Postal address formats?

Question

Why is it the address format for Canada follows the form of :
Addressee, Office#, Building#, Street/Ave, City, Postal/Zip Code, Country
Where as Americans will write their address
Addressee, Street/Ave, Building#, Office#, City, Postal/Zip Code, Country.

In other words, Canada starts off at the smallest point of reference, and expands on it, where the American system starts at the street level with the actual location thrown almost as an afterthought.

Examples are:

490 Sussex Drive
Ottawa, Ontario K1N 1G8
Canada

Two Prudential Plaza
180 North Stetson Avenue, Suite 2400
Chicago, IL 60601
USA

Answer 1

Every country has its own standards for addressing its domestic mail, although most letters will reach intended recipients regardless of the order of the various elements in the address.

The Universal Postal Union, a division of the United Nations, sets standards for addressing mail from one country to another.

At the most general level, the standards say the outgoing address should be in the language and format of the country to which it is being sent -- except the name of the country also should be in a language that will be understood internationally. In other words, if you're sending a letter to Germany, the address should include "DEUTSCHLAND" as well as "GERMANY."

The return address should be in the language of the sender's country, with the same multi-language requirement for the name of the country.

The standards also show the optimum placement of the address on an envelope for reading by the optical scanning equipment used in most large post offices.

A section of the UPU Web site (http://www.upu.int/post_code/en/postal_addressing_systems_member_countries.shtml) provides examples of addressing conventons in most countries.

Other standards, which aren't published online but are available for purchase from the UPU, include other elements for addresses.

More information is available at http://www.upu.int/.

Answer 2

i have postal friends who have told me that they are taught to read the address from the bottom up, so in essence, they are expanding on the address also...