Area codes zip codes database

Buy Now. Download Sample. Immediate Download. Free FTP Access. Free Technical Support. NPA 1. NXX 1. State 1. ZIP Code Population 1. LATA 1. County Population 2. Latitude 2. The additional 4 digits help USPS more precisely group mail for delivery. The map of the first digit of zip codes above shows they are assigned in order from the north east to the west coast.

The first 3 digits of a ZIP code determine the central mail processing facility, also called sectional center facility or "sec center", that is used to process and sort mail. All mail with the same first 3 digits is first delivered to the same sec center where it is sorted according to the last 2 digits and distributed to local post offices.

The sec centers are not open to the public and usually do most sorting overnight. As you can see from the map of the first 3 digits of zip codes , the digits after the first are also generally assigned from east to west.

In the map, 0 is closer to white and 9 is much more vivid. It's easy to follow the gradient across each of the zones even though there are a few exceptions such as the southwest tip of Georgia which uses 39XXX like central Mississippi. Despite the fact that ZIP codes seem to be geographic in nature, that wasn't their intended purpose. They are intended to group mail to allow the USPS to deliver mail more efficiently. Some ZIP codes will span multiple states in order to make mail routing and delivery more efficient.

In most cases, addresses in close proximity to each other are grouped in the same ZIP code which gives the appearance that ZIP codes are defined by a clear geographic boundary. However, some ZIP codes have nothing to do with geogaphic areas.

When ZIP codes appear to be geographically grouped, a clear shape cannot always be drawn around the ZIP code because ZIP codes are only assigned to a point of delivery and not the spaces between delivery points. In areas without a regular postal route or no mail delivery, ZIP codes may not be defined or have unclear boundaries.

The main issue is discussed above: there simply isn't always a clear geographic boundary for a ZIP code. The Census Bureau and many other commercial services will try to interpolate the data to create polygons shapes using straight lines to represent the approximate area covered by a ZIP code, but none of these maps are official or entirely accurate.

They provide a very close approximation of the area covered by a ZIP code. When you download our U. Our zip codes database has the most comprehensive and precise data that you will find. You can perform free database lookups on our website with our software or you can download our ZIP codes database for data manipulation.

Today, over ,, pieces of mail are delivered each business day, and our mail can take as little as one day to reach its destination. Back in , it could take three weeks for a letter to travel from Lexington, Massachusetts to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The cost of mail was relatively much higher back then. It cost twenty-five cents to send a letter miles — not much less than it costs today to send a letter anywhere in the country, and in considerably less time!

Today, many of us in the United States expect to have our mail delivered to our homes and offices at no extra charge. Before July 1, , city residents had to pay to have a postal worker bring their mail to them; rural customers had to travel to pick up their own mail for another 30 years.

Zip codes wouldn't have helped much in those days. Many famous Americans have been postal workers. Harry S. Truman was postmaster of Grandview, Missouri for a time.