ISO 3166-1 numeric (or numeric-3)

code In communications and information processing, code is a system of rules to convert information—such as a letter, word, sound, image, or gesture—into another form, sometimes shortened or secret, for communication through a communicati ...

s are three-digit

country code A country code is a short alphanumeric identification code for countries and dependent areas. Its primary use is in data processing and communications. Several identification systems have been developed. The term ''country code'' frequently re ...

s defined in

ISO 3166-1 ISO 3166-1 (''Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions – Part 1: Country code'') is a standard defining codes for the names of countries, dependent territories, and special areas of geographical interest. It i ...

, part of the

ISO 3166 ISO 3166 is a standard published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) that defines codes for the names of countries, dependent territories, special areas of geographical interest, and their principal subdivisions (e.g., pro ...

standard published by the

International Organization for Standardization The International Organization for Standardization (ISO ; ; ) is an independent, non-governmental, international standard development organization composed of representatives from the national standards organizations of member countries. M ...

(ISO), to represent

countries A country is a distinct part of the Earth, world, such as a state (polity), state, nation, or other polity, political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, List of states with limited r ...

dependent territories A dependent territory, dependent area, or dependency (sometimes referred as an external territory) is a territory that does not possess full political independence or sovereignty as a sovereign state and remains politically outside the control ...

, and special areas of geographical interest. They are similar to the three-digit country codes developed and maintained by the

United Nations Statistics Division The United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), formerly the United Nations Statistical Office, serves under the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) as the central mechanism within the Secretariat of the United Nations ...

, from which they originate in its UN M.49 standard. They were first included as part of the ISO 3166 standard in its second edition in 1981, but they were released by the United Nations Statistics Division since as early as 1970. An advantage of numeric codes over alphabetic codes is script (

writing system A writing system comprises a set of symbols, called a ''script'', as well as the rules by which the script represents a particular language. The earliest writing appeared during the late 4th millennium BC. Throughout history, each independen ...

) independence. The ISO 3166-1 alphabetic codes ( alpha-2 and alpha-3) use letters from the 26-letter

English alphabet Modern English is written with a Latin-script alphabet consisting of 26 Letter (alphabet), letters, with each having both uppercase and lowercase forms. The word ''alphabet'' is a Compound (linguistics), compound of ''alpha'' and ''beta'', t ...

and are suitable for languages based on the

Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet, also known as the Roman alphabet, is the collection of letters originally used by the Ancient Rome, ancient Romans to write the Latin language. Largely unaltered except several letters splitting—i.e. from , and from � ...

. For people and systems using non-Latin scripts (such as

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

or Japanese), the English alphabet may be unavailable or difficult to use, understand, or correctly interpret. While numeric codes overcome the problems of script dependence, this independence comes at the cost of loss of mnemonic convenience. Another advantage is that when countries merge or split, they will get a new numeric code, while the alphabetic code stays in use for (a part of) that country. A persistent number is needed in datasets with historical country information.

Current codes

Officially assigned code elements

The following is a complete list of the current officially assigned ISO 3166-1 numeric codes, using a title case version of the English short names officially used by the ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency (ISO 3166/MA):

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. The ISO 3166/MA will never use these codes in the updating process of the standard. The numeric codes to can be user-assigned. Examples include for Kosovo and for Cyprus used by

Dun & Bradstreet The Dun & Bradstreet Holdings, Inc. (D&B) is an American company that provides commercial data, analytics, and insights for businesses. Headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, the company offers a wide range of products and services for risk a ...

Withdrawn codes

When countries merge, split, or undergo territorial change, their numeric codes are withdrawn and new numeric codes are assigned. For example: *

East Germany East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

and

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

used numeric codes and respectively before their unification in 1990. Since then, the unified

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

has used numeric code , while keeping the alphabetic codes for West Germany (except in the banking area where they still use the code). *

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

used numeric code before

Eritrea Eritrea, officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa, with its capital and largest city being Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia in the Eritrea–Ethiopia border, south, Sudan in the west, and Dj ...

split away in 1993. Since then, Ethiopia has used numeric code , while keeping the same alphabetic codes. *

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

used numeric code before

South Sudan South Sudan (), officially the Republic of South Sudan, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered on the north by Sudan; on the east by Ethiopia; on the south by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda and Kenya; and on the ...

split away in 2011. Since then, Sudan has used numeric code , while keeping the same alphabetic codes. If a country changes its name without any territorial change, its numeric code remains the same. For example, when

Burma Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and ha ...

was renamed Myanmar without territorial change in 1989, its alphabetic codes were changed, but its numeric code has remained the same. The following numeric codes have been withdrawn from ISO 3166-1: The following numeric codes were also assigned by the United Nations Statistics Division, but these territories were never officially included in ISO 3166-1: In the UN M.49 standard developed by the United Nations Statistics Division, additional numeric codes are used to represent geographical regions and groupings of countries and areas for statistical processing purposes, but these codes are not included in ISO 3166-1. Unlike alphabetic codes, there are no reserved numeric codes in ISO 3166-1.

References

Sources and external links

ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency
International Organization for Standardization (ISO)

United Nations Statistics Division *

— list of alpha-3 and numeric codes (a few territories officially assigned codes in ISO 3166-1 are not included in this list) *

** ttp://unstats.un.org/unsd/methods/m49/m49chang.htm Country or area numerical codes added or changed since 1982* ''

The World Factbook ''The World Factbook'', also known as the ''CIA World Factbook'', is a Reference work, reference resource produced by the United States' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) with almanac-style information about the countries of the world. The off ...

'' (public domain), Central Intelligence Agency *
Appendix D – Cross-Reference List of Country Data Codes
— comparison of FIPS 10, ISO 3166, and STANAG 1059 country codes
Administrative Divisions of Countries ("Statoids")
Statoids.com *

— comparison of ISO 3166-1 country codes with other country codes *

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