ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 countries, dependent territories, and special areas of geographical interest. They allow a better visual association between the codes and the country names than the two-letter alpha-2 codes (the third set of codes is numeric and hence offers no visual association).[1] They were first included as part of the ISO 3166 standard in its first edition in 1974.
Contents
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Uses and applications 1
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Current codes 2
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Officially assigned code elements 2.1
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User-assigned code elements 2.2
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Reserved code elements 2.3
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Exceptional reservations 2.3.1
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Transitional reservations 2.3.2
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Indeterminate reservations 2.3.3
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Codes currently agreed not to use 2.3.4
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Deleted codes 3
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See also 4
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References 5
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Sources and external links 6
Uses and applications
The ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 codes are used most prominently in ISO/reserved and not used at the present stage in ISO 3166-1.[2]
The United Nations uses a combination of ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 and alpha-3 codes, along with codes that pre-date the creation of ISO 3166, for international vehicle registration codes, which are codes used to identify the issuing country of a vehicle registration plate; some of these codes are currently indeterminately reserved in ISO 3166-1.[3]
Current codes
Officially assigned code elements
The following is a complete list of the current officially assigned ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 codes, using the English short country names officially defined by the ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency (ISO 3166/MA):[4]
User-assigned code elements
User-assigned code elements are codes at the disposal of users who need to add further names of countries, territories, or other geographical entities to their in-house application of ISO 3166-1, and the ISO 3166/MA will never use these codes in the updating process of the standard. The following alpha-3 codes can be user-assigned: AAA to AAZ, QMA to QZZ, XAA to XZZ, and ZZA to ZZZ. For example, the following codes are used in ISO/IEC 7501-1 for special machine-readable passports:[2]
Reserved code elements
Reserved code elements are codes which have become obsolete, or are required in order to enable a particular user application of the standard but do not qualify for inclusion in ISO 3166-1. To avoid transitional application problems and to aid users who require specific additional code elements for the functioning of their coding systems, the ISO 3166/MA, when justified, reserves these codes which it undertakes not to use for other than specified purposes during a limited or indeterminate period of time. The reserved alpha-3 codes can be divided into the following four categories: exceptional reservations, transitional reservations, indeterminate reservations, and codes currently agreed not to use.
Exceptional reservations
Exceptionally reserved code elements are codes reserved at the request of national ISO member bodies, governments and international organizations, which are required in order to support a particular application, as specified by the requesting body and limited to such use; any further use of such code elements is subject to approval by the ISO 3166/MA. The following alpha-3 codes are currently exceptionally reserved:
The following alpha-3 codes were previously exceptionally reserved, but are now officially assigned:
Transitional reservations
Transitional reserved code elements are codes reserved after their deletion from ISO 3166-1. These codes may be used only during a transitional period of at least five years while new code elements that may have replaced them are taken into use. These codes may be reassigned by the ISO 3166/MA after the expiration of the transitional period. The following alpha-3 codes are currently transitionally reserved:
Indeterminate reservations
Indeterminately reserved code elements are codes used to designate road vehicles under the 1949 and 1968 United Nations Conventions on Road Traffic but differing from those contained in ISO 3166-1. These code elements are expected eventually to be either eliminated or replaced by code elements within ISO 3166-1. In the meantime, the ISO 3166/MA has reserved such code elements for an indeterminate period. Any use beyond the application of the two Conventions is discouraged and will not be approved by the ISO 3166/MA. Moreover, these codes may be reassigned by the ISO 3166/MA at any time. The following alpha-3 codes are currently indeterminately reserved:
The following alpha-3 code was previously indeterminately reserved, but has been reassigned to another country as its official code:
Codes currently agreed not to use
In addition, the ISO 3166/MA will not use the following alpha-3 codes at the present stage, as they are used in ISO/IEC 7501-1 for special machine-readable passports:
Deleted codes
Besides the codes currently transitionally reserved and two other codes currently exceptionally reserved (FXX for France, Metropolitan and SUN for USSR), the following alpha-3 codes have also been deleted from ISO 3166-1:[7]
See also
References
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^ http://www.icao.int/publications/Documents/9303_p2_cons_en.pdf page III-1-4
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Sources and external links
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ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency, International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
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Reserved code elements under ISO 3166-1 "Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions – Part 1: Country codes", available on request from ISO 3166/MA
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Standard Country or Area Codes for Statistical Use, United Nations Statistics Division
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Countries or areas, codes and abbreviations — list of alpha-3 and numeric codes (a few territories officially assigned codes in ISO 3166-1 are not included in this list)
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The World Factbook (public domain), Central Intelligence Agency
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Appendix D – Cross-Reference List of Country Data Codes — comparison of FIPS 10, ISO 3166, and STANAG 1059 country codes
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Administrative Divisions of Countries ("Statoids"), Statoids.com
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Country codes — comparison of ISO 3166-1 country codes with other country codes
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ISO 3166-1 Change History
ISO 3166 codes for the names of countries and their subdivisions
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ISO codes for the names of countries and their ( administrative) subdivisions
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ISO 3166-1
country codes
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ISO 3166-2
country subdivision codes
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a Changed from TP
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b Changed from YU
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ISO standards by standard number
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1–9999
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10000–19999
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20000+
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 Categories
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