Postal codes in Argentina


Postal codes in Argentina are called códigos postales. Until 1998 Argentina employed a four-digit postal code for each municipality, with the first digit representing a region in the country, except in the case of the city of Buenos Aires. The unique codes became the base for the newer system, officially called CPA.

Usage

The CPA is not mandatory for private use, but companies that do mass mailings are benefit from discount if they use the CPA. Despite this, the CPA is still not in wide use by private persons, and even government sources and private businesses often list only the base code. In order to ease the adoption of the new postal code, the former state mail company provides a look-up feature on its website. The CPA is intended to improve the quality and speed of mail delivery, but mail without a well-formed CPA will be delivered correctly as well.

Structure

The CPA consists of three parts:
The first letter in the CPA, which identifies the province, has its origins in the old Argentine license plates system, which gave each province a letter, usually its initial. Since several provinces share the same initial, a few odd assignments are found. See for a complete list.

Position 2 to 5

The four digits could be grouped as the following:
A combination of three letters that identifies a side of a city block.