Adressregister

Adressregister is a centralized or municipal database that stores standardized address information for individuals, organizations, and places. It serves as an authoritative source for identifying locations in administrative processes, service delivery, and planning activities. The register typically assigns a unique address identifier and maintains consistent formats for components such as street name, house number, postal code, locality, and country, and may include geographic coordinates.

Core features include a defined data model with fields for address components, status indicators (active, historical), versioning and change history, data quality rules, and validation against postal standards. Adressregisters support update workflows and provide querying interfaces. Data sources often include civil registration, property records, building permits, postal deliveries, and local zoning or planning records. Governance structures vary, with maintenance performed by a municipality, city, or national agency. They may be centralized or distributed, and data sharing with other registries—such as tax authorities, emergency services, or electoral administration—is common under applicable privacy and data-protection rules.

Applications of adressregisters include improved mail and parcel delivery, emergency response, urban and regional planning, population statistics, and the validation of addresses in business processes and digital services. They also support geocoding and location-based analytics, enabling consistent mapping and service provision across systems.

Privacy and legal considerations are central, with access and use constrained by data protection laws (such as GDPR in Europe). Access controls, purpose limitation, data minimization, and rights to rectify or delete data are typically enforced, along with retention policies and audit trails. Variants exist worldwide, ranging from single national address registries to multiple local systems, often integrated with geospatial data for mapping and planning.