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).[1] They were first included as part of the ISO 3166 standard in its first edition in 1974.
Uses and applications
[edit]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.[2]
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.[3]
Current codes
[edit]Officially assigned code elements
[edit]The following is a complete list of the current officially assigned ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 codes,[4] using a title case version of the English short names officially defined by the ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency (ISO 3166/MA):
- ABW Aruba
- AFG Afghanistan
- AGO Angola
- AIA Anguilla
- ALA Åland Islands
- ALB Albania
- AND Andorra
- ARE United Arab Emirates
- ARG Argentina
- ARM Armenia
- ASM American Samoa
- ATA Antarctica
- ATF French Southern Territories
- ATG Antigua and Barbuda
- AUS Australia
- AUT Austria
- AZE Azerbaijan
- BDI Burundi
- BEL Belgium
- BEN Benin
- BES Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba
- BFA Burkina Faso
- BGD Bangladesh
- BGR Bulgaria
- BHR Bahrain
- BHS Bahamas
- BIH Bosnia and Herzegovina
- BLM Saint Barthélemy
- BLR Belarus
- BLZ Belize
- BMU Bermuda
- BOL Bolivia, Plurinational State of
- BRA Brazil
- BRB Barbados
- BRN Brunei Darussalam
- BTN Bhutan
- BVT Bouvet Island
- BWA Botswana
- CAF Central African Republic
- CAN Canada
- CCK Cocos (Keeling) Islands
- CHE Switzerland
- CHL Chile
- CHN China
- CIV Côte d'Ivoire
- CMR Cameroon
- COD Congo, Democratic Republic of the
- COG Congo
- COK Cook Islands
- COL Colombia
- COM Comoros
- CPV Cabo Verde
- CRI Costa Rica
- CUB Cuba
- CUW Curaçao
- CXR Christmas Island
- CYM Cayman Islands
- CYP Cyprus
- CZE Czechia
- DEU Germany
- DJI Djibouti
- DMA Dominica
- DNK Denmark
- DOM Dominican Republic
- DZA Algeria
- ECU Ecuador
- EGY Egypt
- ERI Eritrea
- ESH Western Sahara
- ESP Spain
- EST Estonia
- ETH Ethiopia
- FIN Finland
- FJI Fiji
- FLK Falkland Islands (Malvinas)
- FRA France
- FRO Faroe Islands
- FSM Micronesia, Federated States of
- GAB Gabon
- GBR United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
- GEO Georgia
- GGY Guernsey
- GHA Ghana
- GIB Gibraltar
- GIN Guinea
- GLP Guadeloupe
- GMB Gambia
- GNB Guinea-Bissau
- GNQ Equatorial Guinea
- GRC Greece
- GRD Grenada
- GRL Greenland
- GTM Guatemala
- GUF French Guiana
- GUM Guam
- GUY Guyana
- HKG Hong Kong
- HMD Heard Island and McDonald Islands
- HND Honduras
- HRV Croatia
- HTI Haiti
- HUN Hungary
- IDN Indonesia
- IMN Isle of Man
- IND India
- IOT British Indian Ocean Territory
- IRL Ireland
- IRN Iran, Islamic Republic of
- IRQ Iraq
- ISL Iceland
- ISR Israel
- ITA Italy
- JAM Jamaica
- JEY Jersey
- JOR Jordan
- JPN Japan
- KAZ Kazakhstan
- KEN Kenya
- KGZ Kyrgyzstan
- KHM Cambodia
- KIR Kiribati
- KNA Saint Kitts and Nevis
- KOR Korea, Republic of
- KWT Kuwait
- LAO Lao People's Democratic Republic
- LBN Lebanon
- LBR Liberia
- LBY Libya
- LCA Saint Lucia
- LIE Liechtenstein
- LKA Sri Lanka
- LSO Lesotho
- LTU Lithuania
- LUX Luxembourg
- LVA Latvia
- MAC Macao
- MAF Saint Martin (French part)
- MAR Morocco
- MCO Monaco
- MDA Moldova, Republic of
- MDG Madagascar
- MDV Maldives
- MEX Mexico
- MHL Marshall Islands
- MKD North Macedonia
- MLI Mali
- MLT Malta
- MMR Myanmar
- MNE Montenegro
- MNG Mongolia
- MNP Northern Mariana Islands
- MOZ Mozambique
- MRT Mauritania
- MSR Montserrat
- MTQ Martinique
- MUS Mauritius
- MWI Malawi
- MYS Malaysia
- MYT Mayotte
- NAM Namibia
- NCL New Caledonia
- NER Niger
- NFK Norfolk Island
- NGA Nigeria
- NIC Nicaragua
- NIU Niue
- NLD Netherlands, Kingdom of the
- NOR Norway
- NPL Nepal
- NRU Nauru
- NZL New Zealand
- OMN Oman
- PAK Pakistan
- PAN Panama
- PCN Pitcairn
- PER Peru
- PHL Philippines
- PLW Palau
- PNG Papua New Guinea
- POL Poland
- PRI Puerto Rico
- PRK Korea, Democratic People's Republic of
- PRT Portugal
- PRY Paraguay
- PSE Palestine, State of
- PYF French Polynesia
- QAT Qatar
- REU Réunion
- ROU Romania
- RUS Russian Federation
- RWA Rwanda
- SAU Saudi Arabia
- SDN Sudan
- SEN Senegal
- SGP Singapore
- SGS South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
- SHN Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha
- SJM Svalbard and Jan Mayen
- SLB Solomon Islands
- SLE Sierra Leone
- SLV El Salvador
- SMR San Marino
- SOM Somalia
- SPM Saint Pierre and Miquelon
- SRB Serbia
- SSD South Sudan
- STP Sao Tome and Principe
- SUR Suriname
- SVK Slovakia
- SVN Slovenia
- SWE Sweden
- SWZ Eswatini
- SXM Sint Maarten (Dutch part)
- SYC Seychelles
- SYR Syrian Arab Republic
- TCA Turks and Caicos Islands
- TCD Chad
- TGO Togo
- THA Thailand
- TJK Tajikistan
- TKL Tokelau
- TKM Turkmenistan
- TLS Timor-Leste
- TON Tonga
- TTO Trinidad and Tobago
- TUN Tunisia
- TUR Türkiye
- TUV Tuvalu
- TWN Taiwan, Province of China
- TZA Tanzania, United Republic of
- UGA Uganda
- UKR Ukraine
- UMI United States Minor Outlying Islands
- URY Uruguay
- USA United States of America
- UZB Uzbekistan
- VAT Holy See
- VCT Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
- VEN Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of
- VGB Virgin Islands (British)
- VIR Virgin Islands (U.S.)
- VNM Viet Nam
- VUT Vanuatu
- WLF Wallis and Futuna
- WSM Samoa
- YEM Yemen
- ZAF South Africa
- ZMB Zambia
- ZWE Zimbabwe
User-assigned code elements
[edit]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: AAA to AAZ, QMA to QZZ, XAA to XZZ, and ZZA to ZZZ.[5]
Examples
[edit]The following codes are used in ISO/IEC 7501-1 for special machine-readable passports:[2]
- EUE is used for the European Union laissez-passer[6]
- XOM is used to represent the Sovereign Military Order of Malta
- D, a single character, is used for Germany.
- XPO is used for Interpol travel documents
- XXA is used to represent a stateless person, as defined in Article 1 of the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons
- XXB 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
- XXC is used to represent a refugee, other than as defined above
- XXX is used to represent a person of unspecified nationality
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:
- ABB Asia
- EEE Europe
- FFF Africa
- NNN North America
- SRR South America
- UUU Oceania
- NTT NATO countries
Reserved code elements
[edit]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
[edit]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:
- ASC Ascension Island – Reserved on request of Universal Postal Union (UPU), also used by International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
- CPT Clipperton Island – Reserved on request of ITU
- DGA Diego Garcia – Reserved on request of ITU
- FXX France, Metropolitan – Reserved on request of France; Officially assigned before being deleted from ISO 3166-1
- SUN USSR – From June 2008; Transitionally reserved from September 1992; Officially assigned before being deleted from ISO 3166-1
- TAA Tristan da Cunha – Reserved on request of UPU
The following alpha-3 codes were previously exceptionally reserved, but are now officially assigned:
- GGY Guernsey – Reserved on request of UPU
- IMN Isle of Man – Reserved on request of UPU
- JEY Jersey – Reserved on request of UPU
Transitional reservations
[edit]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:
- ANT Netherlands Antilles – From December 2010
- BUR Burma – From December 1989
- BYS Byelorussian SSR – From June 1992
- CSK Czechoslovakia – From June 1993
- NTZ Neutral Zone – From July 1993
- ROM Romania – From February 2002; Code changed to ROU[7]
- SCG Serbia and Montenegro – From September 2006
- TMP East Timor – From May 2002
- YUG Yugoslavia – From July 2003
- ZAR Zaire – From July 1997
Indeterminate reservations
[edit]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:
- ADN Aden
- BDS Barbados
- BRU Brunei
- CDN Canada
- EAK Kenya
- EAT Tanganyika [Part of Tanzania, United Republic of]
- EAU Uganda
- EAZ Zanzibar [Part of Tanzania, United Republic of]
- GBA Alderney
- GBG Guernsey
- GBJ Jersey
- GBM Isle of Man
- GBZ Gibraltar
- GCA Guatemala
- HKJ Jordan
- MAL Malaysia
- RCA Central African Republic
- RCB Congo, People's Republic of
- RCH Chile
- RMM Mali
- RNR Zambia
- ROK Korea, Republic of
- RSM San Marino
- RSR Southern Rhodesia [now Zimbabwe]
- SLO Slovenia
- SME Suriname
- TMN Turkmenistan
- WAG Gambia
- WAL Sierra Leone
- WAN Nigeria
- ZRE Zaire
The following alpha-3 code was previously indeterminately reserved, but has been reassigned to another country as its official code:
Codes currently agreed not to use
[edit]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:
- GBD identifies a British Passport holder who is a British Overseas Territories citizen
- GBN identifies a British Passport holder who is a British National (Overseas)
- GBO identifies a British Passport holder who is a British Overseas citizen
- GBP identifies a British Passport holder who is a British protected person
- GBS identifies a British Passport holder who is a British subject
- UNA is used as a substitute for nationality where the holder is an Official of a Specialized Agency of the UN Organization
- UNK identifies Kosovo residents to whom travel documents were issued by the United Nations Interim Administration in Kosovo (UNMIK)
- UNO 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
[edit]Besides the codes currently transitionally reserved and two other codes currently exceptionally reserved (FXX for France, Metropolitan and SUN for USSR), the following alpha-3 codes have also been deleted from ISO 3166-1:[8]
- AFI French Afars and Issas
- ATB British Antarctic Territory
- ATN Dronning Maud Land
- CTE Canton and Enderbury Islands
- DDR German Democratic Republic
- DHY Dahomey
- GEL Gilbert and Ellice Islands
- HVO Upper Volta
- JTN Johnston Island
- MID Midway Islands
- NHB New Hebrides
- PCI Pacific Islands (Trust Territory)
- PCZ Panama Canal Zone
- PHI Philippines – Code changed to PHL in 1976[9]
- PUS United States Miscellaneous Pacific Islands
- RHO Southern Rhodesia
- SKM Sikkim
- VDR Viet-Nam, Democratic Republic of
- WAK Wake Island
- YMD Yemen, Democratic
See also
[edit]- 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
[edit]- ^ "ISO 3166 – FAQs – General questions". International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Archived from the original on 2011-05-14.
- ^ a b "Codes for Nationality, Place of Birth, Location of Issuing State/Authority and Other Purposes", Doc 9303, Machine Readable Travel Documents, Part 3: Specifications Common to all MRTDs (PDF) (Eighth ed.), International Civil Aviation Organization, 2021, pp. 21–23
- ^ "Distinguishing signs used on vehicles in international traffic" (PDF). United Nations Economic Commission for Europe.
- ^ "Country names and code elements". ISO.
- ^ "Glossary for ISO 3166 - Codes for countries and their subdivisions". ISO.
- ^ "European Union laissez-passer (video at 0:47)". Laissez-passer.eu. Retrieved 4 June 2016.
- ^ ISO International Organization for Standardization, ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency (1 February 2002). "RE: Change of alpha-3 Code Element" (PDF). ISO 3166-1 NEWSLETTER No. V-3. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-22. Retrieved 26 June 2017.
Description of change: Change of the alpha-3 Code element for Romania from ROM to ROU following a request of the Government of Romania.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Clive Feather (2003-07-25). "Country codes in ISO 3166 (Table 2: codes withdrawn from use)". Davros.org.
- ^ Gwillim Law (2014-07-17). "Changes in ISO 3166-1". Statoids.com.
Sources
[edit]- 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