ZIP codes change. Longtime blog readers know this . They’re based on mail delivery routes and post office locations, not on established neighborhood areas. While a neighborhood might stay the same, a local post office can close and change the whole ZIP code makeup of the area.
Our ZIP code boundaries come from a company called Maponics. They update their ZIP code maps constantly, based on information from the U.S. Postal Service.
In order to maintain some order to our maps, we update our ZIP codes once a year. That update has just happened, so if you go to PolicyMap now, you can see the most recent ZIP codes. We’ve noticed quite a number of changes, including to our home ZIP code, 19103.
So what does this mean to you, besides getting more accurate map boundaries? If you’ve made a custom region out of assembled ZIP codes, it might be important:
And as usual, any time we talk about ZIP codes, it’s mandated by federal law that we embed this 60’s era musical video commissioned by the U.S. Postal Service: