International standard iso 3166

For the Internet Domain name system only the two letter Alpha-2 code list is used to define country-code Top Level Domains.

Deletions are made under the same provisions. Alterations to a country name of code element are primarily based on information from United Nations Headquarters. Much of the work on ISO standards is done by technical committees TCs , with advice from specialized working groups. The technical committee consists out of 35 national standardization institutes and 37 observing.

The ISO series of international standards details country codes and codes for their subdivisions. Some common uses of ISO country codes include international mail, as top-level domain names e. ISO — Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions — Part 1: Country code sets the country codes. It establishes for each country an alphabetic 2-character alpha-2 code, an alphabetic 3-character alpha-3 code, and a three-digit numeric numeric-3 code.

This document is intended for use in any application requiring the expression of current country names in coded form. Please note that ISO does not define the names of countries.

Names and codes for subdivisions are usually taken from relevant official national information sources. The formerly used codes are four-letter codes alpha How the alpha-4 codes are constructed depends on the reason why the country name has been removed.

Read more about the different types of codes in the Glossary for ISO For more information, visit the ISO Store. ISO is regularly updated to reflect changes in country names and subdivisions. The numeric country code is assigned by the UN. As a general rule, the ISO Maintenance Agency does not assign official country code elements to other geopolitical areas or countries that are not member states of the UN. To be considered, some criteria, amongst others, include that the area be physically separated from its parent country and outside its territorial waters.