Guide to international postal address formats

Question

Where can I find a guide to different postal address formats that are used in the major countries in the world?

For example, in the U.S. one format is:

street_number street_name street_type
city, state zipcode

But in Germany it might be:

street_name street_number
postcode city

Answer 1

I have not found any definitive resource (there may not be one), but have found a several, which do not always agree. The first two seem helpful--though they seem to focus on addressing mail from the US to other countries. The third, a book on MSDN, varied significantly from the others and may be out of date.

1. Address Doctor Address Formats
2. Columbia U. FRANK'S COMPULSIVE GUIDE TO POSTAL ADDRESSES
3. Developing International Software Appendix V International Address Formats

Answer 2

Lots of information here for many countries (first hit on google for "international postal address format")

Answer 3

Have a look at this Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Address_(geography)

Answer 4

There does seem to be a definitive resource here: Universal Postal Union Postal Addressing Systems in Member Countries.

Answer 5

Each country's postal service submits its addressing format to the Union Postale Universelle (Universal Postal Union). The Union has this information available for download and it is the only authoritative resource on the subject matter. The postal services around the world use it.

This material is available here: English; French.

If the links become unavailable, try searching on the Union's website for "addressing".