Country code

Acountry codeis a short Alpha numeric identification code for countries and dependent areas. Its primary use is indata processingandcommunications.Several identification systems have been developed.

The termcountry codefrequently refers toISO 3166-1 Alpha -2,as well as the telephone country code, which is embodied in theE.164recommendation by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

ISO 3166-1

The standardISO 3166-1defines short identification codes for most countries and dependent areas:

• ISO 3166-1 Alpha -2:two-letter code
• ISO 3166-1 Alpha -3: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,

• forISO 4217currencycodes
• with deviations, for country codetop-level domainnames (ccTLDs) on the Internet:list of Internet TLDs.

Other applications are defined inISO 3166-1 Alpha -2.

ITU country codes

See also:List of country calling codes

Intelecommunication,acountry code,orinternational subscriber dialing(ISD) code, is atelephone numberprefix used ininternational direct dialing(IDD) and fordestination routingof telephone calls to acountryother than the caller's. A country or region with an autonomous telephone administration must apply for membership in theInternational Telecommunication Union(ITU) to participate in the internationalpublic switched telephone network(PSTN). County codes are defined by theITU-Tsection of the ITU in standardsE.123andE.164.

Country codes constitute the internationaltelephone numbering plan,and are dialed only when calling a telephone number in another country. They are dialed before the national telephone number. International calls require at least one additional prefix to be dialing before the country code, to connect the call to international circuits, theinternational call prefix.When printing telephone numbers this is indicated by a plus-sign (+) in front of a complete international telephone number, per recommendation E164 by the ITU.

Other country codes

• European Union:
  • Before the2004 EU enlargementthe EU used the UN Road Traffic Conventionslicense plate codes.Since then, it has used theISO 3166-1Alpha -2 code, but with two modifications:[1]
    • EL for Greece (instead of GR)
    • (formerly) UK for United Kingdom (instead of GB)
  • TheNomenclature des unités territoriales statistiques(Nomenclature of territorial units for statistics, NUTS) of theEuropean Union,mostly focusing on subdivisions of the EU member states
• FIFA(Fédération Internationale de Football Association) assigns a three-letter code (dubbed FIFA Trigramme) to each of its member and non-member countries:List of FIFA country codes
• Federal Information Processing Standard(FIPS)10-4defined two-letter codes used by the U.S. government and in theCIA World Factbook:list of FIPS country codes.On September 2, 2008, FIPS 10-4 was one of ten standards withdrawn byNISTas a Federal Information Processing Standard.
• TheBureau of Transportation Statistics,part of theUnited States Department of Transportation(US DOT), maintains its own list of codes, so-calledWorld Area Codes (WAC),for state and country codes.
• GOST 7.67:country codes inCyrillicfrom theGOSTstandards committee
• From theInternational Civil Aviation Organization(ICAO):
  • The national prefixes used in aircraft registration numbers
  • Location prefixesin four-characterICAO airport codes
• International Olympic Committee(IOC) three-letter codes used in sporting events:list of IOC country codes
• From theInternational Telecommunication Union(ITU):
  • theE.212mobile country codes(MCC), for mobile/wireless phone addresses,
  • the first few characters of call signs of radio stations (maritime, aeronautical,amateur radio,broadcasting, and so on) define the country: theITU prefix,
  • ITU letter codesfor member-countries,
  • ITU prefix - amateur and experimental stations- TheInternational Telecommunication Union(ITU) assigns national telecommunication prefixes foramateurand 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.
  • Three-digit codes used to identify countries in maritime mobile radio transmissions, known asmaritime identification digits
• License platesfor automobiles:
  • Under the 1949 and 1968 United Nations Road Traffic Conventions (distinguishing signs of vehicles in international traffic):List of international license plate codes.
  • Diplomatic license plates in the United States,assigned by theU.S. State Department.
• North Atlantic Treaty Organization(NATO) used two-letter codes of its own:list of NATO country codes.They were largely borrowed from the FIPS 10-4 codes mentioned below. 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
• United Nations Development Programme(UNDP) also has its own list oftrigram country codes
• World Intellectual Property Organization(WIPO):WIPO ST.3gives two-letter codes to countries and regional intellectual property organizations
• World Meteorological Organization(WMO) maintains a list of country codes, used in reporting meteorological observations
• UIC (theInternational Union of Railways):UIC Country Codes

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

Other codings

Country identities may be encoded in the following coding systems:

• The initial digits ofInternational Standard Book Numbers(ISBN) are group identifiers for countries, areas, or language regions.
• The first three digits ofGS1Company Prefixes used to identify products, for example, inbarcodes,designate (national) numbering agencies.

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 639language codes
• Language code
• Numbering scheme

External links

• Comparison of various systems
• Another comparison:"Country Codes".Statoids.
• A comparison withISO, IFS and otherswithnotes
• United Nations Region Codes