ISO 3166-1 numeric (or numeric-3) codes are three-digit country codes defined in ISO 3166-1, part of the ISO 3166 standard published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), to represent countries, dependent territories, and special areas of geographical interest. They are similar to the three-digit country codes developed and maintained by the United Nations Statistics Division, from which they originate in its UN M.49 standard. They were first included as part of the ISO 3166 standard in its second edition in 1981, but they were released by the United Nations Statistics Division since as early as 1970.
An advantage of numeric codes over alphabetic codes is script (writing system) independence. The ISO 3166-1 alphabetic codes (alpha-2 and alpha-3) use letters from the 26-letter English alphabet and are suitable for languages based on the Latin alphabet. For people and systems using non-Latin scripts (such as Arabic or Japanese), the English alphabet may be unavailable or difficult to use, understand, or correctly interpret. While numeric codes overcome the problems of script dependence, this independence comes at the cost of loss of mnemonic convenience.
Another advantage is that when countries merge or split, they will get a new numeric code, while the alphabetic code stays in use for (a part of) that country. A persistent number is needed in datasets with historical country information.
Current codes Officially assigned code elements The following is a complete list of the current officially assigned ISO 3166-1 numeric codes, using a title case version of the English short names officially used by the ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency (ISO 3166/MA):
Code Country nameNotes Afghanistan Albania Antarctica Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Antigua and Barbuda Azerbaijan Before 1991: part of the USSR Argentina Australia Austria Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Armenia Before 1991: part of the USSR Barbados Belgium Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia, Plurinational State of Bosnia and Herzegovina Before 1992: part of Yugoslavia Botswana Bouvet Island Brazil Belize Formerly British Honduras British Indian Ocean Territory Solomon Islands Formerly British Solomon Islands Virgin Islands (British) Brunei Darussalam Bulgaria Myanmar Formerly Burma Burundi Belarus Formerly Byelorussian SSR Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cabo Verde Formerly Cape Verde Cayman Islands Central African Republic Sri Lanka Formerly Ceylon Chad Chile China Taiwan, Province of China Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia Comoros Mayotte Before 1975: part of Comoros; ISO code assigned in 1993 Congo Congo, Democratic Republic of the Cook Islands Costa Rica Croatia Before 1992: part of Yugoslavia Cuba Cyprus Czechia Before 1993: part of Czechoslovakia Benin Formerly Dahomey Denmark Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Ethiopia Eritrea Before 1993: part of Ethiopia Estonia Before 1991: part of the USSR Faroe Islands Previously spelled as Faeroe Islands Falkland Islands (Malvinas) South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Before 1993: part of the Falkland Islands Fiji Finland Before 2004: included in Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Djibouti Formerly French Territory of the Afars and the Issas Gabon Georgia Before 1991: part of the USSR Gambia Palestine, State of Replaced the Gaza Strip, which was assigned code by the United Nations Statistics Division Germany A unified country since 1990 Ghana Gibraltar Kiribati Formerly Gilbert and Ellice Islands Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guinea Guyana Haiti Heard Island and McDonald Islands Holy See Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran, Islamic Republic of Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Formerly Ivory Coast Jamaica Japan Kazakhstan Before 1991: part of the USSR Jordan Kenya Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Before 1991: part of the USSR Lao People's Democratic Republic Lebanon Lesotho Latvia Before 1991: part of the USSR Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Before 1991: part of the USSR Luxembourg Macao Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mexico Monaco Mongolia Moldova, Republic of Before 1991: part of the USSR Montenegro Before 2006: part of Yugoslavia/Serbia and Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Oman Formerly Muscat and Oman Namibia Naoero Formerly Nauru Nepal Netherlands, Kingdom of the Curaçao Before 2010: part of the Netherlands Antilles Aruba Before 1986: part of the Netherlands Antilles Sint Maarten (Dutch part) Before 2010: part of the Netherlands Antilles Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba New Caledonia Vanuatu Formerly New Hebrides New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island Norway Northern Mariana Islands Before 1986: part of Pacific Islands (Trust Territory) United States Minor Outlying Islands Merger of uninhabited U.S. islands on the Pacific Ocean in 1986 Micronesia, Federated States of Before 1986: part of Pacific Islands (Trust Territory) Marshall Islands Palau Pakistan Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Pitcairn Poland Portugal Guinea-Bissau Formerly Portuguese Guinea Timor-Leste Formerly Portuguese Timor and East Timor Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Russian Federation Before 1991: part of the USSR Rwanda Saint Barthélemy Before 2007: part of Guadeloupe Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha Saint Kitts and Nevis Before 1985: part of Saint Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla Anguilla Saint Lucia Saint Martin (French part) Before 2007: part of Guadeloupe Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saint Vincent and the Grenadines San Marino Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Before 2006: part of Yugoslavia/Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Before 1993: part of Czechoslovakia Viet Nam Official name: Socialist Republic of Viet Nam Slovenia Before 1992: part of Yugoslavia Somalia South Africa Zimbabwe Formerly Southern Rhodesia Spain South Sudan Before 2011: part of Sudan Sudan Western Sahara Formerly Spanish Sahara Suriname Svalbard and Jan Mayen Eswatini Formerly Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Syrian Arab Republic Tajikistan Before 1991: part of the USSR Thailand Togo Tokelau Tonga Trinidad and Tobago United Arab Emirates Formerly Trucial States Tunisia Türkiye Turkmenistan Before 1991: part of the USSR Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda Ukraine Before 1991: part of the USSR North Macedonia Before 1993: part of Yugoslavia Egypt Formerly United Arab Republic United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Guernsey Before 2006: included with the United Kingdom Jersey Isle of Man Tanzania, United Republic of United States of America Virgin Islands (U.S.) Burkina Faso Formerly Upper Volta Uruguay Uzbekistan Before 1991: part of the USSR Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Wallis and Futuna Samoa Formerly Western Samoa Yemen A unified country since 1990 Zambia
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. The ISO 3166/MA will never use these codes in the updating process of the standard. The numeric codes to can be user-assigned.
Examples include for Kosovo and for Cyprus used by Dun & Bradstreet.
Withdrawn codes When countries merge, split, or undergo territorial change, their numeric codes are withdrawn and new numeric codes are assigned. For example: East Germany and West Germany used numeric codes and respectively before their unification in 1990. Since then, the unified Germany has used numeric code , while keeping the alphabetic codes for West Germany (except in the banking area where they still use the code). Ethiopia used numeric code before Eritrea split away in 1993. Since then, Ethiopia has used numeric code , while keeping the same alphabetic codes. Sudan used numeric code before South Sudan split away in 2011. Since then, Sudan has used numeric code , while keeping the same alphabetic codes.
If a country changes its name without any territorial change, its numeric code remains the same. For example, when Burma was renamed Myanmar without territorial change in 1989, its alphabetic codes were changed, but its numeric code has remained the same.
The following numeric codes have been withdrawn from ISO 3166-1:
Code Country name Notes Canton and Enderbury Islands Czechoslovakia Dronning Maud Land Ethiopia before Eritrea split away in 1993 France, Metropolitan German Democratic Republic i.e., East Germany Germany, Federal Republic of i.e., West Germany Johnston Island Midway Islands Netherlands Antilles after Aruba split away in 1986 Netherlands Antilles before Aruba split away in 1986 Neutral Zone Pacific Islands (Trust Territory) Panama before adding Panama Canal Zone in 1979 Saint Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla Yemen, Democratic i.e., South Yemen Sudan before South Sudan split away in 2011 USSR United States Miscellaneous Pacific Islands Wake Island Yemen Arab Republic i.e., North Yemen Yugoslavia, Socialist Federal Republic of Serbia and Montenegro original name: Yugoslavia, Federal Republic of
The following numeric codes were also assigned by the United Nations Statistics Division, but these territories were never officially included in ISO 3166-1:
Code Territory name Gaza Strip (Palestine) German Democratic Republic, Berlin Germany, West Berlin Ryukyu Islands Spanish North Africa (note: this code is now used by South Sudan) Channel Islands
In the UN M.49 standard developed by the United Nations Statistics Division, additional numeric codes are used to represent geographical regions and groupings of countries and areas for statistical processing purposes, but these codes are not included in ISO 3166-1. Unlike alphabetic codes, there are no reserved numeric codes in ISO 3166-1.
References
Sources and external links ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency, International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Standard Country or Area Codes for Statistical Use, United Nations Statistics Division 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) Composition of macro geographical (continental) regions, geographical sub-regions, and selected economic and other groupings Country or area numerical codes added or changed since 1982 The World Factbook (public domain), Central Intelligence Agency Appendix D – Cross-Reference List of Country Data Codes — comparison of FIPS 10, ISO 3166, and STANAG 1059 country codes Administrative Divisions of Countries ("Statoids"), Statoids.com Country codes — comparison of ISO 3166-1 country codes with other country codes ISO 3166-1 Change History