Washington District of Columbia Area Codes
2 area codes cover Washington: 202 and 771. A number carrying any of them is local to Washington.
The codes covering Washington
| Area code | Primarily serves | Shares ground with | In service |
|---|---|---|---|
| 202 | Washington | 771 | 1947 |
| 771 | Washington | 202 | 2021 |
A code in the “shares ground” column is an overlay: it covers the same territory rather than a different part of Washington, which is why local calls there are dialled as ten digits.
Scope the codes matched to Washington. Source geoinfo-dataset (full_dataset) ZIP→NPA (2018 snapshot) and LocalCallingGuide NPA list (2026-07 NPA list). Updated . Overlay relationships come from the numbering-plan authority; the place match is computed.
Which part of town has which code
We do not publish which of these codes covers which street or neighbourhood in Washington, and we would rather say so than guess. Area codes are drawn around telephone rate centres, which follow neither municipal boundaries nor ZIP codes, and the per-ZIP telephone data we hold is a 2018 snapshot too noisy to split a city with. Where these codes overlay one another the question has no answer at all: they cover the same ground by design. Awaiting a current, clean-rights rate-centre boundary source.
ZIP codes for the same city
Postal geography is organised separately from telephone geography, so Washington’s 271 ZIP codes do not map onto the codes above. They are listed in full, with the district each falls in, on the postal side of the site.