Area code 574 is a telephone

area code A telephone numbering plan is a type of numbering scheme used in telecommunication to assign telephone numbers to subscriber telephones or other telephony endpoints. Telephone numbers are the addresses of participants in a telephone network, r ...

in the

North American Numbering Plan The North American Numbering Plan (NANP) is a telephone numbering plan for twenty-five regions in twenty countries, primarily in North America and the Caribbean. This group is historically known as World Zone 1 and has the international calling ...

(NANP) for the northern part of the U.S. state of

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th ...

. It was created in a three-way area code split from area code 219 in 2002.

History

In 1947, American Telephone and Telegraph (AT&T) published the first configuration of proposed numbering plan areas (NPAs) for a new nationwide numbering and toll call routing system. Indiana was divided to receive two area codes. Area code 317 served the northern two-thirds of Indiana, while

area code 812 Area codes 812 and 930 are telephone area codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the southern third of the state of Indiana. The numbering plan area (NPA) includes Evansville and most of its suburbs, the Indiana portions of the ...

served the southern third. In the first change of the original plan in 1948, 317 was cut back to central Indiana, while the northern third of Indiana, including Gary, Hammond, East Chicago, South Bend, Elkhart and

Fort Wayne Fort Wayne is a city in and the county seat of Allen County, Indiana, United States. Located in northeastern Indiana, the city is west of the Ohio border and south of the Michigan border. The city's population was 263,886 as of the 2020 Cens ...

, received area code 219. The northern third of Indiana was served by area code 219 for 54 years. By the end of the 20th century, 219 was on the verge of exhaustion of central office prefixes. It was decided to implement a three-way split of the 219 territory. As the result of a random drawing, the middle portion, surrounding South Bend, received area code 574. The eastern portion (

) became

area code 260 Area code 260 is a telephone area code in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Indiana. Cities served include Angola, Auburn, Bluffton, Butler, Columbia City, Decatur, Fort Wayne, Huntingt ...

, while Northwest Indiana retained 219. The area codes split on January 15, 2002, with

permissive dialing In North America, permissive dialing is the ability to make phone calls in an area subject to a newly introduced area code by using both the new and preexisting dialing methods. When an area is given a new area code under a split plan, the area's ...

continuing until June 14, 2002. SBC information. Accessed May 11, 2006 Prior to October 2021, area code 574 had telephone numbers assigned for the central office code 988. In 2020, ''988'' was designated nationwide as a dialing code for the

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (formerly known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline) is a United States-based suicide prevention network of over 200+ crisis centers that provides 24/7 service via a toll-free hotline with the number 9- ...

, which created a conflict for exchanges that permit

seven-digit dialing Seven-digit dialing is a telephone dialing procedure customary in some territories of the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for dialing telephone numbers in the same numbering plan area (NPA). NANP telephone numbers consist of ten digits, of wh ...

. This area code was therefore scheduled to transition to ten-digit dialing by October 24, 2021.

References

{{Coord, 41.281935, -86.421433, display=title, scale:200000 574 574