UN M49

UN M49 or the Standard Country or Area Codes for Statistical Use (Series M, No. 49) is a standard for area codes used by the United Nations for statistical purposes, developed and maintained by the United Nations Statistics Division. Each area code is a 3-digit number which can refer to a wide variety of geographical and political regions, like a continent and a country. Codes assigned in the system generally do not change when the country or area's name changes (unlike ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 or ISO 3166-1 alpha-3), but instead change when the territorial extent of the country or area changes significantly,[1] although there have been exceptions to this rule.[lower-alpha 1]

Some of these codes, those representing countries and territories, were first included as part of the ISO 3166-1 standard in its second edition in 1981, but they have been released by the United Nations Statistics Division since 1970.[4]

Another part of these numeric codes, those representing geographical (continental and sub-continental) supranational regions, was also included in the IANA registry for region subtags (first described in September 2006 in the now obsoleted RFC 4646, but confirmed in its successor RFC 5646, published in September 2009) for use within language tags, as specified in IETF's BCP 47 (where the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes are used as region subtags, instead of UN M.49 codes, for countries and territories).

Code lists

M.49 area codes (as of December 2021)

Geographical supranational regions
(See also BCP 47 where these were imported as region subtags)
Code Area Subregions
001 World 249002, 009, 010, 019, 142, 150
002 Africa 60015, 202
015 Northern Africa 7 012,  434,  504,  729,  732,  788,  818
202 Sub-Saharan Africa 53011, 014, 017, 018
011 Western Africa 17 132,  204,  270,  288,  324,  384,  430,  466,  478,  562,  566,  624,  654,  686,  694,  768,  854
014 Eastern Africa 22 086,  108,  174,  175,  231,  232,  260,  262,  404,  450,  454,  480,  508,  638,  646,  690,  706,  716,  728,  800,  834,  894
017 Middle Africa 9 024,  120,  140,  148,  178,  180,  226,  266,  678
018 Southern Africa 5 072,  426,  516,  710,  748
010 Antarctica 1 010
019 Americas 57(021, 419) or (003, 005)
003 North America[5] 41013, 021, 029
021 Northern America 5 060,  124,  304,  666,  840
419 Latin America and the Caribbean 52005, 013, 029
005 South America 16 032,  068,  074,  076,  152,  170,  218,  238,  239,  254,  328,  600,  604,  740,  858,  862
013 Central America 8 084,  188,  222,  320,  340,  484,  558,  591
029 Caribbean 28 028,  044,  052,  092,  136,  192,  212,  214,  308,  312,  332,  388,  474,  500,  531,  533,  534,  535,  630,  652,  659,  660,  662,  663,  670,  780,  796,  850
142 Asia 50030, 034, 035, 143, 145
030 Eastern Asia 7 156,  344,  392,  408,  410,  446,  496
034 Southern Asia 9 004,  050,  064,  144,  356,  364,  462,    524,  586
035 South-eastern Asia 11 096,  104,  116,  360,  418,  458,  608,  626,  702,  704,  764
143 Central Asia 5 398,  417,  762,  795,  860
145 Western Asia 18 031,  051,  048,  196,  268,  275,  368,  376,  400,  414,  422,  512,  634,  682,  760,  792,  784,  887
150 Europe 52039, 151, 154, 155
039 Southern Europe 16 008,  020,  070,  191,  292,  300,   336,  380,  470,  499,  620,  674,  688,  705,  724,  807
151 Eastern Europe (including Northern Asia) 10 100,  112,  203,  348,  498,  616,  642,  643,  703,  804
154 Northern Europe 17 208,  233,  234,  246,  248,  352,  372,  428,  440,  578,  744,  752,  826,  833, 830
830 Channel Islands 3 831,  832,  680
155 Western Europe 9 040,  056,  250,  276,  438,  442,  492,  528,   756
009 Oceania 29053, 054, 057, 061
053 Australia and New Zealand 6 036,  162,  166,  334,  554,  574
054 Melanesia 5 090,  242,  540,  548,  598
057 Micronesia 8 296,  316,  520,  580,  581,  583,  584,  585
061 Polynesia 10 016,  184,  258,  570,  612,  772,  776,  798,  876,  882


Other groupings
Code Area
432 Landlocked developing countries (LLDCs)
722 Small Island Developing States (SIDS)
199 Least developed countries (LDCs)


Examples of geopolitical entities (countries or territories)
(See also ISO 3166-1 numeric for the complete set)
Code Area
024 Angola
591 Panama
496 Mongolia
554 New Zealand
756 Switzerland
830 Channel Islands[lower-alpha 2]

Private-use codes and reserved codes

Beside the codes standardized above, the numeric codes 900 to 999 are reserved for private-use in ISO 3166-1 (under agreement by the UNSD) and in the UN M.49 standard. They may be used for any other groupings or subdivision of countries, territories and regions.

Some of these private-use codes may be found in some UN statistics reports and databases, for their own specific purpose. They are not portable across databases from third parties (except through private agreement), and may be changed without notice.

Note that the code 000 is reserved and not used for defining any region. It is used in absence of data, or for data in which no region (not even the World as a whole) is applicable. For unknown or unencoded regions, private-use codes should preferably be used.

Extensions to M.49

Early editions of M.49 used one- or two-digit prefixes to designate economic regions rather than assigning 3-digit codes. These two digit prefixes were designed to be used to easily aggregate data through the use of prefix matching, and regions could be specified collectively by using the 000 code as a base to which the prefix would be added.[6] For example, by prefixing 13 to Algeria's code, 012, to create the five-digit code 13012, Algeria could be identified as being in North Africa (13000), which is itself in Africa (10000).

One-digit suffixes were also permitted, to specify statistics of subdivisions of countries.[6] For example, by suffixing 5 to the code for the United Kingdom to create the four-digit code 8265, Scotland could be represented as a subdivision of the United Kingdom. Additional suffixes could be used to represent the other constituent units of the UK.

Developed and developing regions

The United Nations Statistics Division classifies economic regions into developed and developing regions for statistical convenience. Although this classification was removed from M49 in December 2021,[7] it is still used by the UNSD and various United Nations reports.

Examples of economic regions
(defined for statistical use only)
Code Area
  Developed regions
021 Northern America
150 Europe[lower-alpha 3]
392 Japan
410 Republic of Korea[8][9]
053 Australia and New Zealand
376 Israel[lower-alpha 4]
018 Southern Africa[lower-alpha 4]
  Developing regions[lower-alpha 5]
002 Africa (sometimes excluding Southern Africa)[lower-alpha 4]
419/019 Latin America and the Caribbean / Americas[lower-alpha 6]
029 Caribbean
013 Central America
005 South America
142* Asia (* excluding Japan: 392, the Republic of Korea: 410, and sometimes also Israel: 376)[lower-alpha 4]
009* Oceania (* excluding Australia and New Zealand: 053)
778 Transition countries[lower-alpha 7]
172 Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)
  Transition countries of South-eastern Europe[lower-alpha 8]

Codes no longer in use (obsolete since 1982)
Old Code Old Area New Code(s)
128 Canton and Enderbury Islands[lower-alpha 9]296
200 Czechoslovakia[lower-alpha 10]203, 703
720 Democratic Yemen[lower-alpha 11]887
230 Ethiopia231, 232
280 Federal Republic of Germany[lower-alpha 12]276
274 Gaza Strip275
278 German Democratic Republic[lower-alpha 12]276
396 Johnston Island[lower-alpha 13]581
488 Midway Islands[lower-alpha 13]581
530 Netherlands Antilles[lower-alpha 14]531, 534, 535
532 Netherlands Antilles[lower-alpha 15]530, 533
582 Pacific Islands (Trust Territory)[lower-alpha 16]580, 583, 584, 585
891 Serbia and Montenegro[lower-alpha 17]499, 688
890 Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia[lower-alpha 18]070, 191, 705, 807, 891[lower-alpha 17]
062 South-Central Asia034, 143
736 Sudan[lower-alpha 19]728, 729
810 Union of Soviet Socialist Republics[lower-alpha 20]031, 051, 112, 233, 268, 398, 417, 428, 440, 498, 762, 795, 804, 860
849 United States miscellaneous Pacific Islands[lower-alpha 13]581
872 Wake Island[lower-alpha 13]581
886 Yemen[lower-alpha 11]887

See also

Notes
  1. Through the second revision of M.49 in 1983, changes in territory did not necessarily result in changed codes.[2] Pakistan, for example, retains the code it was assigned in the original 1970 edition of M.49, even though Bangladesh did not separate from Pakistan until 1971 and did not officially receive a code until the first revision of M.49 was released in 1975.[3]
  2. The Channel Islands have never been a single political entity, but a code has been maintained, for statistical use only, in the UN M.49 codification (this grouping has never been encoded in ISO 3166-1, unlike other geopolitical countries or territories), in addition to the newer separate codifications of the Bailiwicks of Jersey and of Guernsey (which were also encoded separately in ISO 3166-1).
  3. Within the developed regions, Europe is sometimes defined with the exception of Transition countries, numerical code 778.
  4. In international trade statistics, the Southern African Customs Union is also treated as a developed region, and Israel as a developed country in Western Asia.
  5. The definition of developing countries is not standardized, but it generally excludes the transition countries.
  6. For some economical analysis, this grouping currently uses the code 019 defined for all Americas, instead of using the code 419 which is assigned to Latin America and the Caribbean
  7. In some reports, the transition countries may be part of developing countries, or will most often be classed separately from developed and developing countries.
  8. The selected economical grouping of transition countries of South-eastern Europe is not encoded in UN M.49, but it currently includes Albania and the countries emerging from the former Yugoslavia (with the exception of Slovenia which is now considered as a developed country), for statistical use only.
  9. Canton and Enderbury Islands (code 128) merged with Kiribati (code 296).
  10. As of 1 January 1993, Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic (code 203) and Slovakia (code 703).
  11. Democratic Yemen (numerical code 720) and Yemen (886) merged on 22 May 1990 under the name Yemen (887).
  12. The German Democratic Republic (numerical code 278) accessed on 3 October 1990 to the Federal Republic of Germany (280), with effect from 3 October 1990 and have united to form a single country simply designated as "Germany" (276).
  13. United States Minor Outlying Islands (numerical code 581) formed by merging Johnston Island (396), Midway Islands (488), United States Miscellaneous Pacific Islands (849), and Wake Island (872).
  14. The Netherlands Antilles were dissolved in 2010
  15. The Netherlands Antilles (with previous numerical code 532) was split when Aruba (533) was separated from it, and the remaining part was then given the new numerical code 530.
  16. Various districts that composed the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands were split successively from the trusteeship and gained independence to form the Republic of the Marshall Islands (numerical code 584), the Federated States of Micronesia (583), and the Republic of Palau (585). The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (580) was later set up in political union with the U.S.
  17. Serbia and Montenegro (numerical code 891) dissolved on 3 June 2006 into 2 independent countries: Montenegro (499) and Serbia (688).
  18. Prior to 1 January 1992, the same numerical code 890 referred to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which was composed of six republics, before the independence of Slovenia (705), Croatia (191), Bosnia and Herzegovina (070), and the Republic of Macedonia (807); the remaining Yugoslav Federation was then dissolved and renamed to form the Federation of Serbia and Montenegro (891, now also dissolved).
  19. South Sudan (numerical code 728) became independent from Sudan (736) on July 9, 2011. The remaining part of Sudan was given the new numerical code 729.
  20. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics dissolved in 1991 into 15 independent countries:

Citations
  1. United Nations 1996, p. 2.
  2. United Nations 1982, p. vi.
  3. United Nations 1975, p. 1.
  4. United Nations 1970; Jensen et al. 1991.
  5. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-11-11. Retrieved 2012-04-17.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  6. United Nations 1970, p. 4.
  7. "Standard country or area codes for statistical use (M49)". United Nations Statistics Division. Retrieved June 7, 2022. There is no definition of developing and developed countries (or areas) within the UN system. However, in 1996 the distinction between "Developed regions" and "Developing regions" was introduced to the Standard country or area codes for statistical use (known as M49). These groupings were intended solely for statistical convenience at the time and did not express a judgement about any country' or area's stage of development. Over time the use of the distinction between "Developed regions" and "Developing regions", including in the flagship publications of the United Nations, has diminished. Since 2017, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) report and the statistical annex to the Secretary General's annual report on SDGs progress uses only geographic regions without referring to the two groupings of developed and developing regions. Therefore, following consultation with other international and supranational organizations active in official statistics, the "Developed regions" and "Developing regions" were removed from the "Other groupings" of the M49 in December 2021.
  8. "Classification of developed and developing regions – historical and updated (.xlsx)". unstats.un.org. Retrieved 24 January 2023.
  9. "Handbook of Statistics 2022" (PDF). unctad.org. Retrieved 14 December 2022.

References
  • Jensen, O.M.; Parkin, D.M.; MacLennan, R.; Muir, C.S.; Skeet, R.G., eds. (1991), "Appendix 1. United Nations Standard Country Codes" (PDF), Cancer Registration: Principles and Methods, IARC Scientific Publication, International Agency for Research on Cancer, vol. No. 95, pp. 208–211, retrieved February 17, 2012
  • United Nations, Statistics Division (January 1970), United Nations Standard Country Code (PDF), Series M: Miscellaneous Statistical Papers, vol. No. 49, New York: United Nations, ST/ESA/STAT/SER.M/49
  • United Nations, Statistical Office (August 1975), United Nations Standard Area or Country Code for Statistical Use (Rev. 1), Series M: Miscellaneous Statistical Papers, vol. No. 49, New York: United Nations, ST/ESA/STAT/SER.M/49/Rev.1
  • United Nations, Statistics Office (June 1982), Standard Country or Area Codes for Statistical Use (Rev. 2), Series M: Miscellaneous Statistical Papers, vol. No. 49, New York: United Nations, ST/ESA/STAT/SER.M/49/Rev.2
  • United Nations, Statistics Division (1996), Standard Country or Area Codes for Statistical Use (Rev. 3), Series M: Miscellaneous Statistical Papers, vol. No. 49, New York: United Nations, ST/ESA/STAT/SER.M/49/Rev.3
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