Postal codes in Belgium are numeric and consist of 4 numbers. The first digit indicates the province (except for the 3xxx numbers that are shared by the eastern part of

Flemish Brabant Flemish Brabant ( ; ) is a province of Flanders, one of the three regions of Belgium. It borders on (clockwise from the North) the Belgian provinces of Antwerp, Limburg, Liège, Walloon Brabant, Hainaut and East Flanders. Flemish Brabant also ...

and Limburg, the 6xxx that are shared between the Hainaut and Luxembourg province, and the 1xxx that are shared by the

Brussels Capital Region Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

, the western part of

and

Walloon Brabant Walloon Brabant ( ; ; ) is a province located in Belgium's French-speaking region of Wallonia. It borders on (clockwise from the North) the province of Flemish Brabant (Flemish Region) and the provinces of Liège, Namur and Hainaut. Walloon Br ...

). The more zeros there are, the higher the number of inhabitants of that city in the province. For example:

Bruges Bruges ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders, in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is in the northwest of the country, and is the sixth most populous city in the country. The area of the whole city amoun ...

(Brugge) is the capital and largest urban centre of the coastal province of

West Flanders West Flanders is the westernmost province of the Flemish Region, in Belgium. It is the only coastal Belgian province, facing the North Sea to the northwest. It has land borders with the Dutch province of Zeeland to the northeast, the Flemis ...

so it gets the 8000 code, the second city is

Kortrijk Kortrijk ( , ; or ''Kortrik''; ), sometimes known in English as Courtrai or Courtray ( ), is a Belgian City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region, Flemish Provinces of Belgium, province of We ...

and gets 8500. When writing the address, the postal code is put in front of the town name. Special numbers are reserved for the EU institutions,

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

headquarters, public and commercial broadcasters (

RTBF The ("Belgian Radio-television of the French Community"), shortened to RTBF (branded as rtbf.be), is a public broadcasting, public service broadcaster for the French Community of Belgium, French-speaking Community of Belgium. Its counterpart i ...

RTL RTL may refer to: Media * RTL Group, a European TV, radio, and production company *** List of RTL Group's television stations (including part-owned channels) *** List of RTL Group's radio stations ** RTL Lëtzebuerg, usually referred to simply a ...

TVI, VRT and VTM), the different parliaments and other public institutions. A correct Belgian

postal code A postal code (also known locally in various English-speaking countries throughout the world as a postcode, post code, PIN or ZIP Code) is a series of letters or numerical digit, digits or both, sometimes including spaces or punctuation, inclu ...

is mentioned before the address' municipality or

section Section, Sectioning, or Sectioned may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Section (music), a complete, but not independent, musical idea * Section (typography), a subdivision, especially of a chapter, in books and documents ** Section sig ...

(''e.g.'': "8500 Kortrijk"). While often used erroneously,

Bpost Bpost (stylised ''bpost''), also known as the Belgian Post Group, is the Belgian company responsible for the delivery of mail in Belgium. The Belgian Post Group is one of the largest civilian employers in Belgium. It provides a range of postal ...

's guidelines specifically implore not to mention any

country code A country code is a short alphanumeric identification code for countries and dependent areas. Its primary use is in data processing and communications. Several identification systems have been developed. The term ''country code'' frequently re ...

in front of the postal code (''e.g.'': "B-8500" instead of "8500"), similarly to the

Universal Postal Union The Universal Postal Union (UPU, ) is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that coordinates postal policies among member nations and facilitates a uniform worldwide postal system. It has 192 member states and is headquartered in Be ...

's S42 definition of an address. The current 4 digit numeric postal code system has been in place since 1969.

References

External links

Postcodevalidatie-tool
Dutch (+ lijst met postcodes)
Outil de validation de codes postaux
French (+ Liste des localités et codes postaux)
Find a postcode in BelgiumGeoName list of all Postal codes in Belgium + estimated latitude/longitude
(Ready to import in database, CSV tab separated) {{Europe in topic, Postal codes in, UK_only=yes

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

Postal system of Belgium