Postal codes numbering is an excercise that all states conduct differently. Some go from one end of the country to another. Some previously cut the country into regions. Others start numbering cities and then take into account the less urbanized areas, etc …

This post provides a set of maps of postal codes in the world, according to the same principle: the low numbers are colored in red and the high in blue. Although limited, this exercise helps to figure out the different administrative organizations of postal services.

Postal/ZIP codes numbering around the world

About Switzerland A complete gallery of postal codes of the 26 Swiss cantons is available on the Hebdo DATA blog: Maps: Swiss postal codes

Inspirations These visuals are inspired by the work of Robert Kosara (The US ZIPScribble Map), Ralph Straumann (ZIPScribble Map: Switzerland / Interactive ZIPScribble Maps) and Ben Fry (zipdecode). Have a look at their blogs as well!

NOTES Software used: Gephi (+Inkscape). Datasets: geonames.org (all sets are not of the same quality, like Belgium (here above) or Czech Republic (here under) where we can clearly distinguish lines of points). Czech Republic and Slovakia have the same postal codes numbering system.

Updates (ask for new countries in the comments below!)