A forward sortation area (FSA) is a way to designate a geographical unit based on the first three characters in a Canadian postal code. All postal codes that start with the same three characters—for example, K1A—are together considered an FSA.
Each character in an FSA code provides information:
- The first character is a letter that identifies the province or territory (although Nunavut and the Northwest Territories share the letter X). For Ontario and Quebec, this first character further identifies a particular part of the province: for example, G identifies Eastern Quebec, H Metropolitan Montréal, K Eastern Ontario and M Metropolitan Toronto (see map).
- The second character is a numeral that identifies whether the area is urban or rural. A zero indicates a wide-area rural region, while all other digits indicate urban areas.
- The third character is a letter that, in combination with the first two characters, identifies a more precise geographic district—a specific rural region, an entire medium-sized city or a section of a major metropolitan area.
First character of the FSA code
- Newfoundland and Labrador: A
- Nova Scotia: B
- Prince Edward Island: C
- New Brunswick: E
- Eastern Quebec: G
- Metropolitan Montréal: H
- Western Quebec: J
- Eastern Ontario: K
- Central Ontario: L
- Metropolitan Toronto: M
- Southwestern Ontario: N
- Northern Ontario: P
- Manitoba: R
- Saskatchewan: S
- Alberta: T
- British Columbia: V
- Northwest Territories and Nunavut: X
- Yukon: Y
Note: The regions are defined by Canada Post Corporation.