US State Abbreviations: A–Z List

Each of the 50 US states has a unique two-letter abbreviation. These abbreviations are used in postal addresses and are also a quick and convenient way to identify states on forms, maps, tables and other lists.

For example, California is CA, Florida is FL and New York is NY.

The table below lists all 50 states and their official two-letter abbreviations. You can sort the table alphabetically by state name or abbreviation.

List of state abbreviations

State Name	State Abbreviation
Alabama	AL
Alaska	AK
Arizona	AZ
Arkansas	AR
California	CA
Colorado	CO
Connecticut	CT
Delaware	DE
Florida	FL
Georgia	GA
Hawaii	HI
Idaho	ID
Illinois	IL
Indiana	IN
Iowa	IA
Kansas	KS
Kentucky	KY
Louisiana	LA
Maine	ME
Maryland	MD
Massachusetts	MA
Michigan	MI
Minnesota	MN
Mississippi	MS
Missouri	MO
Montana	MT
Nebraska	NE
Nevada	NV
New Hampshire	NH
New Jersey	NJ
New Mexico	NM
New York	NY
North Carolina	NC
North Dakota	ND
Ohio	OH
Oklahoma	OK
Oregon	OR
Pennsylvania	PA
Rhode Island	RI
South Carolina	SC
South Dakota	SD
Tennessee	TN
Texas	TX
Utah	UT
Vermont	VT
Virginia	VA
Washington	WA
West Virginia	WV
Wisconsin	WI
Wyoming	WY

The two-letter abbreviations above are the standard abbreviations used by the United States Postal Service (USPS).

State abbreviations that are easy to mix up

Most state abbreviations are fairly easy to recognize, but some can be surprisingly tricky.

Several states begin with the same letters, meaning their abbreviations aren’t always the two letters you might first expect.

Here are some worth watching out for:

• Alaska – AK and Alabama – AL
• Arizona – AZ and Arkansas – AR
• California – CA and Colorado – CO
• Maine – ME, Maryland – MD and Massachusetts – MA
• Michigan – MI, Minnesota – MN, Mississippi – MS and Missouri – MO
• Nebraska – NE and Nevada – NV
• Virginia – VA and Vermont – VT
• Washington – WA, West Virginia – WV and Wisconsin – WI

The four states beginning with M followed by I can be particularly easy to confuse: Michigan is MI, Minnesota is MN, Mississippi is MS and Missouri is MO.

Test your knowledge of the state abbreviations

Think you know all 50?

Try our US state abbreviations quiz and see how many state abbreviations you can identify.

You can also test yourself on the 50 US states or learn the 50 state capitals.

Printable list of the 50 states and abbreviations

If you’re learning the states or need a classroom reference, you can download our free printable list of all 50 states and printable United States maps.

The printable includes the names of all 50 states along with their abbreviations and capitals, making it useful for geography lessons, quizzes and revision.