ISO 3166-1 alpha-3
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ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 codes are three-letter 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 allow a better visual association between the codes and the country names than the two-letter alpha-2 codes.[1] They were first included as part of the ISO 3166 standard in its first edition in 1974.
The ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 codes are used most prominently in ISO/IEC 7501-1 for machine-readable passports, with a number of additional codes for special passports.[2] For these additional codes, see the section Codes currently agreed not to use.
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[edit] Current codes
[edit] 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 used by the ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency (ISO 3166/MA):
[edit] 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 them 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.
[edit] Reserved code elements
Reserved code elements are codes which have recently become obsolete, or are in use for some applications in conjunction with the official ISO 3166-1 codes. The ISO 3166/MA therefore reserves them, so that they are not used for new official codes during a limited or indeterminate period of time, thereby avoiding any transitional problems or conflicts between the ISO 3166-1 standard and those applications. The list of ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 reserved code elements is divided into the following four categories.
[edit] Exceptional reservations
Exceptionally reserved code elements are codes reserved permanently at the request of national ISO member bodies, governments and international organizations because they are needed for particular purposes. The ISO 3166/MA only authorizes their use for the particular purpose for which they were established. The following alpha-3 codes are currently exceptionally reserved:
- ASC — Ascension Island — Reserved on request of UPU, also used by ITU
- CPT — Clipperton Island — Reserved on request of ITU
- DGA — Diego Garcia — Reserved on request of ITU
- FXX — France, Metropolitan — Reserved on request of France
- SUN — USSR
- TAA — Tristan da Cunha — Reserved on request of UPU
The following alpha-3 codes were exceptionally reserved, but are now officially assigned:
- GGY — Guernsey — Reserved on request of UPU
- IMN — Isle of Man — Reserved on request of UPU
- JEY — Jersey — Reserved on request of UPU
[edit] Transitional reservations
Transitional reserved code elements are codes which were withdrawn from ISO 3166-1, but maintained during a transitional period of at least five years, for the sake of users who still need to refer to the former entity or whose systems have not yet been updated to refer to the new codes that may have replaced them. The following alpha-3 codes are currently transitionally reserved:
- BUR — Burma — Reserved 1989-12
- BYS — Byelorussian SSR — Reserved 1992-06
- CSK — Czechoslovakia — Reserved 1993-06
- NTZ — Neutral Zone — Reserved 1993-07
- ROM — Romania — Reserved 2002-02; Code changed to ROU
- SCG — Serbia and Montenegro — Reserved 2006-09
- TMP — East Timor — Reserved 2002-05
- YUG — Yugoslavia — Reserved 2003-07
- ZAR — Zaire — Reserved 1997-07
[edit] Indeterminate reservations
Indeterminately reserved code elements are codes used to identify vehicles under the 1949 and 1968 United Nations Road Traffic Conventions. These codes differ from those used in ISO 3166-1. The ISO 3166/MA hopes that these codes will eventually be phased out and that ISO 3166-1 codes will be used instead; but in the meantime they are reserved, to avoid conflicts between ISO 3166-1 and the Conventions, and to facilitate any transition from the Convention codes to ISO 3166-1 codes. However, they can be reassigned at any time by the ISO 3166/MA. The following alpha-3 codes are currently indeterminately reserved:
- ADN — Aden
- BDS — Barbados
- BRU — Brunei
- CDN — Canada
- EAK — Kenya
- EAT — Tanganyika [Part of Tanzania, United Republic of]
- EAU — Uganda
- EAZ — Zanzibar [Part of Tanzania, United Republic of]
- GBA — Alderney
- GBG — Guernsey
- GBJ — Jersey
- GBM — Isle of Man
- GBZ — Gibraltar
- GCA — Guatemala
- HKJ — Jordan
- MAL — Malaysia
- RCA — Central African Republic
- RCB — Congo, People's Republic of
- RCH — Chile
- RMM — Mali
- RNR — Zambia
- ROK — Korea, Republic of
- RSM — San Marino
- RSR — Southern Rhodesia [now Zimbabwe]
- SLO — Slovenia
- SME — Surinam
- TMN — Turkmenistan
- WAG — Gambia
- WAL — Sierra Leone
- WAN — Nigeria
- ZRE — Zaire
The following alpha-3 codes were indeterminately reserved, but have been reassigned:
[edit] Codes currently agreed not to use
In addition, the ISO 3166/MA has undertaken, for the time being, not to use the following alpha-3 codes from ISO/IEC 7501-1, used for machine-readable passports; however, these codes are not classified as either exceptional, transitional, or indeterminate reservations, since they represent special passports, instead of the names of countries, territories, or areas of geographical interest:
- GBD — identifies a British Passport holder who is a "dependent territories citizen"
- GBN — identifies a British Passport holder who is an "Overseas National"
- GBO — identifies a British Passport holder who is an "Overseas Citizen"
- GBP — identifies a British Passport holder who is a "Protected Person"
- GBS — identifies a British Passport holder who is a "Subject"
- UNA — used as a substitute for nationality where the holder is an Official of a Specialized Agency of the UN Organization
- UNK — identifies Kosovo residents to whom travel documents were issued by the United Nations Interim Administration in Kosovo (UNMIK)
- UNO — used to designate the UN Organization as the issuer and used as a substitute for nationality where the holder is an Official of the UN Organization
[edit] Withdrawn codes
Besides the codes currently transitionally reserved, and FXX and SUN (currently exceptionally reserved), the following alpha-3 codes have also been withdrawn from ISO 3166-1:
- AFI — French Afar and Issas
- ATB — British Antarctic Territory
- ATN — Dronning Maud Land
- CTE — Canton and Enderbury Islands
- DDR — German Democratic Republic
- DHY — Dahomey
- GEL — Gilbert and Ellice Islands
- HVO — Upper Volta
- JTN — Johnston Island
- MID — Midway Islands
- NHB — New Hebrides
- PCI — Pacific Islands, Trust Territory of the
- PCZ — Panama Canal Zone
- PHI — Philippines — Code changed to PHL
- PUS — U.S. Miscellaneous Pacific Islands
- RHO — Southern Rhodesia
- SKM — Sikkim
- VDR — Viet-Nam, Democratic Republic of
- WAK — Wake Island
- YMD — Yemen, Democratic
[edit] See also
- List of IOC country codes, used by the International Olympic Committee (IOC)
- List of FIFA country codes, used by the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA)
- Comparison of IOC, FIFA, and ISO 3166 country codes
[edit] References
- ^ ISO 3166 FAQs – General questions, International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
- ^ Appendix 7 to Section IV – Three-letter codes, from Doc 9303, Machine Readable Travel Documents, Part I – Machine Readable Passports, p. IV-43–IV-46. International Civil Aviation Organization.
[edit] 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
- Appendix D – Cross-Reference List of Country Data Codes, from The World Factbook (public domain), Central Intelligence Agency
- Country codes, Statoids.com
- Country codes in ISO 3166 (last modified: 2003-07-25)
- Reserved code elements under ISO 3166-1 "Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions – Part 1: Country codes", published by the ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency (2002-06-10)
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