More than location: what address standards tell us about addresses

Abstract

An address is most often used to direct people to a delivery point. Standardizing addresses streamlines the delivery process, whether this delivery is for postal mail, emergency response, utilities (water, electricity, sewerage, etc.), financial services, or any other kind of service. Address standards have been developed and are being developed by a number of countries and organizations. The objectives of this paper are to present a number of address standards, to share experiences and lessons learnt from developing, as well as using, these address standards, and to analyze the standards systematically in order to better understand what an address is and what the purpose and benefits of different address standards are. We believe that such an analysis will contribute towards the understanding of what an address is and what the purpose of an address standard is; and we hope that the paper will also assist relevant stakeholders in developing and using address standards.