How to write a Canadian address

The correct Canadian address format

A Canadian mailing address has three lines: the recipient's name, the street address, and a last line with the municipality, the two letter province code, and the postal code. Canada Post's addressing guidelines prefer capital letters, no punctuation, and two spaces between the province code and the postal code.

Line	What goes on it	Example
1	Recipient's name	JANE SAMPLE
2	Unit number, civic number, street name, street type, direction	10-123 MAIN ST NW
3	Municipality, province code, postal code	CALGARY AB  T2P 1A1

The names and addresses in this guide are made-up examples. Mail addressed in ordinary upper and lower case with commas still gets delivered, so do not worry if you have been writing Calgary, Alberta for years. The format above is simply the one that sorting machines read best, and the one to use on forms and bulk mail.

How to write each part

Name line

Write the person's name as they use it for mail. For a business, put the person's name on the first line and the company name on the second, then the street address below.

Unit and street line

Put the unit, apartment, or suite number first, then a hyphen, then the civic number: 10-123 MAIN ST means unit 10 at 123 Main Street. You may also write the unit after the street, as in 123 MAIN ST UNIT 10, but choose one style and do not use the number sign. Use the common abbreviations for street types, such as ST, AVE, RD, BLVD, and DR, and put a street direction such as N, SW, or E after the street type.

Municipality, province, and postal code line

Write the municipality name, one space, the two letter province or territory code, two spaces, then the postal code. Keep all three on the same line where they fit.

Postal code

A Canadian postal code is six characters in the pattern letter, number, letter, space, number, letter, number, for example K1A 0B1. Write it in capitals with one space in the middle and no hyphen. If you do not know a postal code, look it up with Canada Post's postal code finder. Do not guess, because a wrong code can send mail to another city.

Province and territory codes

Province or territory	Code	Province or territory	Code
Alberta	AB	Nunavut	NU
British Columbia	BC	Ontario	ON
Manitoba	MB	Prince Edward Island	PE
New Brunswick	NB	Quebec	QC
Newfoundland and Labrador	NL	Saskatchewan	SK
Northwest Territories	NT	Yukon	YT
Nova Scotia	NS

Apartments, PO boxes, and rural routes

These three address types have their own small rules. Here is how each one looks.

• Apartment or suite. MARC SAMPLE / 1204-55 LAKE RD / HALIFAX NS  B3H 1A1. The unit number comes first, joined to the building number by a hyphen.
• PO box. MARC SAMPLE / PO BOX 4001 STN A / VICTORIA BC  V8X 3X4. Write PO BOX, the box number, and the station name if there is one. Leave out the street address if mail goes to the box.
• Rural route. MARC SAMPLE / RR 2 / SMALL TOWN ON  N0N 0N0. Write RR and the route number. If the property also has a civic address, put that line above the RR line.
• General delivery. MARC SAMPLE / GD / SMALL TOWN SK  S0S 0S0. Used where a post office holds mail for pickup.

The slashes above mark line breaks. On the envelope, each part goes on its own line.

Writing a Canadian address in French

In a French address the street type comes before the street name, and it is written in lower case in ordinary text: 123 rue Principale, or 45 boul. Saint-Laurent O. Keep accents and hyphens that are part of a name, such as Trois-Rivières. The province code and the postal code follow the same rules as in English, so Quebec is always QC on the last line.

Sending mail to Canada from another country

Add CANADA in capitals on its own line at the bottom, under the municipality line. Everything above it stays the same.

• JANE SAMPLE
• 10-123 MAIN ST NW
• CALGARY AB  T2P 1A1
• CANADA

Put your own return address in the top left corner with your country as its last line. When you send mail from Canada to another country, follow that country's address format and write the country name in capitals on the last line.

Where the addresses go on an envelope

The delivery address goes in the centre of the front, the return address goes in the top left corner, and the stamp goes in the top right. Leave the bottom edge of the envelope clear, because sorting equipment prints a code there. Use a pen or a printed label with dark ink on a light background.

For the full layout, with examples for business mail and attention lines, see how to address an envelope and how to fill out an envelope.

Writing your address on forms

Forms split the address into boxes, and the boxes do not always match the three line format. These habits prevent returned mail and rejected applications.

• Unit box. If the form has a separate unit or apartment box, put only the unit number there and leave it out of the street box.
• No unit box. Write the unit first with a hyphen, as in 10-123 Main St NW.
• Province. Use the two letter code unless the form offers a list.
• Postal code. Enter it in capitals. If an online form rejects the space, try it without, since some systems store six characters only.
• Mailing versus residential address. Government forms often ask for both. If you get mail at a PO box, the PO box is the mailing address and the civic address is the residential one.
• Be consistent. Use the same form of your address everywhere, matching your identification and bank records where you can.

Address boxes show up on almost every official form, from the Ontario N9 notice that asks for your rental unit address to a direct deposit form. If the form is a PDF, you can type neatly into each box with the free fill a PDF tool and avoid handwriting that a clerk has to decode.

Common mistakes

• Writing the postal code without the space, with a hyphen, or with the letter O in place of a zero.
• Putting the postal code on its own line when it fits beside the province.
• Using the number sign before a unit number, which sorting equipment can misread.
• Spelling out the province on one line and adding the code as well.
• Leaving off the street direction. In cities with quadrants, 123 Main St NW and 123 Main St SE are different buildings.
• Forgetting the return address, so undeliverable mail cannot come back to you.
• Using a US style ZIP code field for a Canadian postal code on an American website. Look for a country selector first.

Moving? Update your address in the right places

When your address changes, tell the organizations that send you important mail: the CRA, your province's health and driver licensing offices, your bank, your employer, and your insurer. Canada Post offers a paid mail forwarding service that covers the gap while you update everyone. Check the current options and price with Canada Post. A short change of address letter works for landlords, schools, and any organization without an online form.

Next step

If you are addressing an envelope to send a completed form, fill in the form first. Open it with fill a PDF, type your details, sign it with sign PDF, and print only the final copy. You can also browse the Canadian forms hub for federal and provincial forms with field by field help.