Canadian subnational postal abbreviations

Canadian provincial and territorial postal abbreviations are used by Canada Post, currently in code system of two capital letters, to represent the 13 provinces and territories on addressed mail. These abbreviations allow automated sorting. The current codes replaced the inconsistent designation system used by Canadians until the 1990s.

Current abbreviations

The sources of the current abbreviations vary. Some are from the initials of two of the words in the name of a province or territory, while others are from the first and final letter or from the first and some other letter in the name. All of these names are based on the English form of the name, though they also correspond to their French equivalents in various ways (for example, NT could be read for the first and last letters of Nord-Ouest, instead of Northwest Territories). For Quebec and New Brunswick, the two provinces with large numbers of French-speakers, the initials in both languages are identical. French equivalents of each abbreviation once existed: see Former abbreviations. Manitoba's abbreviation is due to U.S. states already having abbreviations in all of the letters of the province's name besides "B".

These abbreviations are fully compatible with the equivalent two-letter codes used for states and territorial areas of the United States, because no abbreviations overlap. The policy of not overlapping adjacent-country abbreviations effectively precludes use of NV (Nevada) in Nunavut and T-N as...
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