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Street address mandated data standard

Street address data standard [PDF 473 KB]

Contents

Purpose of mandated standard

The purpose of this standard is to mandate the 'ISO 19160-1:2015 Addressing Part 1: Conceptual Model' to be used to format street address information for sharing purposes.

This mandated standard applies to data being shared between organisations.

This standard does not mandate the format for postal address or location. Nor does it mandate the storage or collection of street address.

ISO 19160-1:2015 Addressing Part 1: Conceptual Model

Definition

An address is structured information that allows the unambiguous determination of an object (that may be assigned an address) for purposes of identification and location.

An address allows us to:

  • locate buildings, places, people, and events
  • deliver and receive goods and services
  • enable analysis by connecting information
  • provide a location.

Compliance

The minimum required format for compliance when sharing address information is 3 mandatory data elements and 1 conditional data element in separate fields:

  • Number
  • Road name
  • Suburb/locality
  • City/town name.

For example, the address 19 Rimu Road, Crofton Downs, Wellington comprises the number along the road (19), the name of the road (Rimu Road), the locality the address is physically located in (Crofton Downs), and the city or town (Wellington).

The data standard for street address uses underpinning concepts from 'ISO 19160-1:2015 Addressing Part 1: Conceptual Model'.

Guidance

Number

Number is the unique number given to a property on a named street, usually assigned in a sequential order from the start of the street. A street address must include a number where possible. The exception is where a number is substituted with a building name (eg The Beehive).

A number can also include a unit (or flat) number or an alpha suffix. A unit number should come before the number and be separated from it by a '/' (eg 1/21 for unit 1). An alpha suffix should come after the number and not be separated from the number by a space or any other character (eg 21A).

Road name

Road name is the name of the road an address is on. It can be made up of a number of fields: prefix, name, road type, and suffix. A road name should include at least a name and a full, non-abbreviated road type (eg road, street, avenue). In cases where a road name does not include a road type (eg The Terrace) the road type may be omitted.

Suburb/Locality

A locality is a named geographical area (place name) defining a community of interest and may be rural or urban. (Urban localities are commonly called suburbs.) The most common localities dataset is 'NZ Localities' maintained by Fire and Emergency New Zealand. This dataset provides non-overlapping, contiguous coverage of all New Zealand’s land area.

To comply with this mandated standard a street address must include a locality to ensure that each address is unique. 

City/town name (conditional)

Where a suburb or locality does not make each address unique, an address will additionally require a city or town name that should be provided in separate fields to the locality.

Other fields

Where other street address elements such as postcode are shared, these should be recorded in separate fields.

Further information

A New Zealand draft profile of ISO 19160-1 will be incorporated into this data content requirement when completed.

NZ draft profile of ISO 19160-1

Easy to read information and guidance on working with addresses that are well structured is available from Land Information New Zealand (LINZ). This information is based on ISO 19160-1 as well as the AS/NZS4819: Rural and urban addressing.

Useful information for people working with addresses (LINZ)

Document management

Document ID: DCS-003-00

Document version: 1.0

Approval date: 12/12/2019

Effective date: 02/04/2020

Review date: 02/04/2021

Attribution and use

This document was created by a cross public sector working group which was led by Land Information New Zealand. For more information please contact MandatedStandards@stats.govt.nz.

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This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence. In essence, you are free to copy, distribute and adapt the work, as long as you attribute the work to the Crown and abide by the other licence terms.

To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

If you’d like more information, have a question, or want to provide feedback, email MandatedStandards@stats.govt.nz.

Content last reviewed 14 February 2022.

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