FprEN ISO 3166-1

SLOVENSKI STANDARD
oSIST prEN ISO 3166-1:2019
01-oktober-2019

Kode za predstavljanje imen držav in njihovih podrejenih enot - 1. del: Kode držav

Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions - Part 1:

Codes pour la représentation des noms de pays et de leurs subdivisions - Partie 1:

2003-01.Slovenski inštitut za standardizacijo. Razmnoževanje celote ali delov tega standarda ni dovoljeno.

All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, or required in the context of its implementation, no part of this publication may

be reproduced or utilized otherwise in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, or posting

on the internet or an intranet, without prior written permission. Permission can be requested from either ISO at the address

Foreword ..........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................v

Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................vi

1 Scope ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 1

2 Normative references ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 1

3 Terms and definitions ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 1

4 Principles for inclusion in the list of country names ...................................................................................................... 4

4.1 List ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 4

4.2 Source of names ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 4

4.3 Overlaps ........................................................................................................................................................................................................ 4

4.4 Current status of names .................................................................................................................................................................. 4

4.5 Independent countries ..................................................................................................................................................................... 5

5 Principles for allocation of code elements ................................................................................................................................ 5

5.1 Relationship with names ................................................................................................................................................................ 5

5.2 Construction of the alpha-2 code ............................................................................................................................................ 5

5.3 Construction of the alpha-3 code ............................................................................................................................................ 5

5.4 Construction of the numeric-3 code ..................................................................................................................................... 5

6 List of country names and their code elements ................................................................................................................... 6

6.1 Specification for use ........................................................................................................................................................................... 6

6.2 Content of the list .................................................................................................................................................................................. 6

6.3 Choice of language, romanization, character set ....................................................................................................... 6

7 Maintenance .............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 7

7.1 Maint enance agency (ISO 3166/MA) .................................................................................................................................. 7

7.2 Addition to the list of country names .................................................................................................................................. 7

7.3 Deletion from the list of country names ........................................................................................................................... 8

7.4 Alterations to country name or code element ............................................................................................................. 8

7.5 Reservation of country code elements ............................................................................................................................... 8

7.5.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................................................................... 8

7.5.2 Period of non-allocation ............................................................................................................................................ 8

7.5.3 Period of non-use ............................................................................................................................................................ 8

7.5.4 Exceptional reserved code elements .............................................................................................................. 8

7.5.5 List of reserved code elements ............................................................................................................................ 8

8 Guidelines for users .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 9

8.1 Special Provisions ................................................................................................................................................................................. 9

8.1.1 Aggregations ........................................................................................................................................................................ 9

8.1.2 User assigned code element ................................................................................................................................... 9

8.2 Advice regarding use of country code elements ........................................................................................................ 9

Annex A (informative) Numerical representation of ISO 3166 alpha-2 code elements ...............................10

Annex B (informative) Conversion matrix for the numerical representation of ISO 3166

alpha-2 code elements .................................................................................................................................................................................11

Annex C (informative) List of ISO 639 language codes, alpha-2 and alpha-3, used in

the ISO 3166 standard of country codes ...................................................................................................................................13

Annex D (normative) Alphabetical index of names from the list of country codes appearing

significant part of composite country names ......................................................................................................................17

Annex E (informative) Principles for minor modification to the short form of country name

received from UNTERM, allowing for display in alphabetic order ................................................................22

Annex F (informative) Source of names. Procedures concerning official full country names

at UNTERM, confirmed on 2019-03-07 ......................................................................................................................................23

Annex G (normative) OBP Labels ..........................................................................................................................................................................24

Bibliography .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................26

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bodies (ISO member bodies). The work of preparing International Standards is normally carried out

through ISO technical committees. Each member body interested in a subject for which a technical

committee has been established has the right to be represented on that committee. International

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The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are

described in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular the different approval criteria needed for the

different types of ISO documents should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the

editorial rules of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www .iso .org/directives).

Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of

patent rights. ISO shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights. Details of

any patent rights identified during the development of the document will be in the Introduction and/or

Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not

For an explanation on the voluntary nature of standards, the meaning of ISO specific terms and

expressions related to conformity assessment, as well as information about ISO's adherence to the

World Trade Organization (WTO) principles in the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) see the following

This document was prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 46, Information and documentation,

This fourth edition cancels and replaces the third edition (ISO 3166-1:2013), which has been the last

one published as paper standard, with the normative text and the codes together. In the end of 2013, the

ISO 3166 codes have been moved to the database format (de facto merging three parts together).

This fourth edition is a minor revision to the last published ISO 3166-1:2013 standard, principles and

lists together. It takes into account the stricter database rules imposed on the code itself, as opposed to

— The components of the codes are defined by descriptors, not by column or line numbers

— The status of alpha-2 code element is explicit, as it is the main resource managed by ISO 3166/MA,

— All characters in the database, specifically those with diacritical marks, have been checked with

Universal Multiple-Octet Coded Character Set, ISO/IEC 10646, and are used consistently

— The three parts - three codes - belong to the same database, updates are done only once for all parts

— The ISO 3166 standard as database permits to update any application using it in a quick and

ISO 3166 provides universally applicable coded representations of names of countries (current and

non-current), dependencies, and other areas of particular geopolitical interest and their subdivisions.

ISO 3166-1, establishes codes that represent the current names of countries, dependencies, and other

areas of particular geopolitical interest, on the basis of country names obtained from the United

ISO 3166-2 establishes a code that represents the names of the principal administrative divisions, or

ISO 3166-3 establishes a code that represents non-current country names, i.e. the country names

The three parts of ISO 3166 do not express any opinion whatsoever concerning the legal status of any

country, dependency, or other area named herein, or concerning its frontiers or boundaries.

The ISO 3166 standard establishes codes for the representation of the names of countries, dependencies,

and other areas of particular geopolitical interest, on the basis of lists of country names obtained from

the United Nations. This part of ISO 3166 is intended for use in any application requiring the expression

of current country names in coded form; it also includes basic guidelines for its implementation and

The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their content

constitutes requirements of this document. For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For

undated references, the latest edition of the referenced document (including any amendments) applies.

ISO 639-1, Codes for the representation of names of languages — Part 1: Alpha-2 code

ISO 639-2, Codes for the representation of names of languages — Part 2: Alpha-3 code

ISO 639-3, Codes for the representation of names of languages — Part 3: Alpha-3 code for comprehensive

ISO and IEC maintain terminological databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:

set of data transformed or represented in different forms according to a pre-established set of rules

Note 2 to entry: In the country code part, a code element represents a country name.

Note 1 to entry: based on the ISO standards “Information and documentation vocabulary” and “Information

Note 1 to entry: based on the alpha-2 country code when possible, for use in cases where a specific need has been

Note 2 to entry: this item might be inverted, allowing the distinctive word to appear first, so that items can be

short form of the country name, distinctive word first, based on official short form in UNTERM

Note 2 to entry: this item might be inverted, listed with its articles if any, allowing an alphabetical order on the

full name, if different from the short form of the country name, as recorded in UNTERM

Note 2 to entry: sometimes "Variants" noted as remark, are identical to 3.22 local short country name in an

alpha-2 ISO 639 language code element of each administrative language of the country

alpha-3 (terminological version) ISO 639 language code element of each administrative language of

Note 2 to entry: might be in language of the ISO 3166 standard as remark, see 3.18

conversion of writing system from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script

The list of country names in this part of ISO 3166 includes those required to satisfy the broadest possible

range of applications. It is based on the list in the “Standard Country or Area Codes for Statistical Use”

Until September 2000, the names of independent countries were given, in English and French, in

“Terminology Bulletin-Country Names”, issued by the United Nations Department of Conference

Services, entitled “States Members of the United Nations, Members of the Specialized Agencies or Parties

to the Statute of the International Court of Justice”, as well as those published in the “Standard Country

or Area Codes for Statistical Use”, issued by the United Nations Statistics Division (see Bibliography).

Today the authority for country names used officially in the United Nations is the UN Terminology

Section, which maintains the United Nations Multilingual Terminology Database (or UNTERM),

available at http: //unterm .un .org. This database contains records for each country that list, among

other things, the short and formal country names in the six official languages of the UN.

The information presented in this ISO 3166 document has been extracted from the UNTERM database.

The full name is the formal title as notified by the permanent mission of the country concerned to the

Protocol and Liaison Service of the United Nations, and adjusted grammatically by UNTERM linguists.

The short form may have some minor modifications. The part 1 of ISO 3166 provides both forms, full

The short form is provided in two presentations, the additional one being in capital letters, both

allowing for display in an alphabetical order of country names based on the distinctive word. For ease

Other widely used forms of country names may also be provided in local short country name, see

Some country names included in the part 1 of ISO 3166 cover areas that have also been coded separately

where an interchange requirement justifies a separate code element; the entries are therefore not

Country names listed in the part 1 of ISO 3166 are intended to reflect the current situation, at the time

Independent countries are indicated in a specific item in the lists of the part 1 of ISO 3166. For the

purpose of the part 1 of ISO 3166, the member states of United Nations and the Holy See are regarded

The principle behind the alphabetic codes in the part 1 of ISO 3166 is a visual association between the

country names (in English or French, or sometimes in another language) and their corresponding code

elements. In applying this principle, the code elements have generally been assigned on the basis of the

short names of the countries, thus avoiding, wherever possible, any reflection of their political status.

The distinguishing signs for road vehicles reported by the contracting parties to the Conventions on

Road Traffic (1949 and 1968; see Bibliography) provided the major source for code elements for the

The ISO 3166 establishes, in part 1, an alphabetic 2-character (alpha-2) code, which is generally

recommended to represent country names and which is the basis for the codes laid down in part 2 and

in part 3 and for other international standards and recommendations (see Bibliography).

The alpha-2 code uses combinations, in upper case, of two letters of the 26-character Latin alphabet,

allowing for 26*26=676 combinations. The ISO 3166 standard uses combinations in the range AB to QL,

Part of alpha-2 code elements was reserved for users, so their own pre-existing systems could be

The status of alpha-2 code elements is explicit, as it is the main resource managed by ISO 3166/MA,

In addition exactly 42 alpha-2 code elements are not used in the ISO 3166, AA, QM to QZ, XA to XZ, ZZ.

The ISO 3166 also provides an alphabetic 3-character (alpha-3) code, based on the alpha-2 code, when

possible, and using combinations, in upper case, of three letters of the 26-character Latin alphabet in

the range ABA to QLZ, RAA to WZZ, and YAA to ZYZ for use in cases where a specific need has been

Code elements AAA to AAZ, QMA to QZZ, XAA to XZZ, and ZZA to ZZZ are not used in the part 1 of

Recognizing that a numeric code for country names is of advantage (e.g. to provide language

independence), a three-digit numeric (numeric-3) code from the range 000 to 899 is also provided in

This numeric code is given by the standard country or area code for statistical use from the United

Nations Statistical Division, and has been published in ISO 3166 since its second edition (1981).

A table showing the correspondence between the alpha-2 code elements and the numeric-3 code

The list of country names and their code elements is available online at the ISO Online Browsing

Platform at https: //www .iso .org/obp. It is maintained current irrespective of the issue status of this

When applying this part of ISO 3166, users should clearly state which of the three codes they are using.

If a code element from this part of ISO 3166 is used in combination with other characters for special

purposes, it is strongly recommended that the choice and function of any such additional characters be

A single entry in this list is shared with all three parts of this standard. For this part the following