What will the Post in the world be like in 2005? At first glance, in view of worldwide structural changes, market liberalization and technological development, this question seems very hard to answer. However,without being able to draw a precise picture of the future post services, it can be affirmed that all current providers of postal services will have to face a very different environment from the current one. The objective of this analysis is to contribute to the future development by examining at the worldwide and regional level the major variables influencing the postal industry s core businesssector, the letter-post, through analyzing the data published by the Universal Postal Union.