Local short name form

Official name

Area

Population

Capital

Currency

International telephone access code

ISO 3166 country codes

Car nationality plate code

Internet country code

GRC Country Code

   1.234,45

(where , indicates the decimal separator and . the thousands separator)

   dd/mm/yyyy

The official language is Spanish . 78 other, mainly Indian, languages are spoken. The most widespread of these are: Cuaiquer (20 000 speakers); Cubeo (6 000 speakers); Embera-Baudó (5 000 speakers); Emberá-Catío (15 000 speakers); Emberá-Chamí (11 000 speakers); Northern Embará (15 000 speakers); Guahibo (15 000 speakers); Guambiano (9 000 speakers); Ica (5 272 speakers); Inga (10 000 speakers); Jungle Inga (5 000 speakers); Kogui (5 000 speakers); Páez (68 467 speakers); Wayuu (150 000 speakers) and Western Caribbean Creole English (15 000 speakers).

The abbreviation for Señorita used on Colombia is Srta. All mature women, whether married or not, will be addressed as Señora.

Each person usually has a given name followed by two family names, that of the father followed by that of the mother, for example:

   Barbara Betancourt Perez

Upon marriage, females may choose to take their husband’s name as a further given name, in this way:

   Barbara Betancourt Perez de Lopez

where the de indicates “(wife) of”. De usually indicates a married female, but may also be part of a name. Many females in Colombia now do not take their husband’s name upon marriage.

Professional people are often referred to by their qualification, followed by the given name and paternal family name (and sometimes the maternal family name):

Arquitecto (m) / Arquitecta (f)	Architect
Doctor (m) / Doctora (f) (Dr/Dra)	Doctor
Ingeniero (m) / Ingeniera (f) (Ing.)	Engineer
Profesor (Prof.)	Professor

Except for the title “Doctor”, this form is preceded by the standard form of address in this way:

   Señor Ingeniero Juan Domínguez

Tables of names can be acquired: given names , surnames/family names , family name prefixes , forms of address , job titles

The following company type may be found:

   Ca. (Compañia) - company
   Comandita por acciones (SCA)
   EU (Empresa Unipersonal) - sole proprietorship
   Limitada (Ltda)
   SA (Sociedad Anónima)
   SAS (Sociedades anónimas simplificadas or Sociedad por Acciones Simplificada)
   S. en C. – Sociedad en Comandita – limited partnership
   Suc. de Descendants - successors of a previous company
   Unipersona

Comprehensive tables of these strings can be acquired – see http://www.grcdi.nl/addresses.htm

Addresses are written in the following format:

   Form of address
   Recipient name
   {thoroughfare type[]}Thoroughfare name[, ]house number{[, ]floor etc. indicators}
   SETTLEMENT{[, ]PROVINCE[ ]sorting code}

For example:

Colombian addresses often have numbered streets and may contain directionals:

           calle 18 sur no. 19-29 

When addresses are written in Spanish, calle, the Spanish word for street, is rarely written except when the thoroughfare is numbered rather than named. The Spanish thoroughfare type, when included, is written before, and separately from, the thoroughfare name. It should be written with the first letter in lower case.

For further information about address components, please refer to the chapter on Spain.

A single-digit sorting code may be found in addresses in the larger cities.

The province name may be included for addresses for smaller settlements. The provinces, with standard abbreviation, are:

Province	Abbreviation (if different)
Amazonas
Antioquia	ANT
Arauca
Atlántico	ATL
Bolívar	BOL
Boyaca	BOY
Caldas	CAL
Caquetá	CAQ
Casanare
Cauca
César
Chocó
Córdoba	CORD
Cundinamarca	CUND
Distrito Especial / Distrito Capital de Bogotá	DE
Guainía
Guaviare
Huila	HUIL
La Guajira	GUAJIRA
Magdalena	MAG
Meta
Nariño	NAR
Norte de Santander	NS
Putumayo
Quindio	QUIND
Risaralda	RIS
San Andrés y Providencia	SAN ANDRES
Santander	SANT
Sucre
Tolima	TOL
Valle del Cauca	VALLE
Vaupés
Vichada

A table containing information about the relevant position of elements within address blocks can be acquired

The word for post office box is Apartado Postal, or AP; or Apartado Aéreo or AA.

Colombia has introduced a postal code (Código Postal) of 6 digits in this format:

   999999

The first two digits represent the national department. The third and fourth digits represent a postal zone, whereby 00 indicates the capital of the department, 01-89 are for street addresses, and 90-99 for post office boxes. The final two numbers indicate further postal sub-districts. The position of this code in the address block has not yet been defined.

Metadata containing postal code formatting rules, exceptions and regular expressions can be acquired

Colombia - Postal code format graphic

Colombia - Postal code format

Colombia - Postal code specifics

Colombia - Postal code regular expression

Colombia - Postal code level of coverage

Refer to Exonyms in Colombia for full lists of place names in Colombia in other languages.

Alternate place name forms/postal code tables can be acquired at http://www.grcdi.nl/settlements.htm

Other language place name data can be acquired at http://www.grcdi.nl/otherlanguageplace.htm

Administrative districts graphic

Colombian geographic numbers, when called from abroad, have an area code length of 1 and a subscriber number length of 7. Mobile numbers have an area code of 3 digits and a subscriber number of 7 digits. Mobile number area codes are 300, 310-313 and 315-316.

Tables of telephone number information/formats can be acquired – see http://www.grcdi.nl/telephone.htm