US ZIP Code Ranges by State: Table and Exceptions

Every US state owns a block of ZIP codes. Massachusetts opens the national map at 01001. The numbers climb down the East Coast, sweep across the South and Midwest, and finish in the West, where Alaska closes the map at 99950 ^{[usps-zip-lookup]}. For test addresses, this is the most useful fact to know. A ZIP outside its state's block fails validation at once, however plausible the street looks.

The table below lists the real range for all 50 states and Washington, D.C. Each row has a genuine example ZIP and the state's common telephone area codes. Each state name links to its random address generator, so a state-consistent test address is one click away.

How ZIP codes are allocated to states

A ZIP code reads like a funnel. The first digit picks one of ten national areas. 0 covers New England, 1 covers New York and the Mid-Atlantic, and the digits climb until 9 covers the Pacific states. The first three digits name a sectional center facility, the regional hub that sorts mail for a group of post offices. The last two digits point to the local delivery area ^{[usps-zip-lookup]}.

The middle digits are handed out region by region inside each state. So a state's codes end up as one block, or a few, of consecutive numbers. That is what makes a ZIP-to-state check possible at all. The Census Bureau's geography files show the same places from the population side ^[census-geo].

Four jurisdictions hold more than one block:

• Georgia keeps its 30xxx to 31xxx range plus a 398xx to 399xx block in its southwest corner.
• Texas pairs its large 75001 to 79999 allocation with the 885xx codes of El Paso.
• Virginia's northern suburbs use 201xx, while the rest of the state runs 22001 to 24658.
• Washington, D.C. splits its residential 200xx codes from the 202xx to 205xx blocks used by federal agencies.

The table shows every range.

Every state's ZIP range, example ZIP and area codes

Patterns worth knowing

• The first digit walks the map. 0 is New England, 2 is the Mid-Atlantic and D.C., 6 is the central plains, and 9 is the West Coast, Alaska and Hawaii.
• Few people does not mean few codes. Wyoming's 82001 to 83128 block is wider than all of Rhode Island's 028xx to 029xx.
• Multi-range states are the classic trap for hand-written test data. A code can sit inside the state's main range and still be wrong for the city you paired it with.
• Area codes follow a different map. The North American Numbering Plan assigns them, not USPS, so matching both to one state takes two lookups ^{[nanpa-codes]}.

Area codes matter to address data more than they first appear. A believable test profile pairs a state-consistent ZIP with a phone number whose area code belongs to the same state ^{[nanpa-codes]}. The state generators do both at once. That is why each row above lists the state's common codes.

The prefix statistics are computed, not copied. They come from the GeoNames postal dataset ^[geonames], the same CC BY 4.0 file the state pages chart in detail. We filtered it per state and checked it against USPS addressing standards ^[pub28]. Three results matter before you hard-code a range:

• 25 of the 51 jurisdictions have three-digit prefixes that run without a gap, so one range expresses them.
• The other 26 need a set of ranges.
• Five prefixes cross state lines: 063 (Connecticut and New York), 205 (D.C., Maryland and Virginia), 726 (Arkansas and Missouri), 739 (Oklahoma and Texas) and 834 (Idaho and Wyoming).

Generate a random address for any state

Every state name in the table links to that state's generator. Each page pins a real anchor city and the state's real ZIP prefix. The California generator produces 900xx codes for Los Angeles, and the Texas generator produces 770xx codes for Houston. The page then randomizes the street name and house number. The address is format-valid but points at no real home.

Need several at once? The random address generator and every city page produce up to ten addresses per batch, with CSV and JSON export. When a bare state-matched code is enough, use the ZIP-only generator.

1. Open the state's page from the table (or browse all states at the US address hub).
2. Generate, then copy a single line, or use the batch generators above and export CSV or JSON.
3. Cross-check the ZIP against the range in this table. It will always sit inside the state's real block.