Addresses
Why valid addresses matter
Consistent formatting of valid addresses is important for accurately mapping and referencing geographic information
A poorly formed address could end up mapping to the wrong geographic reference or not at all, reducing the usefulness of the data
Poorly formed addresses can make cleanup of data labor intensive and result in reporting errors where geography (neighborhoods, census, etc.) is concerned
Poorly formed addresses could also result in additional costs because of things like:
Undeliverable/returned mail
Failure to apply benefits to recipients appropriately based on geography
Poor routing of vehicles or people in the field
Address formatting
Addresses should be output with the level of detail relevant to the data
e.g. permits applied down to the sub-address level
If providing addresses in a complete string, make sure the addresses are well formed and consistent for easy parsing, for example:
741 Ellis Street, Unit 5, San Francisco, CA 94109
901 Bayshore Boulevard, Unit 209, San Francisco, CA 94124
When providing multiple addresses within a dataset, prepend your column names with the type of address
e.g. address vs. mailing_address
Address elements
Below are some common elements of an address (but not all)
Not all addresses will have all elements
Address granularity will be driven by the business need, so not all systems will collect every element
Note: systems can be designed to validate or lookup addresses on entry, minimizing error
Make sure the individual elements of an address line up with the guidance below
You can publish addresses as either single strings or break into separate fields
Note: this guidance is provided to promote consistency across the bulk of shared tabular datasets and not as a comprehensive guide to address standards. For a comprehensive standard on addressing, see the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) United States Thoroughfare, Landmark, and Postal Address Data Standard
Last updated