OpenAddressSchema

OpenAddressSchema is a data model and encoding specification designed to standardize the representation of postal addresses in open data projects. It provides a common structure and semantics to enable interoperability among geocoding services, city portals, and data aggregators that publish address data across jurisdictions and languages.

The core schema defines fields such as country_code, country, region or state, locality (city), postal_code, street, house_number, and optional components like unit, floor, building. It also accommodates place_name, neighborhood or district, and sublocality as needed. In addition, the schema supports geographic coordinates (latitude and longitude) and metadata such as language, data source, and data quality indicators. The format is agnostic to serialisation, with common implementations in JSON, CSV, and RDF, often accompanied by a JSON Schema or equivalent validation mechanism to enforce field presence and data types.

Governance and history: OpenAddressSchema emerged from open-address initiatives to facilitate data sharing and deduplication. It is maintained through an open process, with versioned releases and extensions that preserve backward compatibility where feasible. The schema emphasizes extensibility while maintaining a consistent core.

Adoption and usage: It is used in open data pipelines, geocoding platforms, and municipal catalogs to unify address records, improve searchability, and support data linking. Regional variations in address formats and language scripts pose ongoing challenges, but the schema provides a framework for cross-border interoperability.

See also: OpenAddresses, postal address, and address standardization.