Canadian postal codes consist of a string of six alphanumeric characters, formatted as AnA nAn, where A is a letter and n is a numeral. A space typically separates the third and fourth characters. Precisely’s Six-Digit Postal Code Points file provides postal codes both with and without the space separator. Refer to the table variables in the Precisely Canadian Postal product statistics spreadsheet for more information.
The first three characters of the postal code indicate a Forward Sortation Area (FSA) and the last three denote a subset of the FSA, known as a Local Delivery Unit (LDU).
The postal code for Canada Post Corporation’s headquarters in Ottawa, Ontario is K1A 0B1. In this example, K1A identifies the Forward Sortation Area and 0B1 is the Local Delivery Unit.
Each character of the FSA represents a specific piece of information. The province/territory in which the FSA is located is identified by the first character. The numeral in the second position is rural or urban. A zero in this position denotes that the FSA is located in a rural area. Any digit other than 0 denotes that the FSA is located in an urban area.
The third character of the FSA is used in combination with the first two characters to provide regional coverage information.
Visit https://ic.gc.ca/eic/site/bsf-osb.nsf/eng/br03396.html for more information about Forward Sortation Areas.