Postal District to Postal Code Mapping

Postal districts, as the name implies, has its roots in the postal delivery system from British colonial times, when a 2 digit postal code was sufficient to meet the efficiency needs of the postal distribution system. It was created in 1950 and subdivided Singapore into 28 postal districts. With increasing density in the built up environment and more addressed buildings (including countless HDB blocks), more granularity in the system is required for efficient postal distribution. In 1979, Singapore progressed from this rudimentary 2 digit postal coding to a 4 digit system and in 1995, a six-digit system was introduced as Singapore urbanised even more!

However, postal districts continues to be used today in Singapore, but more from a real estate marketing perspective. It is common, even very necessary, to attribute certain properties to certain districts they belong to, in order to distinguish them from other districts. For example, districts 9, 10, 11 (or D09, D10, D11 as they are commonly referred to), are known to be an exclusive enclave of private condos and landed estates stretching from Orchard Road, River Valley Road all the way to Bukit Timah. Even the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) is given to this archaic usage, designating very specifically districts 9, 10, 11 as a part of the Core Central Region.

The mapping from the legacy postal districts to present day 6 digit postal codes can be found in the first 2 digits of a postal code. For example, a postal code of 048624, based on the mapping below, will have a postal district of 1, or D01.

Source: URA