Country code

Country codes are short alphabetic or numeric codes developed to represent countries and dependent areas, for use in data processing and communications. Several different systems have been developed to do this.

• The most famous of these is ISO 3166-1.
  • This standard defines for most of the countries and dependent areas in the world:
    • two letter country codes: see ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 for current ones and ISO 3166-3 for obsolete ones,
    • three-letter country codes,
    • three-digit numeric codes.
  • The two-letter codes are used as the basis for:
    • ISO 4217 currency codes
    • country code top-level domain names (ccTLDs) on the Internet: list of Internet TLDs
    • etc.

Country codes other than ISO 3166 include:

• The International Olympic Committee (IOC) three letter codes used in sporting events: list of IOC country codes,
• The coding system for car licenses plates under the 1949 and 1968 United Nations Road Traffic Conventions (distinguishing signs of vehicles in international traffic),
• The Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) two letter codes used by the US government and in the CIA World Factbook: list of FIPS country codes
• From the International Telecommunication Union (ITU):
  • the E.164 international dialling codes: list of country calling codes with 1-3 digits,
  • the first few characters of call signs of radio stations (maritime, aeronautical, amateur radio, broadcasting, etc.) define the country: the ITU prefix,
  • ITU letter codes for member-countries.
• From the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO):
  • aircraft registration prefixes,
  • nationality letters for location indicators.

The following can represent countries:

• The initial digits of International Standard Book Numbers (ISBN) are group identifiers for countries, areas, or language regions.
• The first three digits of EAN-UCC article numbers, e.g. in barcodes, designate (national) numbering agencies.

The developers of ISO 3166 intended that in time it would replace other coding systems in existence.

Data codes for Switzerland presents a sample set for a country.

See also: language codes, numbering scheme.

External link

• Comparison of various systems: http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/codes/country.htm