I have been following the discussion re Postal abbreviations and feel that
as a UK (and sometimes European) resident, I can only confirm the impression
you are developing that Europe lacks standards similar to those in North
America (like regular-block street layouts, single-format zip codes and
'City/State/Province').  The site referenced by Nolene Sherman
(http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/postal.html) is just about the best
description of the complete lack of standardization of these things in
Europe!

In the the UK, the nearest we come to such a standard is Country > Region
(South-East, South-West etc.) > County > City, Town or Village > District >
Street.  However, there are many exceptions.  For instance, Bristol, the
large City in which I live, is in the South-West region but has no county,
because it is a 'County Borough', meaning that it is both a City /and/ a
County at the same time! My postal code is BS7 9JN, where 'BS stands for the
CITY of Bristol (although many towns in surrounding counties also have the
'BS' prefix, since it essentially designates the main postal sorting office
which serves them), '7' indicates district and '9JN' sub-district at the
level of maybe 5-10 distinct addresses.  You might then think that London's
postal code would start with 'L' or 'LO' or some such, but no; London postal
codes start with 'N3', 'WC12' or suchlike, with 'London' unstated but
understood.

There are other groupings called 'Metropolitan Boroughs', 'Metropolitan
Counties' and 'Greater Metropolitan Counties' which tend to include at least
a major City grouped together with any number of large Towns (some may be
'Metropolitan Boroughs' in their own right) around them, like 'The
Metropolitan Borough of Manchester'.  Confused?  So are we!

Although there are many exceptions, in general you can say that in the UK,
the hierarchy is something like this:

Country > County/Greater Metropolitan County/Metropolitan County >
City/Town/Village > District > Parish.

In France of course, it is entirely different, where the hierarchy is
Country > Region > Departement > City/Town etc. and with postal codes like
'84120'.  And it is very different again in Germany, with the traditional
geopolitical divisions like 'Lander' and postal codes like 'D-81477 Munich'.

One of the reasons this remains a problem is that the conventional ways of
referring to these entities confuse several different ways of dividing up a
country.  County > City > Town etc. is based partly on geographical
attributes and partly on administrative jurisdiction, while 'Metropolitan
Counties' etc. relate purely to administrative jurisdiction.

The nearest I have come to getting away from these confusions towards a
'standard' breakdown of European countries is the NUTS (Nomenclature des
Unites Territoriales Statistiques) classification proposed by EUROSTAT for
statistical purposes, which you can see at
http://europa.eu.int/comm/eurostat/ramon/nuts/codelist_en.cfm?list=nuts.
This scheme has little correspondence with the traditional geographical or
administrative classifications because it divides up countries for
statistical purposes on the basis of population density.  It also covers
only the EU member countries and 'accession countries', so many European
countries are not included.  Nevertheless, it might be worth looking at,
since it at least offers a standard nomenclature across European countries
which otherwise differ greatly.

Sorry not to be able to offer a neater solution - I don't think there is
one!

Regards,

Bob

  >>>>>Bob Bater<<<<<
>>Principal Associate<<
>>InfoPlex Associates<<
  >>>>Bristol, UK<<<<

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