Canadian address format: how to address an envelope or parcel

ALEX MARTIN
100 QUEEN ST W
TORONTO ON  M5H 2N2

The names and numbers in this guide’s examples are made up; the layout is Canada Post’s.

Canada Post address format, line by line

1. Addressee: a person, a company, or a description such as OCCUPANT.
2. Extra delivery details, if any: an attention line, a title or a floor. They go above the street line.
3. Street address: the unit, the civic number, the street name and type, and a direction such as NW, which always comes last.
4. City, province or territory, and postal code, on one line, always the last line of an address within Canada.

Canada Post asks for the same left margin on every line, lines under 40 characters (not counting spaces) and no more than six lines in all. Shorten long words with its abbreviations rather than cutting a line off. A business address with a department looks like this:

NORTHWIND GOODS
ATTN SHIPPING DEPT
200 8 AVE SW
CALGARY AB  T2P 1J9

Spacing and the postal code

• One space between the city and the province or territory, and two spaces between the province and the postal code.
• The postal code in capitals, with one space between its first three and last three characters, and no hyphen: T0L 1K0, never T0L-1K0.
• If the last line gets too long, the postal code may go on a line of its own below it. The province stays on the city’s line.
• The province can be written in full or as its two-letter code. The codes are in the table below.

Don’t know the code? Our postal code lookup finds it from the street address.

Apartment, suite and unit numbers

Canada Post accepts the unit number in any of three places. If a building has unit numbers, the unit is part of the address and must be on it.

1. Before the civic number, with a hyphen, and no designator: 10-123 MAIN ST NW
2. After the street type, with a designator: 123 MAIN ST APT 10
3. On the line above the street: APT 10, then 123 MAIN ST

The designators Canada Post lists are APT, SUITE and UNIT. Leave out the # symbol in every case.

Street names, types and directions

• Use the official street name and don’t translate it: Main stays MAIN, never PRINCIPALE.
• Abbreviate the street type: ST, AVE, BLVD, RD. Only three may be translated: ST to RUE, AVE to AV and BLVD to BOUL.
• Put the direction last, abbreviated: N, S, E, W, NE, NW, SE or SW.
• A letter after the civic number goes without a space (123A); a fraction takes one space (123 1/2).
• A numbered street is written without a space in the ordinal (4TH AVE), and with one space and no hyphen after the civic number: 500 4TH AVE SW

French addresses

In French, the street type goes before the name unless the name is an ordinal number. Accents are fine: Canada Post doesn’t count them as punctuation. City names keep their official spelling, so TROIS-RIVIÈRES is never THREE RIVERS, although Canada Post’s official abbreviations, such as STE-ANNE-BELL for Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, are allowed.

MARIE TREMBLAY
123 RUE PRINCIPALE
TROIS-RIVIÈRES QC  G9A 1A1

An address written in both languages needs a solid black vertical line, at least 0.7 mm thick, between the two versions, with about 10 mm of space on either side.

PO boxes, rural routes and general delivery

• PO box: the box number and the postal station on the line just above the city line, with no # and no punctuation. A street address, if you add one, goes above it. Stations are written STN, and retail postal outlets RPO.
• Rural route: RR and the route number, then the station. Where a rural address has no street number, Canada Post assigns a site and compartment, written above the route line. Don’t write BOX for the compartment.
• General delivery: GD and the station, for mail held at a post office.

ALEX MARTIN
PO BOX 4001 STN A
TORONTO ON  M5W 1A1

SAM LEE
SITE 5 COMP 10
RR 2 STN MAIN
OKOTOKS AB  T0L 1A0

How to write an address on an envelope or parcel

1. Write the recipient’s address in the format above, every line starting at the same left margin.
2. Write your return address in the same format, no larger than the recipient’s and clearly apart from it: in the top-left corner, or along the top on the back.
3. Keep the letters clear, in one font and between 2 and 5 mm tall, and don’t underline anything in the address.

Those are Canada Post’s rules for any letter or parcel. On a parcel, also keep the address clear of the carrier’s label and its barcode, and put a copy inside the box in case the outside label is torn off, as UPS advises.

Province and territory abbreviations

Common mistakes

• Adding CANADA to an address within Canada.
• One space, or a comma, before the postal code instead of two spaces.
• A hyphen or no space in the postal code (M5H-2N2, M5H2N2).
• The # symbol for a unit, or APT together with the hyphen form.
• Periods and commas, apart from those in a proper name such as ST. JOHN’S.
• Translating a street or city name.

Questions about Canadian addresses