Magento – Display Address Fields on Create an Account

By default Magento doesnt show the address fields within “Create an Account”. To make the sign up process more user friendly you can enable the address fields by adding the following:
Simple way to show that is to add the below code in customer.xml or in local.xml

<customer_account_create>
        <reference name="customer_form_register">
            <action method="setShowAddressFields"><value>true</value></action>
        </reference>
</customer_account_create>

Source : http://www.pauldonnelly.net/magento-display-address-fields-in-create-an-account/