ISO 3166-1

ISO 3166-1 is part of the ISO 3166 standard pub-

lished by the International Organization for Standardiza-
tion (ISO), and denes codes for the names of countries,
dependent territories, and special areas of geographical
interest. The ocial name of the standard is Codes for
the representation of names of countries and their subdi-
visions Part 1: Country codes. It denes three sets of
country codes:
[1]
ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 two-letter country codes
which are the most widely used of the three, and
used most prominently for the Internet's country
code top-level domains (with a few exceptions).
ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 three-letter country codes
which allow a better visual association between the
codes and the country names than the alpha-2 codes.
ISO 3166-1 numeric three-digit country codes
which are identical to those developed and main-
tained by the United Nations Statistics Division,
with the advantage of script (writing system) inde-
pendence, and hence useful for people or systems
using non-Latin scripts.
The alphabetic country codes were rst included in ISO
3166 in 1974, and the numeric country codes were rst
included in 1981. The country codes have been published
as ISO3166-1 since 1997, when ISO3166 was expanded
into three parts, with ISO 3166-2 dening codes for
subdivisions and ISO 3166-3 dening codes for former
countries.
[2]
As a widely used international standard, ISO 3166-1 is
implemented in other standards and used by international
organizations
[3]
to allow facilitation of the exchange of
goods and information.
[4]
However, it is not the only stan-
dard for country codes. Other country codes used by
many international organizations are partly or totally in-
compatible with ISO 3166-1,
[5]
although some of them
closely correspond to ISO 3166-1 codes.
1 Criteria for inclusion
Currently 249 countries, territories, or areas of geograph-
ical interest are assigned ocial codes in ISO 3166-1.
According to the ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency (ISO
3166/MA), the only way to enter a new country name
into ISO 3166-1 is to have it registered in one of the fol-
lowing two sources:
[6]
United Nations Terminology Bulletin Country
Names, or
Country and Region Codes for Statistical Use of the
UN Statistics Division.
To be listed in the bulletin Country Names, a country must
be at least one of the following:
[7]
A member state of the United Nations
A member of one of its specialized agencies
A party to the Statute of the International Court of
Justice
The list of names in Country and Region Codes for Sta-
tistical Use of the UN Statistics Division is based on the
bulletin Country Names and other UN sources.
Once a country name or territory name appears in either
of these two sources, it will be added to ISO 3166-1 by
default.
The ISO 3166/MA may reserve code elements for other
entities that do not qualify for inclusion based on the
above criteria.
[8]
For example, because the European
Union is not a country, it is not formally included in ISO
3166-1, but for practical reasons, the ISO 3166/MA has
reserved the two-letter combination EU for the purpose
of identifying the European Union within the framework
of ISO 3166-1.
[9]
1
2 3 INFORMATION INCLUDED
2 Naming and code construction
The International Organization for Standardization uses the
country names chosen by the United Nations, some of which are
disputed.
The country names used in ISO 3166-1 are taken from
the two UN sources mentioned above. Some country
names used by the UN, and accordingly by ISO, are sub-
ject to dispute:
The Republic of Macedonia is listed as Macedo-
nia, the former Yugoslav Republic of because of
the Macedonia naming dispute, following the pro-
visional reference used by the United Nations.
Taiwan is listed as non-independent
extquotedblTaiwan, Province of China extquotedbl
or Taiwan (Province of China) extquotedbl as
the lower-case short name, with Taiwan as the
local short name acknowledged,
[10]
because of
its political status within the United Nations.
[9]
In 2007, the Republic of China led a lawsuit
before a Swiss civil court against the ISO, arguing
that the ISOs use of the UN name rather than
Republic of China (Taiwan) extquotedbl violates
Taiwans name rights.
[11]
On 9 September 2010, a
panel of the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland
decided, by three votes to two, to dismiss the suit as
presenting a political question not subject to Swiss
civil jurisdiction.
[12][13][14]
Following the recognition of Palestine as a
non-member UN state in 2012, the ocial
designation used in ISO 3166-1 was changed
from extquotedblPalestinian Territory, Occupied
extquotedbl to extquotedblPalestine, State of
extquotedbl,
[15]
with a remark noting conventional
names but still not considered an independent
sovereign state in ISO 3166.
[16]
The codes are chosen, according to the ISO 3166/MA,
to reect the signicant, unique component of the coun-
try name in order to allow a visual association between
country name and country code.
[9]
For this reason,
common components of country names like Republic,
Kingdom, United, Federal or Democratic are
normally not used for deriving the code elements. As
a consequence, for example, the United Kingdom is of-
cially assigned the alpha-2 code GB rather than UK,
based on its ocial name United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Northern Ireland (although UK is reserved
on the request of the United Kingdom). Some codes
are chosen based on the native names of the countries.
For example, Germany is assigned the alpha-2 code DE,
based on its native name Deutschland.
3 Information included
ISO 3166-1 is published ocially in both English and
French. Since the second edition of ISO 3166-1, the fol-
lowing columns are included for each entry:
1. Country Name English (or French) short name (all
upper-case)
2. English (or French) short name (upper/lower case)
3. English (or French) full name
4. Alpha-2 code
5. Alpha-3 code
6. Numeric code
7. Remarks
8. Independent (# denotes the country is considered a
sovereign state)
9. Additional information: Administrative language(s)
alpha-2 code element(s)
3
10. Additional information: Administrative language(s)
alpha-3 code element(s)
11. Additional information: Local short name(s)
4 Current codes
4.1 Ocially assigned code elements
The following is a complete ISO 3166-1 encoding list of
the countries which are assigned ocial codes. It is listed
in alphabetical order by the English short country name
(upper/lower case) used by the ISO 3166/MA.
[17]
Click on the button in the header to sort each column. For
more information on each country and the assignment of
its code elements, click on its alpha-2 code.
4.2 Reserved and user-assigned code ele-
ments
Besides the ocially assigned codes, code elements may
be expanded by using either reserved codes or user-
assigned codes.
[18]
Reserved code elements are codes which have become
obsolete, or are required in order to enable a particular
user application of the standard but do not qualify for in-
clusion in ISO 3166-1. To avoid transitional application
problems and to aid users who require specic additional
code elements for the functioning of their coding sys-
tems, the ISO 3166/MA, when justied, reserves these
codes which it undertakes not to use for other than spec-
ied purposes during a limited or indeterminate period
of time. Codes are usually reserved for former countries,
overseas territories, international organizations, and spe-
cial nationality status. The reserved alpha-2 and alpha-3
codes can be divided into the following four categories
(click on the links for the reserved codes of each category):
Alpha-2: exceptional reservations, transitional
reservations, indeterminate reservations, and codes
currently agreed not to use
Alpha-3: exceptional reservations, transitional
reservations, indeterminate reservations, and codes
currently agreed not to use
Numeric: no reserved codes
User-assigned code elements are codes at the disposal of
users who need to add further names of countries, ter-
ritories, or other geographical entities to their in-house
application of ISO 3166-1, and the ISO 3166/MA will
never use these codes in the updating process of the stan-
dard. The following codes can be user-assigned:
[19]
Alpha-2: AA, QM to QZ, XA to XZ, and ZZ
Alpha-3: AAA to AAZ, QMA to QZZ, XAA to
XZZ, and ZZA to ZZZ
Numeric: 900 to 999
5 Changes
The ISO 3166/MA updates ISO 3166-1 when necessary.
A country is usually assigned new ISO 3166-1 codes if it
changes its name or its territorial boundaries. In general,
new alphabetic codes are assigned if a country changes
a signicant part of its name, while a new numeric code
is assigned if a country changes its territorial boundaries.
Codes for formerly used country names that were deleted
from ISO 3166-1 are published in ISO 3166-3.
ISO used to announce changes in newsletters which up-
dated the currently valid standard, and releasing new
editions which comprise a consolidation of newsletter
changes. As of July 2013, changes are published in the
online catalogue of ISO only and no newsletters are pub-
lished anymore. Past newsletters remain available on the
ISO website.
[20]
6 See also
ISO 639 Codes for the representation of names of
languages
7 References
[1] ISO 3166 FAQs General questions. International
Organization for Standardization (ISO).
[2] Development of ISO 3166. ISO.
[3] Implementation of ISO 3166-1. ISO.
[4] You and ISO 3166. ISO.
4 8 SOURCES AND EXTERNAL LINKS
[5] Links. ISO.
[6] ISO 3166-1 and ccTLDs. ISO.
[7] Qualifying top-level domain strings: Eligible categories
of top-level domains. Internet Assigned Numbers Au-
thority. Retrieved February 25, 2014.
[8] ISO 3166 FAQs General Questions. ISO. Archived
from the original on 2007-03-06.
[9] ISO 3166 FAQs Specic. ISO. Archived from the
original on 2012-06-16.
[10] ISO 3166 information for TW. International Organiza-
tion for Standardization. Retrieved February 25, 2014.
[11] Taiwan sues ISO over incorrect reference. Taipei Rep-
resentative Oce in the UK.
[12] Felber, Ren (10 September 2010). Umweg ber Zivil-
richter unzulssig: Taiwans Kampf um seinen Namen.
Neue Zrcher Zeitung (in German). p. 14.
[13] Urteil vom 9. September 2010 (5A_329/2009) extquot-
edbl [Decision of 9 September 2010 (5A_329/2009)] (in
German). Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland.
[14] Arrt du 9 septembre 2010 (5A_329/2009) extquot-
edbl [Decision of 9 September 2010 (5A_329/2009)] (in
French). Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland.
[15] Countries or areas, codes and abbreviations. United Na-
tions Statistics Division.
[16] ISO 3166 information for PS. International Organiza-
tion for Standardization. Retrieved April 3, 2014.
[17] Country names and code elements. ISO. Note: The
source actually shows only the Country Name element,
in all upper-case. The table here has been upper/lower-
cased per Wikipedia standards, but should closely resem-
ble the upper/lower-case elements that are not freely avail-
able from the ISO.
[18] Customizing ISO 3166-1. ISO.
[19] ISO 3166 FAQs General Questions. ISO. Archived
from the original on 2007-03-06.
[20] Updates on ISO 3166. ISO.
8 Sources and external links
ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency, International Orga-
nization for Standardization (ISO)
--- Country names and code elements list of
alpha-2 codes
Standard Country or Area Codes for Statistical Use,
United Nations Statistics Division
--- Countries or areas, codes and abbreviations
list of alpha-3 and numeric codes (a few terri-
tories ocially assigned codes in ISO 3166-1
are not included in this list)
The World Factbook (public domain), Central Intel-
ligence Agency
--- Appendix D Cross-Reference List of Coun-
try Data Codes comparison of FIPS 10,
ISO 3166, and STANAG 1059 country codes
Administrative Divisions of Countries (Statoids),
Statoids.com
--- Country codes comparison of ISO 3166-1
country codes with other country codes
5
9 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses
9.1 Text
ISO 3166-1 Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-1?oldid=628208340 Contributors: Zundark, XTaran, Roybadami, Hoshie,
Menchi, Ixfd64, Tengai, Ahoerstemeier, Mac, Nanshu, Docu, Jiang, Kaihsu, Tobias Conradi, Mxn, Emperorbma, Smith03, Wik, CB-
Dunkerson, Morwen, Shizhao, JanJosef, Jusjih, Denelson83, Phil Boswell, Robbot, Altenmann, Millosh, Guy Peters, Peter L, Curps,
Paploo, Kpalion, Pne, Quadell, OverlordQ, Evertype, Mzajac, RetiredUser2, Jerroleth, Julian Mehnle, CALR, Ardonik, Elwikipedista,
L.Willms, Jonathunder, Dankarran, Stephan Leeds, Jguk, Mbosteels, Instantnood, Nightstallion, Nuno Tavares, Alanmak, JFG, Chochopk,
Gerbon689, Cedrus-Libani, Koavf, Vegaswikian, Ligulem, StuartBrady, Pruneau, Changchih228, Royli57, M7bot, Chobot, Sherool,
YurikBot, Wavelength, Borgx, Jim.Liu, Hede2000, CambridgeBayWeather, Anomie, Shocktm, Oberst, Sandstein, Doktorbuk, Chan-
heigeorge, SndrAndrss, Aren, Curpsbot-unicodify, Bart l, Ahonc, GrinBot, Attilios, SmartGuy Old, MalafayaBot, Antonytse, Michkalas,
CrnaGora, SashatoBot, AB, Mathias-S, 16@r, Andrwsc, Civil Engineer III, Neelix, Tdw, Verdy p, Thijs!bot, Haha169, RoboServien,
Escarbot, AntiVandalBot, Alphachimpbot, Scottybowl, JAnDbot, D1111, M.C., Dagnabit, Dricherby, Flags-Chaser, Velkymx, Mclay1,
DoddLu, MartinBot, JamesyWamesy, R'n'B, Idioma-bot, Jesher, Philip Trueman, YorkshireM, TXiKiBoT, Tsungyenlee, Demmy,
SieBot, VVVBot, Mr Taz, Purbo T, COBot, Melcombe, Mild Bill Hiccup, Amobia, Niceguyedc, DragonBot, Alexbot, L.tak, Ark25,
BOTarate, Human47, Local hero, Ralphje, AlanM1, Moroccansahraoui, SilvonenBot, Addbot, LinkFA-Bot, Numbo3-bot, Mjquinn id,
WikiDreamer Bot, Waltloc, Yobot, Ptbotgourou, Amirobot, KamikazeBot, AnomieBOT, Ciphers, Rubinbot, ArthurBot, MauritsBot,
Xqbot, TinucherianBot II, DSisyphBot, Andyscott12, Mistakender, Tahir mq, Mershell, White Shadows, TobeBot, Kprwiki, DixonD-
Bot, Lotje, Rennell435, David30930, WaitingForConnection, Chipmunkdavis, EmausBot, Vul3jp6p, Bamyers99, Judygreenberg, Bo-Lin
Chen, BG19bot, Murry1975, Mario Sedlak, BendelacBOT, HIDECCHI001, HTML2011, Royaume du Maroc, SiBr4, Axtxqk, Iknowev-
erything15, Tamawashi and Anonymous: 135
9.2 Images
File:Cscr-featured.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e7/Cscr-featured.svg License: ? Contributors: ? Original
artist: ?
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tributors: ? Original artist: ?
File:ISO_logo.png Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/ISO_logo.png License: Public domain Contributors:
http://www.iso.org/iso/home/name_and_logo.htm Original artist: International Organization for Standardization
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9.3 Content license
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