Area code 520 is a telephone

area code A telephone numbering plan is a type of numbering scheme used in telecommunication to assign telephone numbers to subscriber telephones or other telephony endpoints. Telephone numbers are the addresses of participants in a telephone network, re ...

in the

North American Numbering Plan The North American Numbering Plan (NANP) is a telephone numbering plan for twenty-five regions in twenty countries, primarily in North America and the Caribbean. This group is historically known as World Zone 1 and has the international calling ...

(NANP) for the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States. It is the list of U.S. states and territories by area, 6th largest and the list of U.S. states and territories by population, 14 ...

. The numbering plan area comprises

Tucson , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

and most of the southeastern part of the state. Area code 520 was created in a split from area code 602 on March 19, 1995. Previously, 602 had been the sole area code for the entire state of Arizona since the introduction of area codes in 1947 until Arizona's rapid expansion during the second half of the 20th century, and the proliferation of mobile and data communication services in the 1990s required additional numbering resources.

History

Originally, 520 encompassed the entire state outside the

Phoenix metropolitan area The Phoenix Metropolitan Area – also the Valley of the Sun, the Salt River Valley, or Metro Phoenix (known by most locals simply as “the Valley”) – is the largest metropolitan area in the Southwestern United States, centered on the city ...

, as well as a few outer portions of western and southern

Maricopa County Maricopa County is in the south-central part of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2020 census, the population was 4,420,568, making it the state's most populous county, and the fourth-most populous in the United States. It contains about ...

. It completely surrounded 602, which was retained by most of the Phoenix area. Within two years of its creation, however, 520 was already close to exhaustion due to the rapid growth of the Tucson area (and to a lesser extent Yuma and Flagstaff) as well as the proliferation of cell phones and pagers. In 2001, the northern and western portions of the old 520 split off as area code 928. All of

Pima Pima or PIMA may refer to: People * Pima people, the Akimel O'odham, Indigenous peoples in Arizona (U.S.) and Sonora (Mexico) Places * Pima, Arizona, a town in Graham County * Pima County, Arizona * Pima Canyon, in the Santa Catalina Mountains ...

, Santa Cruz and Cochise counties, most of Pinal County and part of far southern Maricopa County kept 520, while Yuma and

La Paz La Paz (), officially known as Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Spanish pronunciation: ), is the seat of government of the Plurinational State of Bolivia. With an estimated 816,044 residents as of 2020, La Paz is the third-most populous city in Bo ...

counties, far western Maricopa County and all of northern Arizona were switched to 928. Prior to October 2021, area code 520 had telephone numbers assigned for the central office code 988. In 2020, ''988'' was designated nationwide as a dialing code for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, which created a conflict for exchanges that permit

seven-digit dialing Seven-digit dialing is a telephone dialing procedure customary in some territories of the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for dialing telephone numbers in the same numbering plan area (NPA). NANP telephone numbers consist of ten digits, of ...

. This area code was therefore scheduled to transition to ten-digit dialing by October 24, 2021.

Service area

Counties

* Cochise * Maricopa *

* Pinal * Santa Cruz

Municipalities

Ajo Ajo, Ajó, or AJO may refer to: Places * Ajo, Arizona, a census-designated place in Pima County, Arizona, US ** Ajo Peak, a mountain peak in southern Arizona ** Little Ajo Mountains, a mountain range in southern Arizona ** Ajo Unified School Di ...

* Amado * Arivaca * Arizona City * Bapchule * Benson * Bisbee * Bowie *

Casa Grande , settlement_type = City , image_skyline = Casa Grande-Casa Grande Union High School-1920-2.jpg , imagesize = 250px , image_caption = Historic Casa Grande Union High School which now serves as the ...

* Catalina * Cochise * Coolidge * Cortaro * Douglas * Dragoon * Elfrida *

Elgin Elgin may refer to: Places Canada * Elgin County, Ontario * Elgin Settlement, a 19th-century community for freed slaves located in present-day North Buxton and South Buxton, Chatham-Kent, Ontario * Elgin, a village in Rideau Lakes, Ontario ...

* Eloy *

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...

Fort Huachuca Fort Huachuca is a United States Army installation, established on 3 March 1877 as Camp Huachuca. The garrison is now under the command of the United States Army Installation Management Command. It is in Cochise County in southeast Arizona, a ...

* Green Valley *

Hereford Hereford () is a cathedral city, civil parish and the county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, south-west of Worcester and north-west of Gloucester. With a populatio ...

* Huachuca City * Kearny * Lukeville *

Mammoth A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus'', one of the many genera that make up the order of trunked mammals called proboscideans. The various species of mammoth were commonly equipped with long, curved tusks and ...

* Marana * Maricopa * McNeal *

Mount Lemmon Mount Lemmon, with a summit elevation of , is the highest point in the Santa Catalina Mountains. It is located in the Coronado National Forest north of Tucson, Arizona, United States. Mount Lemmon was named for botanist Sara Plummer Lemmon, ...

* Naco * Nogales *

Oracle An oracle is a person or agency considered to provide wise and insightful counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. As such, it is a form of divination. Description The wor ...

Oro Valley Oro Valley, incorporated in 1974, is a suburban town located north of Tucson, Arizona, United States, in Pima County. According to the 2020 census, the population of the town is 47,070, an increase from 29,700 in 2000. Dubbed the "Upscale T ...

Patagonia Patagonia () refers to a geographical region that encompasses the southern end of South America, governed by Argentina and Chile. The region comprises the southern section of the Andes Mountains with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and ...

* Pearce * Picacho * Pirtleville * Pomerene * Red Rock * Rillito * Rio Rico *

Sacaton , native_name_lang = ood , settlement_type = CDP , image_skyline = Sacaton-Cook Memorial Church-1870-1.JPG , imagesize = 250px , image_caption = The C. H. Cook Memorial Church, listed in the National ...

* Sahuarita * Saint David * San Manuel * San Simon * Sasabe * Sells *

Sierra Vista Sierra Vista is a city in Cochise County, Arizona, United States. According to the 2020 Census, the population of the city is 45,308, and is the 27th most populous city in Arizona. The city is part of the Sierra Vista-Douglas Metropolitan Area ...

Sonoita Sonoita (; ood, Ṣon ʼOidag) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Santa Cruz County, Arizona, United States. The population was 818 at the 2010 census. The origin of the name of the CDP is the O'odham ''Ṣon ʼOidag'', which may be best t ...

* Stanfield *

Superior Superior may refer to: *Superior (hierarchy), something which is higher in a hierarchical structure of any kind Places *Superior (proposed U.S. state), an unsuccessful proposal for the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to form a separate state *Lake ...

* Tombstone * Topawa *

Tubac Tubac is a census-designated place (CDP) in Santa Cruz County, Arizona, United States. The population was 1,191 at the 2010 census. The place name "Tubac" is an English borrowing from a Hispanicized form of the O'odham name ''Cuwak'', whic ...

Tucson , "(at the) base of the black ill , nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town" , image_map = , mapsize = 260px , map_caption = Interactive map ...

* Tumacacori * Vail * Valley Farms * Willcox

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Area Code 520

520 __NOTOC__ Year 520 ( DXX) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. In the Roman Empire, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Rusticus and Vitalianus (or, less frequently, ye ...