Stream: implementers
Topic: suburb vs distruct
David Hay (Apr 06 2020 at 21:13):
Is the 'district' element of address the same as 'suburb' ? My reading is that a district can include multiple cities, whereas a suburb is part of a city so they are not the same. We do want to be able to keep it separate from address lines, so are thinking that an extension is needed...
Gino Canessa (Apr 06 2020 at 21:20):
The description says that district is the same as a county. Based on locales I know, that is between the state and city levels. I'm not sure there is a standard place for suburb, beyond if the city maps it (e.g., I live in Fitchburg (suburb) and can use either Fitchburg or Madison for the city in my postal address).
Jean Duteau (Apr 06 2020 at 21:22):
what gino just said :)
Vassil Peytchev (Apr 06 2020 at 21:26):
Fitchburg is not part of another city in a formal way, though. In the US the delineation of governance is quite straight forward. I believe what David is looking for is a designated area that is formally part of the city, maybe similar to Boroughs in NYC.
Gino Canessa (Apr 06 2020 at 21:36):
Yes and no. Fitchburg is officially part of the Madison WI Metropolitan area, as defined by the Office of Management and Budget.
That said, if I address a letter to Brooklyn, NY, it will be delivered (assuming I have the zip code correct). Though part of the reason is zip code resolution, that appears to be the standard way residents of the area write their address.
David Hay (Apr 06 2020 at 21:52):
maybe similar to Boroughs in NYC.
Yes - an example is the suburb of 'Mt Eden' which is part of Auckland city...
Jean Duteau (Apr 06 2020 at 21:52):
in any case, that isn't district and you'll need an extension if you want to represent that
Peter Jordan (Apr 06 2020 at 21:57):
@David Hay Within NZ, where the eSAM address format is required, there is an element for 'suburb', but not 'district', 'county' or 'state' . Therefore, the suburb should be one of the address lines, or we'll need to create an extension. Thus far, in my Directory Service (which I use a fair bit myself in my day job), I've found it easy to search on suburb within address lines, but postcode is actually more useful as, in NZ at least, it covers >1 suburb within a city ( very different from the UK where, in a town or city, a postcode can takes you to within 3 addresses either side of your home!).
Matt Zajack (Apr 06 2020 at 23:19):
FYI - sorry, if it's off-topic. Whenever I run into parts of addresses, I go back to this reference: https://github.com/openvenues/libpostal#parser-labels
I am unsure where the authoritative source is, but I think it works nicely, and it's built to be worldwide, so it doesn't get hung up on US/North America concepts.
E.g. this is how that project delineates suburb vs district:
- ...
- suburb: usually an unofficial neighborhood name like "Harlem", "South Bronx", or "Crown Heights"
- city_district: these are usually boroughs or districts within a city that serve some official purpose e.g. "Brooklyn" or "Hackney" or "Bratislava IV"
- city: any human settlement including cities, towns, villages, hamlets, localities, etc.
- ...
Richard Townley-O'Neill (Apr 15 2020 at 04:17):
In Australian addresses we generally use the city field for the suburb/locality. So Hendra and Nundah are both recorded in the city field, though both are suburbs of the city of Brisbane.
Michael Lawley (Apr 15 2020 at 11:23):
Furthermore, Australia does not have a 1-1 between suburb and postcode.
Frank Oemig (Apr 15 2020 at 11:31):
In Germany we add that to city, separated by a dash
Last updated: Apr 12 2022 at 19:14 UTC
