ISO 3166

ISO 3166 is an ISO 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., provinces or states). The official name of the standard is Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions.

"Geographic code" redirects here. Not to be confused with Geographic coding.

Parts

It consists of three parts:[1]

  • ISO 3166-1, Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions – Part 1: Country codes, defines codes for the names of countries, dependent territories, and special areas of geographical interest. It defines three sets of country codes:
  • ISO 3166-2, Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions – Part 2: Country subdivision code, defines codes for the names of the principal subdivisions (e.g., provinces, states, departments, regions) of all countries coded in ISO 3166-1.
  • ISO 3166-3, Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions – Part 3: Code for formerly used names of countries, defines codes for country names which have been deleted from ISO 3166-1 since its first publication in 1974.

Editions

The first edition of ISO 3166, which included only alphabetic country codes, was published in 1974. The second edition, published in 1981, also included numeric country codes, with the third and fourth editions published in 1988 and 1993 respectively. The fifth edition, published between 1997 and 1999, was expanded into three parts to include codes for subdivisions and former countries.[1]

ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency

The ISO 3166 standard is maintained by the ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency (ISO 3166/MA), located at the ISO central office in Geneva. Originally it was located at the Deutsches Institut für Normung (DIN) in Berlin. Its principal tasks are:[1]

  • To add and to eliminate country names and to assign code elements to them;
  • To publish lists of country names and code elements;
  • To maintain a reference list of all country code elements and subdivision code elements used and their period of use;
  • To issue newsletters announcing changes to the code tables;
  • To advise users on the application of ISO 3166.

Members

There are fifteen experts with voting rights on the ISO 3166/MA.[1] Nine are representatives of national standards organizations:

The other six are representatives of major United Nations agencies or other international organizations who are all users of ISO 3166-1:

The ISO 3166/MA has further associated members who do not participate in the votes but who, through their expertise, have significant influence on the decision-taking procedure in the maintenance agency.

Codes beginning with "X"

Country codes beginning with "X" are used for private custom use (reserved), never for official codes. Despite the words "private custom", the use may include other public standards. ISO affirms that no country code beginning with X will ever be standardised.[lower-alpha 1] Examples of X codes include:

Current country codes
Main article: List of ISO 3166 country codes

Notes
  1. XK for Kosovo is a unilateral "user assigned code" and not an ISO 3166 standard country code.

See also

References
  1. "Country Codes - ISO 3166". International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
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