbreviations are intended to facilitate mail delivery and enable mail to be sorted using automated optical address recognition.

Canada Political Map

Province or territory, with flag	Postal abbreviation / ISO code	Previously common abbreviations
Alberta	FROM	Alta., Alb.
British Columbia	BC	BC
Manitoba	MB	Man.
New Brunswick New Brunswick	NB	NB
Newfoundland and Labrador	NL	Nfld., NF, LB
Nova Scotia	NS	NS
Northwest Territories Northwest Territories	NT
Nunavut Nunavut	NU	NT
Ontario Ontario	ON	Ont.
Prince Edward Island	PE	PEI, PEI, PE Island
Quebec Quebec	QC	Que., PQ, PQ
Saskatchewan	SK	Sask., SSK, SKWN
Yukon Yukon	YT	Yuk., YK

The abbreviations were chosen so that there was no overlap with the postal abbreviations of the 50 US states .

Addressing example

English

Addressing is based on the following pattern:

  PAT ANYONE
  1643 DUNDAS ST W APT 27
  TORONTO ON  M6K 1V2

The abbreviation for the province (here: ON) appears between the municipality name (here: Toronto) and the postcode (here: M6K 1V2).

French

Addressing is based on the following pattern:

  PAT AUCUNE
  1643 RUE BEAUDRY O APP 27
  MONTRÉAL QC  H3Z 2Y7

The abbreviation for the province (here: QC) appears between the municipality name (here: Montréal) and the postcode (here: H3Z 2Y7).

Individual evidence

^ Addressing Guidelines , Canada Post, accessed May 31, 2008

[1] Addressing Guidelines , Canada Post, accessed May 31, 2008