# DialWick

ZIP Codes

Houston ZIP Codes: The Full List, and the Independent City Filed Under Houston's Name

Houston has 178 ZIP codes in two postal blocks, and one of them, 77005, belongs to a city that has never joined Houston, while its equally independent neighbor Bellaire got a ZIP name of its own instead.

Last updated 2026-09-02

Core summary

USPS assigns 178 ZIP codes to "Houston, TX" as the primary place name, and this site's source data puts every one of them in Harris County: no cross-county split, unlike this site's Atlanta or Denver lists. They split into two blocks: 98 codes in the 770xx range, covering the delivery routes that carry most of the city's residential and business mail, and 80 in the 772xx range, a mix mostly made up of PO boxes and single-recipient codes assigned to government offices and other high-volume mailers. One 770xx code, 77005, belongs to West University Place, an independent city that has never joined Houston. Yet its next-door neighbor Bellaire, just as independent, was given a ZIP place name of its own (77401) instead of Houston's. On the other side of that inconsistency sits Independence Heights, Texas's first incorporated Black city, which actually did vote to join Houston in 1928 and carries Houston's name today for the far less surprising reason that it really is part of the city.

All 178 ZIP codes with "Houston, TX" as the primary USPS place name

Every one of the 178 ZIP codes USPS assigns to "Houston, TX" sits in Harris County, per this site's source data. There's no county split here the way there is on this site's Denver or Atlanta lists. A separate tally from zip-codes.com breaks the same 178 codes down by delivery type: 97 standard codes tied to carrier routes, 75 PO Box codes, and 6 unique codes reserved for single high-volume recipients, one example being the City of Houston's own municipal mailing address at P.O. Box 1562, ZIP 77251.

That delivery-type split lines up closely with a pattern visible in the raw ZIP numbers themselves: 98 codes fall in the contiguous 770xx block (77001 through 77099), which covers most of the city's residential and business delivery routes, while the other 80 sit in a separate, far less contiguous 772xx block (77201 through 77299), the same range where most of the PO Box and unique codes live. It's the same convention this site found behind two outlier Los Angeles codes, 90095 and 90134: cities with enough mail volume get extra, non-sequential codes carved out for specific high-volume recipients rather than geography.

All 178 ZIP codes with "Houston, TX" as the primary USPS place name (per GeoNames.org, checked 2026-08-11)

ZIP
77001
77002
77003
77004
77005
77006
77007
77008
77009
77010
77011
77012
77013
77014
77015
77016
77017
77018
77019
77020
77021
77022
77023
77024
77025
77026
77027
77028
77029
77030
77031
77032
77033
77034
77035
77036
77037
77038
77039
77040
77041
77042
77043
77044
77045
77046
77047
77048
77049
77050
77051
77052
77053
77054
77055
77056
77057
77058
77059
77060
77061
77062
77063
77064
77065
77066
77067
77068
77069
77070
77071
77072
77073
77074
77075
77076
77077
77078
77079
77080
77081
77082
77083
77084
77085
77086
77087
77088
77089
77090
77091
77092
77093
77094
77095
77096
77098
77099
77201
77202
77203
77204
77205
77206
77207
77208
77209
77210
77212
77213
77215
77216
77217
77218
77219
77220
77221
77222
77223
77224
77225
77226
77227
77228
77229
77230
77231
77233
77234
77235
77236
77237
77238
77240
77241
77242
77243
77244
77245
77248
77249
77251
77252
77253
77254
77255
77256
77257
77258
77259
77261
77262
77263
77265
77266
77267
77268
77269
77270
77271
77272
77273
77274
77275
77277
77279
77280
77282
77284
77287
77288
77289
77290
77291
77292
77293
77297
77299

West University Place: an independent city that shows up on Houston's own list

ZIP 77005, one of the 178 in the table above, belongs to West University Place, a city with its own government, its own police department, and its own city hall that has never joined Houston at all. West University Place incorporated in 1925 and adopted a home-rule, council-manager charter in 1940; Houston annexed the unincorporated land around it over the following decades but left the incorporated city itself alone, the same way it later grew around Bellaire and Southside Place. Today West University Place sits entirely inside Houston's outline on a map, at about two square miles, bordered on its remaining sides by Bellaire and Southside Place.

That makes 77005 an inconsistency, not a mistake, once you look at Bellaire next door: Bellaire is just as independent as West University Place. Houston annexed the land around it too, completing the encirclement on December 31, 1948, and Bellaire responded the following April by adopting its own home-rule charter. Yet USPS gave Bellaire a ZIP place name of its own, 77401 (and 77402), rather than filing it under Houston. Two neighboring cities, both fully surrounded, both never annexed, and only one of them carries the surrounding city's name at the post office. It's a version of the same disconnect this site found in Dallas, where a legally independent town, Highland Park, has its ZIP codes filed under Dallas's name anyway, a reminder that a USPS place name tracks mail routing, not incorporation records.

Independence Heights: the one neighborhood on this list that actually did join Houston

Two of the 178 codes above, 77018 and 77022, cover Independence Heights, a neighborhood in north Houston bounded roughly by Tidwell Road, Yale Street, Loop 610, and Airline Drive. Its history runs in the opposite direction from West University Place's: Independence Heights incorporated on January 25, 1915, becoming the first Black-governed municipality in Texas, with attorney George O. Burgess elected its first mayor over a population of around 600. Over the next decade the city built its own shell-paved streets, plank sidewalks, and a municipal water system, and by the late 1920s it was home to roughly 40 Black-owned businesses: grocery stores, a lumber company, law offices, and more.

Unlike Bellaire and West University Place, Independence Heights didn't hold out. Facing money problems the small city struggled to solve on its own, residents voted in November 1928 to dissolve their own incorporation specifically so they could become part of Houston, and the annexation took effect on December 26, 1929. The city services residents hoped annexation would bring were slow to arrive, but the ZIP codes covering the old townsite, 77018 and 77022, carry Houston's name today for the most straightforward reason on this whole list: the neighborhood actually voted to become part of Houston, and did.

Frequently asked questions

How many ZIP codes does Houston have?

178, all in Harris County per this site's source data. Nearly all are standard residential or PO Box codes; only a few are set aside for single major mail recipients, such as the city government itself, whose own P.O. Box (1562) carries ZIP 77251.

Is West University Place part of the city of Houston?

No. West University Place has run its own city council and police force since it incorporated in 1925 and has never been annexed by Houston. Its ZIP code, 77005, is nonetheless filed under Houston's name, a USPS mail-routing convention, not a legal boundary.

Why does Bellaire have its own ZIP code but West University Place doesn't?

Both are independent cities fully surrounded by Houston, but USPS treated them differently: Bellaire was assigned its own place name, 77401, while West University Place's ZIP, 77005, carries Houston's name instead. There's no annexation-status difference between the two cities that explains the split. It comes down to how USPS's place-name database happened to be set up.

What is Independence Heights, and is it part of Houston?

Independence Heights was Texas's first Black-governed municipality, incorporated in 1915 under founding mayor George O. Burgess. It's the one entry on this list that actually chose annexation: unlike neighbors Bellaire and West University Place, which stayed independent, Independence Heights voted to dissolve and join Houston when it couldn't solve its own money problems, becoming part of the city just over a year later. That's why those two ZIP codes wear Houston's name today, the only entry on this list without a naming inconsistency to explain.

Response slip

Did you find the number you needed?

Written and edited by the DialWick Editorial Team