ISO 3166-1 alpha-3

ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 codes are three-letter country codes defined in ISO 3166-1, part of the ISO 3166 standard published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), to represent countries, dependent territories, and special areas of geographical interest. They allow a better visual association between the codes and the country names than the two-letter alpha-2 codes (the third set of codes is numeric and hence offers no visual association). They were first included as part of the ISO 3166 standard in its first edition in 1974.
Uses and applications
The ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 codes are used most prominently in ISO/IEC 7501-1 for machine-readable passports, as standardized by the International Civil Aviation Organization, with a number of additional codes for special passports; some of these codes are currently reserved and not used at the present stage in ISO 3166-1.
The United Nations uses a combination of ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 and alpha-3 codes, along with codes that pre-date the creation of ISO 3166, for international vehicle registration codes, which are codes used to identify the issuing country of a vehicle registration plate; some of these codes are currently indeterminately reserved in ISO 3166-1.
Current codes
Officially assigned code elements
The following is a complete list of the current officially assigned ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 codes, using a title case version of the English short names officially defined by the ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency (ISO 3166/MA):
Aruba
Afghanistan
Angola
Anguilla
Åland Islands
Albania
Andorra
United Arab Emirates
Argentina
Armenia
American Samoa
Antarctica
French Southern Territories
Antigua and Barbuda
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Burundi
Belgium
Benin
Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba
Burkina Faso
Bangladesh
Bulgaria
Bahrain
Bahamas
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Saint Barthélemy
Belarus
Belize
Bermuda
Bolivia (Plurinational State of)
Brazil
Barbados
Brunei Darussalam
Bhutan
Bouvet Island
Botswana
Central African Republic
Canada
Cocos (Keeling) Islands
Switzerland
Chile
China
Côte d'Ivoire
Cameroon
Congo, Democratic Republic of the
Congo
Cook Islands
Colombia
Comoros
Cabo Verde
Costa Rica
Cuba
Curaçao
Christmas Island
Cayman Islands
Cyprus
Czechia
Germany
Djibouti
Dominica
Denmark
Dominican Republic
Algeria
Ecuador
Egypt
Eritrea
Western Sahara
Spain
Estonia
Ethiopia
Finland
Fiji
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)
France
Faroe Islands
Micronesia (Federated States of)
Gabon
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Georgia
Guernsey
Ghana
Gibraltar
Guinea
Guadeloupe
Gambia
Guinea-Bissau
Equatorial Guinea
Greece
Grenada
Greenland
Guatemala
French Guiana
Guam
Guyana
Hong Kong
Heard Island and McDonald Islands
Honduras
Croatia
Haiti
Hungary
Indonesia
Isle of Man
India
British Indian Ocean Territory
Ireland
Iran (Islamic Republic of)
Iraq
Iceland
Israel
Italy
Jamaica
Jersey
Jordan
Japan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Kyrgyzstan
Cambodia
Kiribati
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Korea, Republic of
Kuwait
Lao People's Democratic Republic
Lebanon
Liberia
Libya
Saint Lucia
Liechtenstein
Sri Lanka
Lesotho
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Latvia
Macao
Saint Martin (French part)
Morocco
Monaco
Moldova, Republic of
Madagascar
Maldives
Mexico
Marshall Islands
North Macedonia
Mali
Malta
Myanmar
Montenegro
Mongolia
Northern Mariana Islands
Mozambique
Mauritania
Montserrat
Martinique
Mauritius
Malawi
Malaysia
Mayotte
Namibia
New Caledonia
Niger
Norfolk Island
Nigeria
Nicaragua
Niue
Netherlands, Kingdom of the
Norway
Nepal
Nauru
New Zealand
Oman
Pakistan
Panama
Pitcairn
Peru
Philippines
Palau
Papua New Guinea
Poland
Puerto Rico
Korea (Democratic People's Republic of)
Portugal
Paraguay
Palestine, State of
French Polynesia
Qatar
Réunion
Romania
Russian Federation
Rwanda
Saudi Arabia
Sudan
Senegal
Singapore
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha
Svalbard and Jan Mayen
Solomon Islands
Sierra Leone
El Salvador
San Marino
Somalia
Saint Pierre and Miquelon
Serbia
South Sudan
Suriname
Slovakia
Slovenia
Sweden
Eswatini
Sint Maarten (Dutch part)
Seychelles
Syrian Arab Republic
Turks and Caicos Islands
Chad
Togo
Thailand
Tajikistan
Tokelau
Turkmenistan
Timor-Leste
Tonga
Trinidad and Tobago
Tunisia
Türkiye
Tuvalu
Taiwan, Province of China
Tanzania, United Republic of
Uganda
Ukraine
United States Minor Outlying Islands
Uruguay
United States of America
Uzbekistan
Holy See
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of)
Virgin Islands (British)
Virgin Islands (U.S.)
Viet Nam
Vanuatu
Wallis and Futuna
Samoa
Yemen
South Africa
Zambia
Zimbabwe
User-assigned code elements
User-assigned code elements are codes at the disposal of users who need to add further names of countries, territories, 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 standard. The following alpha-3 codes can be user-assigned: to , to , to , and to .
Examples
The following codes are used in ISO/IEC 7501-1 for special machine-readable passports:
is used for the European Union laissez-passer
is used to represent the Sovereign Military Order of Malta
is used for Interpol travel documents
is used to represent a stateless person, as defined in Article 1 of the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons
is used to represent a refugee, as defined in Article 1 of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees as amended by the 1967 Protocol
is used to represent a refugee, other than as defined above
is used to represent a person of unspecified nationality
is used for the World Service Authority World Passport (The World Service Authority World Passport contains "WSA" as the authority code. It has been filed with the International Civil Aviation Organization, but does not appear in official ICAO documents as valid.)
NATO STANAG 1059 INT is built upon ISO alpha-3 codes, but also defines alpha-2 codes incompatible with ISO 3166-1. It introduces several private use codes for fictional countries and organizational entities:
NATO also continues to use reserved codes for continents:
Reserved code elements
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 inclusion in ISO 3166-1. To avoid transitional application problems and to aid users who require specific additional code elements for the functioning of their coding systems, the ISO 3166/MA, when justified, reserves these codes which it undertakes not to use for other than specified purposes during a limited or indeterminate period of time. The reserved alpha-3 codes can be divided into the following four categories: exceptional reservations, transitional reservations, indeterminate reservations, and codes currently agreed not to use.
Exceptional reservations
Exceptionally reserved code elements are codes reserved at the request of national ISO member bodies, governments and international organizations, which are required in order to support a particular application, as specified by the requesting body and limited to such use; any further use of such code elements is subject to approval by the ISO 3166/MA. The following alpha-3 codes are currently exceptionally reserved:
Ascension Island Reserved on request of Universal Postal Union (UPU), also used by International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
Clipperton Island Reserved on request of ITU
Diego Garcia Reserved on request of ITU
France, Metropolitan Reserved on request of France; Officially assigned before being deleted from ISO 3166-1
USSR From June 2008; Transitionally reserved from September 1992; Officially assigned before being deleted from ISO 3166-1
Tristan da Cunha Reserved on request of UPU
The following alpha-3 codes were previously exceptionally reserved, but are now officially assigned:
Guernsey Reserved on request of UPU
Isle of Man Reserved on request of UPU
Jersey Reserved on request of UPU
Transitional reservations
Transitional reserved code elements are codes reserved after their deletion from ISO 3166-1. These codes may be used only during a transitional period of at least five years while new code elements that may have replaced them are taken into use. These codes may be reassigned by the ISO 3166/MA after the expiration of the transitional period. The following alpha-3 codes are currently transitionally reserved:
Netherlands Antilles From December 2010
Burma From December 1989
Byelorussian SSR From June 1992
Czechoslovakia From June 1993
Neutral Zone From July 1993
Romania From February 2002; Code changed to
Serbia and Montenegro From September 2006
East Timor From May 2002
Yugoslavia From July 2003
Zaire From July 1997
Indeterminate reservations
Indeterminately reserved code elements are codes used to designate road vehicles under the 1949 and 1968 United Nations Conventions on Road Traffic but differing from those contained in ISO 3166-1. These code elements are expected eventually to be either eliminated or replaced by code elements within ISO 3166-1. In the meantime, the ISO 3166/MA has reserved such code elements for an indeterminate period. Any use beyond the application of the two Conventions is discouraged and will not be approved by the ISO 3166/MA. Moreover, these codes may be reassigned by the ISO 3166/MA at any time. The following alpha-3 codes are currently indeterminately reserved:
Aden
Barbados
Brunei
Canada
Kenya
Tanganyika [Part of Tanzania, United Republic of]
Uganda
Zanzibar [Part of Tanzania, United Republic of]
Alderney
Guernsey
Jersey
Isle of Man
Gibraltar
Guatemala
Jordan
Malaysia
Central African Republic
Congo, People's Republic of
Chile
Mali
Zambia
Korea, Republic of
San Marino
Southern Rhodesia [now Zimbabwe]
Slovenia
Suriname
Turkmenistan
Gambia
Sierra Leone
Nigeria
Zaire
The following alpha-3 code was previously indeterminately reserved, but has been reassigned to another country as its official code:
Uruguay Code reassigned to Romania
Codes currently agreed not to use
In addition, the ISO 3166/MA will not use the following alpha-3 codes at the present stage, as they are used in ISO/IEC 7501-1 for special machine-readable passports:
identifies a British Passport holder who is a British Overseas Territories citizen
identifies a British Passport holder who is a British National (Overseas)
identifies a British Passport holder who is a British Overseas citizen
identifies a British Passport holder who is a British protected person
identifies a British Passport holder who is a British subject
is used as a substitute for nationality where the holder is an Official of a Specialized Agency of the UN Organization
identifies Kosovo residents to whom travel documents were issued by the United Nations Interim Administration in Kosovo (UNMIK)
is used to designate the UN Organization as the issuer and used as a substitute for nationality where the holder is an Official of the UN Organization
Deleted codes
Besides the codes currently transitionally reserved and two other codes currently exceptionally reserved (for France, Metropolitan and for USSR), the following alpha-3 codes have also been deleted from ISO 3166-1:
French Afars and Issas
British Antarctic Territory
Dronning Maud Land
Canton and Enderbury Islands
German Democratic Republic
Dahomey
Gilbert and Ellice Islands
Upper Volta
Johnston Island
Midway Islands
New Hebrides
Pacific Islands (Trust Territory)
Panama Canal Zone
Philippines Code changed to in 1976
United States Miscellaneous Pacific Islands
Southern Rhodesia
Sikkim
Viet-Nam, Democratic Republic of
Wake Island
Yemen, Democratic
See also
List of IOC country codes, used by the International Olympic Committee (IOC)
List of FIFA country codes, used by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA)
Comparison of alphabetic country codes
References
Sources and external links
ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency, International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
Reserved code elements under ISO 3166-1 "Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions – Part 1: Country codes", available on request from ISO 3166/MA
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 territories officially assigned codes in ISO 3166-1 are not included in this list)
The World Factbook (public domain), Central Intelligence Agency
Appendix D Country 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
ISO 3166-1 Change History, Statoids.com
1 alpha-3
Country codes
Location codes