Postal codes in the Netherlands

Postal codes in the Netherlands, known in Dutch as postcodes, were first introduced in 1977 by the then PTT, now PostNL. They are alphanumeric, consisting of four digits followed by two uppercase letters. The letters 'F', 'I', 'O', 'Q', 'U' and 'Y' were originally not used for technical reasons, but almost all existing combinations are now used as these letters were allowed for new locations starting 2005. The letter combinations 'SS', 'SD' and 'SA' are not used because of their associations with the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands.

A postal code area (the four digits) is almost always within a single municipality, so if a village or hamlet lies on a municipal border, it usually has more than one postal code. Occasionally, two such places may share the digits of their postal code, in some cases, due to changes in village or municipality boundaries, though for practical reasons, existing postal codes are often retained.

The first two digits indicate a city and a region, the second two digits and the two letters indicate a range of house numbers, usually on the same street; on average, a Dutch postal code comprises eight single addresses.

Stadhuis van Zwolle
Grote Kerkplein 15
8011 PK  ZWOLLE

There are also number combinations that indicate only one street. Similarly, a postal code can cover a PO Box number range.

Stadsregio Amsterdam
Postbus 626
1000 AP  AMSTERDAM

Consequently, a postal address is uniquely defined by the postal code and the house number, or the PO Box number range.

There are over 575,000 postal codes in the Netherlands as of 2017.