Canada Postal Code - Canadian Postal Codes Explained

Canada’s postal code system consists of a six-character string that helps form part of the postal address system in Canada. This differs from the United States whose ZIP code system consists only of numbers, while Canada’s postal codes are currently alphanumeric in nature. You can easily identify a Canadian postal code by its structure. A Canadian postal code is always in the following format where A is a letter, and the N represents a digit – ANA NAN. The space between the third and fourth characters is deliberate and is part of the postal code system.

The Canadian postal code system was first conceived in 1970. The City of Ottawa Ontario served as the test city in 1971, and by 1974 was in use across Canada. Statistics Canada says there are roughly 850,000 different postal codes in use in Canada.

This system was a giant leap from Canada’s first mail delivery service. Back in 1693, Pedro da Silva was commissioned to deliver mail between the Canadian cities of Montreal and Quebec City. Under the direction of the British Government, full postal services with an official seal began in 1775, and continued until 1851. Canada’s first postage stamp also went into circulation that the same time.

Today, Canada Post delivers over 40 million items to 14 million addresses each day, or a whopping 11.6 billion pieces during year 2006 alone! Canada Post claims 15,000 plus letter carriers plying over 6,000 different vehicle routes. Across Canada there are some 6,800 post offices, which operate as a combination of corporate run offices and legal franchises under the direction of private retailers. This makes Canada Post in terms of area delivered to, the largest postal operation in the world.

Canada Post is one of Canada’s larger employers with 72,000 full and part-time employees.