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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 refers to
ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes are two-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 ...
, as well as the telephone country code, which is embodied in the E.164 recommendation by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).


ISO 3166-1

The standard ISO 3166-1 defines short identification codes for most countries and dependent areas: *
ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes are two-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 ...
: two-letter code *
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 are ...
: three-letter code * ISO 3166-1 numeric: three-digit code The two-letter codes are used as the basis for other codes and applications, for example, *for ISO 4217
currency A currency is a standardization of money in any form, in use or circulation as a medium of exchange, for example banknotes and coins. A more general definition is that a currency is a ''system of money'' in common use within a specific envi ...
codes *with deviations, for country code top-level domain names (ccTLDs) on the Internet: list of Internet TLDs. Other applications are defined in
ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes are two-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 ...
.


ITU


Telephone country codes

Telephone country codes are telephone number prefixes for international direct dialing (IDD), a system for reaching subscribers in foreign areas via international telecommunication networks. Country codes are defined by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in ITU-T standards E.123 and E.164. Country codes constitute the international telephone numbering plan. They are dialed before the national telephone number of a destination in a foreign country or area, but typically require at least one additional prefix, the international call prefix which is an exit code from the national numbering plan to the international one. ITU standards recommend the digit sequence ''00'' for the prefix, and most countries comply.


Other ITU codes

The ITU also maintains the following other country codes: * The E.212 mobile country codes (MCC), for mobile/wireless phone addresses. * The ITU prefix, the first few characters of call signs of radio and television stations (maritime, aeronautical, broadcasting, and other types) to identify their country of origin ** ITU prefix - amateur and experimental stations, specific prefixes for
amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...
and experimental radio use, so that operators can be identified by their country of origin. These prefixes are legally administered by the national entity to which prefix ranges are assigned. * Maritime identification digits, to identify countries in maritime mobile radio transmissions. * ITU letter codes, to identify ITU member-countries.


Other country codes

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


Other general-purpose systems

* FIPS country codes:
Federal Information Processing Standard The Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) of the United States are a set of publicly announced standards that the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has developed for use in computer systems of non-military United Stat ...
(FIPS) 10-4 defined two-letter codes used by the U.S. government and in the CIA World Factbook. On September 2, 2008, FIPS 10-4 was one of ten standards withdrawn by NIST as a Federal Information Processing Standard. * GOST 7.67: country codes in
Cyrillic The Cyrillic script ( ) is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking countries in Southeastern Europe, Ea ...
from the GOST standards committee. * NATO country codes: North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) initially used two-letter codes largely borrowed from the FIPS 10-4 codes mentioned above. In 2003, the eighth edition of the Standardisation Agreement ( STANAG) adopted the ISO 3166 three-letter codes with one exception (the code for Macedonia). With the ninth edition, NATO is transitioning to four- and six-letter codes based on ISO 3166 with a few exceptions and additions. * The first-level of the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics of the
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...
, mostly focusing on EU member states. * UNDP country codes, used by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). * World Area Codes, used by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, part of the United States Department of Transportation.


Business

* GS1 country codes, defined by the nonprofit international organization GS1 for its Global Trade Item Number (GTIN) and other standards for barcodes and the corresponding issue company prefixes. * WIPO ST.3, defined by World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) to identify both countries and regional intellectual property organizations.


Sport

* IOC country codes, defined by the
International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; , CIO) is the international, non-governmental, sports governing body of the modern Olympic Games. Founded in 1894 by Pierre de Coubertin and Demetrios Vikelas, it is based i ...
(IOC) to identify member countries, specifically National Olympic Committees. * FIFA country codes, to identify member and non-member countries of FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association).


Transport

* International vehicle registration codes, under the 1949 Geneva Convention on Road Traffic and the 1968 Vienna Convention on Road Traffic to identify the country that issued a motor vehicle's vehicle registration plate. ** After the 2004 EU enlargement, the EU began instead using the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code for license plate codes, but with two modifications: EL for Greece (instead of GR) and (formerly) UK for United Kingdom (instead of G

**
Diplomatic license plates in the United States In the United States, vehicle registration plates, known as license plates, are issued by a department of motor vehicles, an government agency, agency of the state or territorial government, or in the case of the Washington, D.C., District of C ...
, issued by the U.S. State Department to accredited diplomats, include a two-letter country code to identify that representative's country. * ICAO aircraft registration prefixes, defined by the
International Civil Aviation Organization The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO ) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that coordinates the principles and techniques of international air navigation, and fosters the planning and development of international sch ...
(ICAO) to identify an aircraft's country of registration. *
ICAO airport code The ICAO airport code or location indicator is a four-letter code designating aerodromes around the world. These codes, as defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization and published quarterly in ICAO Document 7910: ''Location Indic ...
prefixes, defined by the ICAO to identify an airport's country. * UIC country codes, to identify members of the
International Union of Railways The International Union of Railways (, UIC) is an international rail transport industry body based in Paris. History The railways of Europe had originated during the nineteenth century as many separate concerns across numerous nations; this le ...
(UIC).


Other specific-purpose codes

*
Country code top-level domain A country code top-level domain (ccTLD) is an Internet top-level domain generally used or reserved for a country, sovereign state, or dependent territory identified with a country code. All ASCII ccTLD identifiers are two letters long, and all tw ...
(ccTLD), an Internet
top-level domain A top-level domain (TLD) is one of the domain name, domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet after the root domain. The top-level domain names are installed in the DNS root zone, root zone of the nam ...
. Originally defined by the
Internet Assigned Numbers Authority The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is a standards organization that oversees global IP address allocation, Autonomous system (Internet), autonomous system number allocation, DNS root zone, root zone management in the Domain Name Syste ...
(IANA), it was initially based on ISO 3166-1 alpha-2. *
World Meteorological Organization The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for promoting international cooperation on atmospheric science, climatology, hydrology an ...
(WMO) maintains its own list of country codes in reporting meteorological observations.


Other codings

Country identities may be encoded in the following coding systems: *The initial digits of
International Standard Book Number The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a numeric commercial book identifier that is intended to be unique. Publishers purchase or receive ISBNs from an affiliate of the International ISBN Agency. A different ISBN is assigned to e ...
s (ISBN) are group identifiers for countries, areas, or language regions.


Lists of country codes by country

A - B - C - D–E - F - G - H–I - J–K - L - M - N - O–Q - R - S - T - U–Z


See also

* List of ISO 3166 country codes *
ISO 639 ISO 639 is a international standard, standard by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) concerned with representation of languages and language groups. It currently consists of four sets (1-3, 5) of code, named after each part w ...
language codes *
Language code A language code is a code that assigns letters or numbers as identifiers or classifiers for languages. These codes may be used to organize library collections or presentations of data, to choose the correct localizations and translations in comput ...
*
Numbering scheme There are many different numbering schemes for assigning nominal numbers to entities. These generally require an agreed set of rules, or a central coordinator. The schemes can be considered to be examples of a primary key of a database management ...


References


External links


Comparison of various systems
*Another comparison: *A comparison wit
ISO, IFS and others
wit
notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Country Code Geocodes