-eligible to be part of an address. All other objects have an address rank
-of 0.
-
-Note that the search rank of a place place a role in the address computation
-as well. When collecting the places that should make up the address parts
-then only places are taken into account that have a lower address rank than
-the search rank of the base object.
+eligible to be part of an address. Places that should not appear in the
+address must have an address rank of 0.
+
+The following table gives an overview how ranks are mapped to address parts:
+
+ rank | address part
+-------------|-------------
+ 1-3 | _unused_
+ 4 | country
+ 5-9 | state
+ 10-12 | county
+ 13-16 | city
+ 17-21 | suburb
+ 22-24 | neighbourhood
+ 25 | squares, farms, localities
+ 26-27 | street
+ 28-30 | POI/house number
+
+The country rank 4 usually doesn't show up in the address parts of an object.
+The country is determined indirectly from the country code.
+
+Ranks 5-24 can be assigned more or less freely. They make up the major part
+of the address.
+
+Rank 25 is also an addressing rank but it is special because while it can be
+the parent to a POI with an addr:place of the same name, it cannot be a parent
+to streets. Use it for place features that are technically on the same level
+as a street (e.g. squares, city blocks) or for places that should not normally
+appear in an address unless explicitly tagged so (e.g place=locality which
+should be uninhabited and as such not addressable).
+
+The street ranks 26 and 27 are handled slightly differently. Only one object
+from these ranks shows up in an address.
+
+For POI level objects like shops, buildings or house numbers always use rank 30.
+Ranks 28 is reserved for house number interpolations. 29 is for internal use
+only.