ISO 3166-1
ISO standard for country codes / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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ISO 3166-1 (Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions – Part 1: Country codes) is a standard defining codes for the names of countries, dependent territories, and special areas of geographical interest. It is the first part of the ISO 3166 standard published by the International Organization for Standardization.
It defines three sets of country codes:[1]
- ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 – two-letter country codes which are the most widely used of the three,[citation needed] 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 maintained by the United Nations Statistics Division, with the advantage of script (writing system) independence, and hence useful for people or systems using non-Latin scripts.
The alphabetic country codes were first included in ISO 3166 in 1974, and the numeric country codes were first included in 1981. The country codes have been published as ISO 3166-1 since 1997, when ISO 3166 was expanded into three parts, with ISO 3166-2 defining codes for subdivisions and ISO 3166-3 defining codes for former countries.[1]
As a widely used international standard, ISO 3166-1 is implemented in other standards and used by international organizations[1] to allow facilitation of the exchange of goods and information.[1] However, it is not the only standard for country codes. Other country codes used by many international organizations are partly or totally incompatible with ISO 3166-1,[1] although some of them closely correspond to ISO 3166-1 codes.
Codes for 249 countries, territories, or areas of geographical interest are assigned in ISO 3166-1.[2] 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 following two sources:[1]
- United Nations Terminology Bulletin Country Names, or
- Country and Region Codes for Statistical Use of the United Nations Statistics Division.
To be listed in the bulletin Country Names, a country must be at least one of the following:[3]
- 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 Statistical 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.[4] 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".[5]
ISO 3166-1 is published officially in both English and French. Since the second edition of ISO 3166-1, the following columns are included for each entry:
- Country Name – English (or French) short name (all upper-case)
- English (or French) short name lower case (title case)
- English (or French) full name
- Alpha-2 code
- Alpha-3 code
- Numeric code
- Remarks
- Independent
- Additional information: Administrative language(s) alpha-2 code element(s)
- Additional information: Administrative language(s) alpha-3 code element(s)
- Additional information: Local short name(s)
Naming and disputes
The country names used in ISO 3166-1 are taken from the two UN sources. Some country names used by the UN, and accordingly by ISO, are disputed:
Short name upper case in ISO 3166 |
Short name lower case in ISO 3166 Full name |
Listed as independent in ISO 3166 |
Local short name |
Dispute | Link to ISO 3166-2 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
AFGHANISTAN | Afghanistan the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan | Yes[6] | Under the unrecognized government of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan | ISO 3166-2:AF | |
CHINA | China
the People's Republic of China |
Yes[7] | Zhongguo (zh) | Disputed sovereignty with Taiwan | ISO 3166-2:CN |
CYPRUS | Cyprus
the Republic of Cyprus |
Yes[8] | Disputed sovereignty with Northern Cyprus | ISO 3166-2:CY | |
FALKLAND ISLANDS (MALVINAS) |
Falkland Islands (the) [Malvinas][lower-alpha 1] | No[9] | Falkland Islands (the) [Malvinas] (en) |
Disputed sovereignty and naming | ISO 3166-2:FK |
PALESTINE, STATE OF |
Palestine, State of the State of Palestine |
No[10] | Dawlat Filasţīn (ar) | Disputed sovereignty | ISO 3166-2:PS |
TAIWAN, PROVINCE OF CHINA |
Taiwan (Province of China)[lower-alpha 1] | No[11] | Taiwan (zh) | Disputed sovereignty and naming[5] | ISO 3166-2:TW |
WESTERN SAHARA | Western Sahara[lower-alpha 1] | No[12] | Aş Şaḩrā' al Gharbīyah (ar) |
Disputed sovereignty with Morocco | ISO 3166-2:EH |
Coding
The codes are chosen, according to the ISO 3166/MA, "to reflect the significant, unique component of the country name in order to allow a visual association between country name and country code".[5] 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 officially assigned the alpha-2 code GB rather than UK, based on its official 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".