# Review of Content Standard Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions

# ISO 3166 

# June, 2005

1.  This review is intended to assess the potential utility of content
    standards for use and potentially for inclusion in an ISO
    11179-based metadata registry. The review is directed primarily
    toward the utility of the standard itself, rather than to matching
    the standard with specific agency programs. The review covers issues
    such as the subject area, currency, quality, authority, and
    acceptance of the standards. These are factors that need to be taken
    into account no matter what the programmatic application of the
    standard may be.

## 1. Summary

ISO 3166 is the **International Standard for country codes**. It is a
three-part standard. Under the general title of ***Codes for the
representation of names of countries and their subdivisions*** ISO
publishes:

**ISO 3166-1:1997 *Codes for the representation of names of countries
and their subdivisions - Part 1: Country codes*** which is what most
users know as ISO\'s country codes. First published in 1974, it is has
since then become one of the world\'s most popular and most widely used
standard solution for coding country names. It contains a two-letter
code, which is recommended as the general-purpose code, a three-letter
code, which has better mnemonic properties, and a numeric-3 code, which
can be useful if script independence of the codes is important.

**ISO 3166-2:1998 *Codes for the representation of names of countries
and their subdivisions - Part 2: Country subdivision code*** which gives
codes for the names of the principal subdivisions (e.g., provinces or
states) of all countries coded in ISO 3166-1. This code is based on the
two-letter code element from ISO 3166-1 followed by a separator and a
further string of up to three alphanumeric characters.

**ISO 3166-3:1999 *Codes for the representation of names of countries
and their subdivisions - Part 3: Code for formerly used names of
countries*** which contains a four-letter code for those country names
which have been deleted from ISO 3166-1 since its first publication in
1974. The code elements for formerly used country names have a length of
four alphabetical characters (alpha-4 code elements).

These three related documents taken together make up ISO 3166. ISO
3166-1 is by far the most important of the three standards.

##  {#section .unnumbered}

## 2. Identification of Standard {#identification-of-standard .unnumbered}

### 2.1. Title

***Codes for the representation of names of countries and their
subdivisions***

**ISO 3166-1:1997 *Codes for the representation of names of countries
and their subdivisions - Part 1: Country codes***

**ISO 3166-2:1998 *Codes for the representation of names of countries
and their subdivisions - Part 2: Country subdivision code***

**ISO 3166-3:1999 *Codes for the representation of names of countries
and their subdivisions - Part 3: Code for formerly used names of
countries***

### 

### 2.2. Acronym

None

### 2.3. Web page(s), Identifier, or Contact Information:

### 2.3.1 Web page(s)

http://www.iso.org

### 2.3.2 Identifier

http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/02iso-3166-code-lists/index.html

### 2.3.3 Contact Information

International Organization for Standardization (ISO)

http://www.iso.org/iso/en/ISOOnline.frontpage

### 2.4 Authority

**2.4.1 Creator**

International Organization for Standardization (ISO)

Maintenance Authority: the ISO 3166/MA Secretariat:

countrycodes@iso.org

**ISO 3166/MA members**

The composition of the ISO 3166/MA reflects the two stakeholder groups,
which were primarily involved in the development of ISO 3166 in the
early 1970s: national standards organizations, members of ISO, and
United Nations agencies.

Of the ten experts with voting rights on the ISO 3166/MA five are
representatives of the following national standards organizations:

-   Association française de normalisation
    [AFNOR](http://www.iso.org/iso/en/aboutiso/isomembers/MemberDetailPage.MemberDetail?MEMBER=AFNOR)
    (France)

-   American National Standards Institute
    [ANSI](http://www.iso.org/iso/en/aboutiso/isomembers/MemberDetailPage.MemberDetail?MEMBER=ANSI)
    (United States)

-   British Standards Institution
    [BSI](http://www.iso.org/iso/en/aboutiso/isomembers/MemberDetailPage.MemberDetail?MEMBER=BSI)
    (United Kingdom)

-   Deutsches Institut für Normung
    [DIN](http://www.iso.org/iso/en/aboutiso/isomembers/MemberDetailPage.MemberDetail?MEMBER=DIN)
    (Germany)

-   Swedish Standards Institute
    [SIS](http://www.iso.org/iso/en/aboutiso/isomembers/MemberDetailPage.MemberDetail?MEMBER=SIS)
    (Sweden)

The other five are representatives of major UN or other international
organizations who are all users of ISO 3166-1:

-   International Atomic Energy Agency ([IAEA](http://www.iaea.org/))

-   International Telecommunication Union ([ITU](http://www.itu.int/))

-   Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
    ([ICANN](http://www.icann.org/))

-   Universal Postal Union ([UPU](http://www.upu.int/))

-   United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
    ([UNECE](http://www.unece.org/))

The ISO 3166/MA has further associated members who do not participate in
the votes but who - through their expertise - have significant influence
on the decision taking procedure in the maintenance agency.

**2.4.2. Acceptance as authoritative**

Very well accepted.

### 2.5 Publisher

International Organization for Standardization (ISO)

### 2.6 Language(s)

The country names are available in both French and English.

###  3. Content description

### 3.1 Subject area of content and area of application

ISO 3166 is used by many of today\'s computerized systems which store
and process information related to countries and country names.
Applications using ISO 3166-1 can communicate easily. This is one of the
purposes of standardization: facilitation of the exchange of goods and
information. Here are some examples of use:

-   All national postal organizations in the world exchange
    international mail between them in containers carrying ISO 3166-1
    codes for identification of the country of destination.

-   In machine-readable passports the three letter code of ISO 3166-1 is
    used to determine the nationality of the user (ISO/IEC 7501-1).

-   Currencies are identified by a code based on the ISO 3166-1, which
    identifies them in international transactions (ISO 4217).

-   The International Securities Identification Number (ISO 6166) is a
    system that allows precise identification of shares issued in one
    country but traded internationally.

-   The Internet domain name system uses ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes to
    define country-coded Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs), e.g., for the
    countries **France, South Africa, Australia, Brazil, Japan**;
    \".fr\", ".za\", \".au\", \".br\", or \".jp\".

### 3.2 Kind of content

*Part 1: Country codes* contains names (text) and 3 code formats;

*Part 2: Country subdivision code* contains names (text) and one code
format;

*Part 3: Code for formerly used names of countries* contains names
(text) and one code format.

### 3.3 Audience(s)

The audience is potentially anyone exchanging data about countries and
their subdivisions. See the examples in 3.1.

### 3.4 Related Standards

See the Cmap "Geographic Standards." Also, many other standards
incorporate ISO 3166 codes by reference (see 3.1).

### 3.5 Standards Dependencies

See 3.4. This standard does not depend on any other standard;
dependencies of other standards on ISO 3166 will be noted in their
Reviews as appropriate.

**3.6 Content Quality**

ISO 3166 contains some entries that are not strictly defined as
"countries," and therefore some users consider it flawed. However, it
does contain a complete set of countries.

### 4. Currency of Content

### 4.1 Date

Last update issued 2004-04-28

### 4.2 Versions, Updates

### The standard is updated as needed. Newsletters are issued and the online version is updated when any country identification changes.

### 4.3 Currency

The standard currently reflects reality.

**5. Acceptance**

The acceptance that an International Standard has gained within its
potential user community can be seen from the number or scale of its
applications. Below is a very short selection of applications of ISO
3166-1, which can be seen on the World Wide Web.

-   [**UN/LOCODE**](http://www.unece.org/cefact/locode/service/location1.htm),
    Recommendation 16 of the United Nations Economic Commission for
    Europe, used in international trade to code ports, customs offices
    and other sites relevant in trade, has code elements that all
    incorporate the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code element of the country the
    site is located in.

-   The [**World Intellectual Property Organisation
    (WIPO)**](http://www.wipo.int/), a United Nations Specialized
    Agency, encodes \"states, other entities and intergovernmental
    organizations\" in its [**ST.3
    standard**](http://www.wipo.int/scit/en/standards/pdf/03-03-01.pdf)
    with the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2-Code.

-   The code elements from [**ISO 4217 *Codes for the representation of
    currencies and
    funds***](http://www.bsi-global.com/British_Standards/currency/index.xalter)
    are based on the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2-code, e.g., USD for US Dollar
    where US comes from ISO 3166-1.

-   [**The International Atomic Energy Agency
    (IAEA)**](http://www.iaea.org/) uses the alpha-2 code in its
    [**INIS-Database**](http://www.iaea.org/inis/inisdb.htm)
    (International Nuclear Information System) providing information on
    the peaceful use of nuclear science and technology.

-   [**IANA**](http://www.iana.org/), the Internet Assigned Numbers
    Authority, uses the alpha-2 code to identify the [**Internet
    ccTLDs**](http://www.iana.org/cctld/cctld.htm) (country code
    Top-Level Domains) like \".fr\", \".eg\" or \".jp\".

-   **Federal Express** uses IATA country codes, which are those of ISO
    3166-1, to help their customers [track
    shipments](http://www.fedex.com/us/tracking/codes.html) they made
    with FedEx.

-   The **UN Food an Agricultural Organization (FAO)** uses ISO 3166-1
    in its International Bibliographic Information System for the
    Agricultural Sciences and Technology
    [(AGRIS)](http://www.fao.org/scripts/agris/c-countr.htm).

-   The **World Ozone and Ultraviolet Radiation Data Centre (WOUDC)**,
    part of the Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) program within the World
    Meteorological Organization (WMO) and operated by the Meteorological
    Services of Canada (MSC), are using ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 codes to
    [identify the country in which measuring stations are
    located](http://www.woudc.org/data/iso3166_e.html).

-   The **European Union** uses ISO 3166-1 in the *Geonomenclature of
    the EU Statistical Office*. The Geonomenclature, which is important
    for external trade statistics, can be downloaded from the External
    trade pages of EUROSTAT. You may [download the geonomenclature
    directly from
    here](http://epp.eurostat.cec.eu.int/portal/page?_pageid=1073,1135281,1073_1135295&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL&p_product_code=KS-BM-03-001).

### 

### 6. Content details

### 6.1 Size statistics (estimated)

-   **English** country names and code elements:\
    [**HTML**, 60
    KB](http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/02iso-3166-code-lists/list-en1.html)

-    [**TXT**, semicolon delimited, 5
    KB](http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/02iso-3166-code-lists/list-en1-semic.txt)    

-   [**XML**, zipped file, 3
    KB](http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/02iso-3166-code-lists/iso_3166-1_xml_en.zip)

-   **French** country names and code elements:\
    [**HTML**, 60
    KB](http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/02iso-3166-code-lists/list-fr1.html)    

-   [**TXT**, semicolon delimited, 5
    KB](http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/02iso-3166-code-lists/list-fr1-semic.txt)   

-    [**XML**, zipped file, 3
    KB](http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/02iso-3166-code-lists/iso_3166-1_xml_fr.zip)\
    \
    \
    **See:**  [**ISO 3166-1 decoding
    table**](http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/02iso-3166-code-lists/iso_3166-1_decoding_table.html)
    (HTML, 176 KB)

**Also see:  Microsoft® Access 2000 [database
products](http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/05database/index.html)
of the [complete]{.underline} lists of codes and names from ISO 3166-1
(the country codes) and ISO 3166-2 (the country subdivision codes).**

### 6.2 Format / Schemas(s)

See above.

### 6.3 Media / Download

ISO 3166-1 and ISO 3166-2 databases

The content of the list parts of both **ISO 3166-1 \"Country codes\"**
and **ISO 3166-2 \"Country subdivision code\"** is available from the
ISO 3166/MA secretariat in the form of two **Microsoft® Access 2000
databases**. Descriptions of the products are given here:

-   [ISO 3166-1 database (list
    part)](http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/05database/db-iso3166-1.html)

-   [ISO 3166-2 database (list
    part)](http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/05database/db-iso3166-2.html)

-   [Updating information for the
    databases](http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/05database/updating.html)

**Each database costs as much as the PDF version of the standard. A
package containing the ISO standard in PDF format and the corresponding
database costs about 25% less than both products purchased separately.**

  ----------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------
  **Add to shopping basket**                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              **Price
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          (CHF)**

  ![](media/image1.png){width="0.2916666666666667in"    [ISO 3166-1 database Microsoft Access                                                                                                                                                                                                                             **152.00**
  height="0.22916666666666666in"}                       format)](javascript:basketMini('https://store.iso.org/isostore/control/basketmini?action=addItem&language=en&itemId=000000000000057476-PRAT3&fromUrl=http%253A%252F%252Fwww.iso.org%252Fiso%252Fen%252Fprods-services%252Fiso3166ma%252F05database%252Findex. )   

  ![](media/image1.png){width="0.2916666666666667in"    [ISO 3166-1 database (Microsoft Access format)  +  ISO 3166-1:1997 PDF version                                                                                                                                                                                    **224.00**
  height="0.22916666666666666in"}                       (en/fr)](javascript:basketMini('https://store.iso.org/isostore/control/basketmini?action=addItem&language=en&itemId=000000000000057477-PRAT3&fromUrl=http%253A%252F%252Fwww.iso.org%252Fiso%252Fen%252Fprods-services%252Fiso3166ma%252F05database%252Findex. )   

  ![](media/image1.png){width="0.2916666666666667in"    [ISO 3166-2 database (Microsoft Access                                                                                                                                                                                                                            **200.00**
  height="0.22916666666666666in"}                       format)](javascript:basketMini('https://store.iso.org/isostore/control/basketmini?action=addItem&language=en&itemId=000000000000057478-PRAT3&fromUrl=http%253A%252F%252Fwww.iso.org%252Fiso%252Fen%252Fprods-services%252Fiso3166ma%252F05database%252Findex. )   

  ![](media/image1.png){width="0.29097222222222224in"   [ISO 3166-2 database (Microsoft Access format)  +  ISO 3166-2:1998 PDF version                                                                                                                                                                                    **296.00**
  height="0.22777777777777777in"}                       (en/fr)](javascript:basketMini('https://store.iso.org/isostore/control/basketmini?action=addItem&language=en&itemId=000000000000057479-PRAT3&fromUrl=http%253A%252F%252Fwww.iso.org%252Fiso%252Fen%252Fprods-services%252Fiso3166ma%252F05database%252Findex. )   
  ----------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------

**You can [order the standards without the database files
here.](http://www.iso.org/iso/en/CombinedQueryResult.CombinedQueryResult?queryString=3166)**

### 6.4 Licensing Issues

Copies of the 3166-1 code list are available for sale or for free
download (see 6.1). Copies of 3166-2 and 3166-3 are for sale only. No
licensing issues identified.

### 6.5 Documentation

Extensive documentation is available at the website:

http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/04background-on-iso-3166/index.html