ZIP codes for Brazil

„Correois“ – that is how the Brazilian post is called in the national language. Its origins root in the year 1663, precisely on January 25th. The date itself cannot be proven with historic accuracy. However, it has primarily a symbolic character.
The unbroken modernization of the national post system played an important role in the development of the whole country. Due to its capillary network and state of the art technologies, the post did not only serve the rising communicational requirements of Brazilian enterprises, but also worked as a financial service provider for the million inhabitants, in competition to the less linked banking system.
According to internal statistics, in February 2014 more than 125.000 employees worked for the public post system.

Structure of the Brazilian ZIP Code

In Brazil the ZIP code is called Código de Endereçamento Postal, in brief CEP. In 1971 the five-digit postal code has been introduced. In the beginning 90s, it has been expanded to eight characters. Whereas the first five ciphers indicate regions and sectors, in general the last three stand for streets. In rural areas with smaller localities, the last three ciphers are not specified and only shown as “000”. If the last three ciphers are higher than 899, with a high probability an exact address is indicated.
Brazil is divided into ten regions, starting with São Paolo. The remaining numbers have been assigned in anti-clockwise sense.

Example of a Brazilian address

In our brief example we analyze the postal code of the football stadium of Guarani F.C.

Brinco De Ouro Da Princessa
Av. Imperatriz Dona Tereza Cristina, 87
Jardim Guarani, Campinas
SP, 13100-200, Brasile

• 1 – the first character indicates the region, in our case São Paulo
• 3 – the second character indicates the sub-region, Campinas
• 1 – the third character indicates the sector, Campinas and surroundings
• 0 – the fourth character indicates the sub-sector
• 0 – the fifth character indicates the sub-sector divider
• 200 – the last three characters indicate the delivery area, respectively the exact address

Regions, Federal States and starting character(s) of the Brazilian ZIP code