Every prefecture- and county-level code in the 2023 list of the Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA) but one, 3,174 of 3,175, carries the number band that MCA's Order No. 79 assigns to its kind of unit. We checked each code against that ministerial rule. The codes belong to MCA and run to six digits: the first two identify a province-level unit, the middle two a prefecture-level unit, and the last two a county-level unit. Between the list titled 「2020年12月中华人民共和国县以上行政区划代码」 and the one titled 「2023年中华人民共和国县以上行政区划代码」, 20 county-level codes were retired and 20 issued. The lists show no renames in that window: every change retired one code or issued another.
The closing digits make a code's unit group readable
Order No. 79, 《行政区划代码管理办法》, in force since 1 September 2025, fixes the bands. In the middle pair, a prefecture-level city takes 01–20 or 51–70 and a 地区 or 自治州 takes 21–50 (Art. 8). A municipality's districts take 01 there, its counties 02, and a county-level unit under no prefecture-level unit 90 (Art. 9). In the last pair, districts and county-level cities that no prefecture-level city administers take 01–20 or 51–80, counties 21–50, and county-level cities a prefecture-level city administers 81–99. Art. 19 counts 旗, 特区 and 林区 as counties and 盟 as a 地区.
So the last two digits narrow a code to one of three groups, and the first group mixes districts with cities. In MCA's 2023 list, all 316 county-level cities under a prefecture-level city sit in 81–99, while all 975 districts and the other 81 county-level cities sit in 01–20 or 51–80. The list prints 34 province-level codes. For three of them, 710000 台湾省, 810000 香港特别行政区 and 820000 澳门特别行政区, its note 1 reads 「台湾省、香港特别行政区和澳门特别行政区暂缺地市和区县信息」.
The one code off its band is 六枝特区, 520203. Art. 19 puts a 特区 in the county band, 21–50, yet it carries 03, and Art. 18 leaves codes fixed before the rule 「一般不做改变」, generally unchanged. Under the older bands that the Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau gives from GB/T 2260-2007 and its amendment No. 1, a 市辖特区 belongs in 01–20 or 51–80, so 520203 fits.
A rename lets a place keep its code
Under Art. 6, a new unit gets a code, an abolished unit's code is retired, and a change of parent, including a change of administering city, retires the old code and issues a new one. A boundary change, a move of the government seat or a new name keeps the code, and a unit's code is adjusted when its parent's code changes. Since 2019, Art. 17 of the State Council's 《行政区划管理条例》 has required a new code within one month of a change.
A notice from Fujian's civil affairs department, dated 28 April 2021, retired the codes of 龙海市, 长泰县, 梅列区, 沙县 and the old 三元区. It issued 350604 for 龙海区, 350605 for 长泰区, 350405 for 沙县区 and 350404 for 三元区, which kept its name and still got a new code. With no renames in the lists we compared, the rename rule rests on Art. 6's text alone.
A county promoted to a city moves to a new number band
We diffed the three MCA lists and paired old and new codes by name stem. Only the Fujian pairs are confirmed by a document we opened. No province- or prefecture-level code changed.
| Change, December 2020 list to 2023 list | Count | Example |
|---|---|---|
| County to county-level city | 9 | 祁阳县 431121 to 祁阳市 431181 |
| County or county-level city to district | 6 | 龙海市 350681 to 龙海区 350604 |
| Same name, new code | 1 | 三元区 350403 to 350404 |
| Retired, no same-name successor | 4 | 梅列区 350402 |
| Issued, no predecessor in the list | 4 | 临平区 330113 |
That is 20 of 2,842 county-level codes retired, or 0.7%, and 18 of the retirements came before the 2022 list. Six of the nine new cities moved from 21–50 into 81–99, as 横县 450127 did on becoming 横州市 450181. The other three, 会理市 513402, 禄丰市 532302 and 沙湾市 654203, went into 01–20, because their parent is an autonomous prefecture or a 地区.
The province-only test on our checker had any six digits pass as a real code
Until 2 October 2026, our China province lookup judged a six-digit code by its first two digits alone. It named a province for all 340,000 strings under its 34 prefixes, against 3,209 codes in MCA's 2023 list, so 99.06% of what it accepted was not a listed code: 119999 came back as Beijing. The 20 retired codes came back with no sign they had been retired.
The page now checks digits 3 through 6 against the Order No. 79 bands and flags any pair that falls outside them. The code 119999, for example, now fails because its middle digits are not 01 or 02 as required for a municipality. The tool does not use a county-level list, so a retired code that fits its band, like the old 三元区 code 350403, will still pass. Every result says the tool cannot confirm that a code exists or is current, and points to MCA's database.
A lifelong ID number keeps a retired code alive
The Shanghai Civil Affairs Bureau explains why one family, all born and registered in the same place, might have ID numbers that begin with different six-digit prefixes. This prefix, the 地址码, is 「编码对象常住户口所在县（市、旗、区）的行政区划代码」, the code of the county-level unit where the holder's permanent household registration lies. Art. 3 of the Resident Identity Card Law makes the number 「终身不变」, unchanged for life, so a number keeps the code it began with when the division changes.
The bureau's example is 南汇. 南汇县 carried 310225. On 9 January 2001 the county was abolished and 南汇区 set up with 310119. On 24 April 2009 南汇区 was abolished and its area merged into 浦东新区, code 310115. A prefix records one point in a history like that, and it is not a guide to where the holder lives today.
Art. 11 of Order No. 79 has barred the reuse of a retired code only since 1 September 2025, and it requires the record of a retired code to be kept 「永久留存」, permanently. Within our window, the lists show no code passed to a different name.
The end of the annual web list sends readers to a national database
MCA's 行政区划代码 column now carries a notice: 「自2026年起，本栏目不再公布行政区划代码相关信息」, from 2026 it no longer publishes code information, and readers should use the 国家地名信息库. That database's code page covers province, prefecture, county and township levels, with data to 31 December 2025. Art. 16 has MCA publish there each January, as at the end of the previous year. The 2023 list prints no cutoff date, so cite it by its title.
A township-level unit pushes the code to nine digits
For township-level units, Art. 10 extends the six-digit parent code with three more digits. The bands are 001–099 for streets, 100–199 for towns, 200–399 for 乡 and 民族乡, and 900–999 for a 区公所. MCA's statistics for the fourth quarter of 2024 count 38,712 township-level units at the end of that year: 21,464 镇, 9,118 街道, 7,018 乡, 956 民族乡, 153 苏木, 1 民族苏木 and 2 区公所. Besides MCA's yearly release, the second paragraph of Art. 16 has each province publish its township codes on its own civil affairs website every January and July, as at the end of the previous month.
View author profile → · Editorial policy
