ISO 3166-3 is 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., ...

standard published by the

International Organization for Standardization The International Organization for Standardization (ISO ) is an international standard development organization composed of representatives from the national standards organizations of member countries. Membership requirements are given in A ...

(ISO), and defines

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 for

country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, whi ...

names which have been deleted from

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

since its first publication in 1974. The official name of the standard is ''Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions – Part 3: Code for formerly used names of countries''. It was first published in 1999. Each former country name in ISO 3166-3 is assigned a four-letter alphabetic code. The first two letters are the

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 areas of ...

code of the former country, while the last two letters are allocated according to the following rules: * If the country changed its name, the new ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code is used (e.g.,

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

changed its name to Myanmar, whose new alpha-2 code is ), or the special code is used if its alpha-2 code was not changed (e.g.,

Byelorussian SSR The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR, or Byelorussian SSR; be, Беларуская Савецкая Сацыялістычная Рэспубліка, Bielaruskaja Savieckaja Sacyjalistyčnaja Respublika; russian: Белор� ...

changed its name to

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by ...

, which has kept the same alpha-2 code). * If the country merged into an existing country, the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code of this country is used (e.g., the

German Democratic Republic German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **G ...

merged into

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

, whose alpha-2 code is ). * If the country was divided into several parts, the special code is used to indicate that there is no single successor country (e.g.,

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

was divided into the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

and

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the ...

), with the exception of

Serbia and Montenegro Serbia and Montenegro ( sr, Cрбија и Црна Гора, translit=Srbija i Crna Gora) was a country in Southeast Europe located in the Balkans that existed from 1992 to 2006, following the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of ...

, for which is used to avoid duplicate use of the same ISO 3166-3 code, as the alpha-2 code had twice been deleted from ISO 3166-1, the first time due to the split of Czechoslovakia and the second time due to the split of Serbia and Montenegro. Besides the former country name and its ISO 3166-3 code, each entry in ISO 3166-3 also contains its former ISO 3166-1 codes, its period of validity, and the new country names and ISO 3166-1 codes used after its deletion from ISO 3166-1. After a country is deleted from ISO 3166-1, its alpha-2 and alpha-3 codes will be transitionally reserved for a transitional period of at least fifty years. After the expiration of the transitional period, these codes are free to be reassigned. If a country changes its name without any territorial change, its ISO 3166-1 numeric code remains the same. For example, when

was renamed Myanmar without territorial change in 1989, its alphabetic codes were changed, but its numeric code has remained the same. Currently, a few ccTLDs using deleted alpha-2 codes are still active or being phased out. However, alpha-2 codes which were deleted before the popularization of the

Domain Name System The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical and distributed naming system for computers, services, and other resources in the Internet or other Internet Protocol (IP) networks. It associates various information with domain names assigned t ...

in the late 1980s and early 1990s were never used for the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, p ...

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 ...

s (ccTLDs). Likewise,

ISO 3166-2 ISO 3166-2 is part of the ISO 3166 standard published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and defines codes for identifying the principal subdivisions (e.g., provinces or states) of all countries coded in ISO 3166-1. The ...

, the ISO standard for country subdivision codes which was first published in 1998, predated the deletion of many alpha-2 codes.

Current codes

The following is a list of current ISO 3166-3 codes, with the following columns: * Former country name – English short country name officially used by the ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency (ISO 3166/MA) * Former codes – ISO 3166-1 alpha-2, alpha-3, and numeric codes * Period of validity – Years when codes were officially assigned * ISO 3166-3 code – Four-letter code assigned for former country name * New country names and codes – Successor countries and their ISO 3166-1 codes ''Click on the button in the header to sort by ISO 3166-3 code.'' ; Notes

Changes

The ISO 3166/MA updates ISO 3166-3 when necessary. The updating of ISO 3166-3 is totally dependent on the updating of ISO 3166-1. ISO used to announce changes in newsletters which updated the currently valid standard, and releasing new editions which comprise a consolidation of newsletter changes. As of July 2013, changes are published in the online catalogue of ISO only and no newsletters are published anymore. Past newsletters remain available on the ISO website.

References

Sources and external links

ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency
International Organization for Standardization (ISO) *
Country codes - Online Browsing Platform (OBP)

Administrative Divisions of Countries ("Statoids")
Statoids.com *

{{DEFAULTSORT:Iso 3166-3 3 Lists of former countries

Current codes

Changes

See also

References

Sources and external links