ISO 3166-1 alpha-3

Uses and applications

The ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 codes are used most prominently in ISO/IEC 7501-1 for machine-readable passports, as standardized by the International Civil Aviation Organization, with a number of additional codes for special passports; some of these codes are currently reserved and not used at the present stage in ISO 3166-1.

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.

Current codes

Officially assigned code elements===

The following is a complete list of the current officially assigned ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 codes, using a title case version of the English short names officially defined by the ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency (ISO 3166/MA):

• Aruba
• Afghanistan
• Angola
• Anguilla
• Åland Islands
• Albania
• Andorra
• United Arab Emirates
• Argentina
• Armenia
• American Samoa
• Antarctica
• French Southern Territories
• Antigua and Barbuda
• Australia
• Austria
• Azerbaijan
• Burundi
• Belgium
• Benin
• Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba
• Burkina Faso
• Bangladesh
• Bulgaria
• Bahrain
• Bahamas
• Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Saint Barthélemy
• Belarus
• Belize
• Bermuda
• Bolivia, Plurinational State of
• Brazil
• Barbados
• Brunei Darussalam
• Bhutan
• Bouvet Island
• Botswana
• Central African Republic
• Canada
• Cocos (Keeling) Islands
• Switzerland
• Chile
• China
• Côte d'Ivoire
• Cameroon
• Congo, Democratic Republic of the
• Congo
• Cook Islands
• Colombia
• Comoros
• Cabo Verde
• Costa Rica
• Cuba
• Curaçao
• Christmas Island
• Cayman Islands
• Cyprus
• Czechia
• Germany
• Djibouti
• Dominica
• Denmark
• Dominican Republic
• Algeria
• Ecuador
• Egypt
• Eritrea
• Western Sahara
• Spain
• Estonia
• Ethiopia
• Finland
• Fiji
• Falkland Islands (Malvinas)
• France
• Faroe Islands
• Micronesia, Federated States of
• Gabon
• United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
• Georgia
• Guernsey
• Ghana
• Gibraltar
• Guinea
• Guadeloupe
• Gambia
• Guinea-Bissau
• Equatorial Guinea
• Greece
• Grenada
• Greenland
• Guatemala
• French Guiana
• Guam
• Guyana
• Hong Kong
• Heard Island and McDonald Islands
• Honduras
• Croatia
• Haiti
• Hungary
• Indonesia
• Isle of Man
• India
• British Indian Ocean Territory
• Ireland
• Iran, Islamic Republic of
• Iraq
• Iceland
• Israel
• Italy
• Jamaica
• Jersey
• Jordan
• Japan
• Kazakhstan
• Kenya
• Kyrgyzstan
• Cambodia
• Kiribati
• Saint Kitts and Nevis
• Korea, Republic of
• Kuwait
• Lao People's Democratic Republic
• Lebanon
• Liberia
• Libya
• Saint Lucia
• Liechtenstein
• Sri Lanka
• Lesotho
• Lithuania
• Luxembourg
• Latvia
• Macao
• Saint Martin (French part)
• Morocco
• Monaco
• Moldova, Republic of
• Madagascar
• Maldives
• Mexico
• Marshall Islands
• North Macedonia
• Mali
• Malta
• Myanmar
• Montenegro
• Mongolia
• Northern Mariana Islands
• Mozambique
• Mauritania
• Montserrat
• Martinique
• Mauritius
• Malawi
• Malaysia
• Mayotte
• Namibia
• New Caledonia
• Niger
• Norfolk Island
• Nigeria
• Nicaragua
• Niue
• Netherlands, Kingdom of the
• Norway
• Nepal
• Nauru
• New Zealand
• Oman
• Pakistan
• Panama
• Pitcairn
• Peru
• Philippines
• Palau
• Papua New Guinea
• Poland
• Puerto Rico
• Korea, Democratic People's Republic of
• Portugal
• Paraguay
• Palestine, State of
• French Polynesia
• Qatar
• Réunion
• Romania
• Russian Federation
• Rwanda
• Saudi Arabia
• Sudan
• Senegal
• Singapore
• South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
• Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha
• Svalbard and Jan Mayen
• Solomon Islands
• Sierra Leone
• El Salvador
• San Marino
• Somalia
• Saint Pierre and Miquelon
• Serbia
• South Sudan
• Suriname
• Slovakia
• Slovenia
• Sweden
• Eswatini
• Sint Maarten (Dutch part)
• Seychelles
• Syrian Arab Republic
• Turks and Caicos Islands
• Chad
• Togo
• Thailand
• Tajikistan
• Tokelau
• Turkmenistan
• Timor-Leste
• Tonga
• Trinidad and Tobago
• Tunisia
• Türkiye
• Tuvalu
• Taiwan, Province of China
• Tanzania, United Republic of
• Uganda
• Ukraine
• United States Minor Outlying Islands
• Uruguay
• United States of America
• Uzbekistan
• Holy See
• Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
• Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of
• Virgin Islands (British)
• Virgin Islands (U.S.)
• Viet Nam
• Vanuatu
• Wallis and Futuna
• Samoa
• Yemen
• South Africa
• Zambia
• Zimbabwe

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: to , to , to , and to .

Examples

The following codes are used in ISO/IEC 7501-1 for special machine-readable passports:

• is used for the European Union laissez-passer
• is used to represent the Sovereign Military Order of Malta
• , a single character, is used for Germany.
• is used for Interpol travel documents
• is used to represent a stateless person, as defined in Article 1 of the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons
• is used to represent a refugee, as defined in Article 1 of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees as amended by the 1967 Protocol
• is used to represent a refugee, other than as defined above
• is used to represent a person of unspecified nationality

NATO STANAG 1059 INT is built upon ISO alpha-3 codes, but also defines alpha-2 codes incompatible with ISO 3166-1. It introduces several private use codes for fictional countries and organizational entities:

• "Brownland"
• "Greyland"
• "Indigoland"
• "Limeland"
• "Purpleland"
• "Redland"
• "Whiteland"
• "Yellowland"
• SHAPE
• NATO
• NATO "Blue" Command
• SACLANT

NATO also continues to use reserved codes for continents:

• Asia
• Europe
• Africa
• North America
• South America
• Oceania
• NATO countries

is an ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 equivalent user-assigned code element for Kosovo in the European Union, and is used in the Unicode standard. Differences and omissions from 9th edition (2005) due to subsequent updates to ISO 3166-1:

• ALA, BLM, GGY, IMN, JEY, MAF, MYT, SSD not present
• Ashmore and Cartier Islands
• Netherland Antilles vs. BES Caribbean Netherlands: Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, Saba + CUW Curaçao + SXM Sint Maarten
• Coral Sea Islands
• Howland Island
• Jan Mayen vs. SJM
• Johnston Atoll
• Paracel Islands
• Serbia and Montenegro --

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 are divided into the following three categories: exceptional reservations, transitional reservations, and indeterminate reservations.

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:

• Ascension Island Reserved on request of Universal Postal Union (UPU), also used by International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
• Clipperton Island Reserved on request of ITU
• Sark Reserved on request of the United Kingdom
• Diego Garcia Reserved on request of ITU
• France, Metropolitan Reserved on request of France; Officially assigned before being deleted from ISO 3166-1
• USSR From June 2008; Transitionally reserved from September 1992; Officially assigned before being deleted from ISO 3166-1
• Tristan da Cunha Reserved on request of UPU

The following alpha-3 codes were previously exceptionally reserved, but are now officially assigned:

• Guernsey Reserved on request of UPU
• Isle of Man Reserved on request of UPU
• Jersey Reserved on request of UPU

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:

• Netherlands Antilles From December 2010
• Burma From December 1989
• Byelorussian SSR From June 1992
• Czechoslovakia From June 1993
• Neutral Zone From July 1993
• Romania From February 2002; Code changed to
• Serbia and Montenegro From September 2006
• East Timor From May 2002
• Yugoslavia From July 2003
• Zaire From July 1997

Indeterminate reservations====

Indeterminately reserved code elements are reserved for use in a particular way, usually due to their presence in other coding systems. For example, several codes are reserved because they are used for international intellectual property organizations in WIPO Standard ST.3.

The following codes used to designate road vehicles are indeterminately reserved under the 1949 and 1968 United Nations Conventions on Road Traffic:

• Aden
• Barbados (current code )
• Brunei (current code )
• Canada (current code )
• Kenya (current code )
• Tanganyika [Part of Tanzania, United Republic of]
• Uganda (current code )
• Zanzibar [Part of Tanzania, United Republic of]
• Alderney
• Guernsey (current code )
• Jersey (current code )
• Isle of Man (current code )
• Gibraltar (current code )
• Guatemala (current code )
• Jordan (current code )
• Malaysia (current code )
• Central African Republic (current code )
• Congo, People's Republic of (current code )
• Chile (current code )
• Mali (current code )
• Zambia (current code )
• Korea, Republic of (current code )
• San Marino (current code )
• Southern Rhodesia [now Zimbabwe]
• Slovenia (current code )
• Suriname (current code )
• Turkmenistan (current code )
• Gambia (current code )
• Sierra Leone (current code )
• Nigeria (current code )
• Zaire (current code )

The following alpha-3 code was previously indeterminately reserved, but has been reassigned to another country as its official code:

• Uruguay (current code ) Code reassigned to Romania

The following are used in ISO/IEC 7501-1 for special machine-readable passports:

• identifies a British Passport holder who is a British Overseas Territories citizen
• identifies a British Passport holder who is a British National (Overseas)
• identifies a British Passport holder who is a British Overseas citizen
• identifies a British Passport holder who is a British protected person
• identifies a British Passport holder who is a British subject
• is used as a substitute for nationality where the holder is an Official of a Specialized Agency of the UN Organization
• identifies Kosovo residents to whom travel documents were issued by the United Nations Interim Administration in Kosovo (UNMIK)
• is 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

Deleted codes

Besides the codes currently transitionally reserved and two other codes currently exceptionally reserved ( for France, Metropolitan and for USSR), the following alpha-3 codes have also been deleted from ISO 3166-1:

• French Afars and Issas
• British Antarctic Territory
• Dronning Maud Land
• Canton and Enderbury Islands
• German Democratic Republic
• Dahomey
• Gilbert and Ellice Islands
• Upper Volta
• Johnston Island
• Midway Islands
• New Hebrides
• Pacific Islands (Trust Territory)
• Panama Canal Zone
• Philippines Code changed to in 1976
• United States Miscellaneous Pacific Islands
• Southern Rhodesia
• Sikkim
• Viet-Nam, Democratic Republic of
• Wake Island
• Yemen, Democratic

References

Sources

• ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency, International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
  • 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
• 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)
• The World Factbook (public domain), Central Intelligence Agency
  • Appendix D 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, Statoids.com

References

1. "ISO 3166 – FAQs – General questions". International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
2. (2021). "Doc 9303, Machine Readable Travel Documents, Part 3: Specifications Common to all MRTDs". International Civil Aviation Organization.
3. "Distinguishing signs used on vehicles in international traffic". United Nations Economic Commission for Europe.
4. "Country names and code elements". ISO.
5. "Glossary for ISO 3166 - Codes for countries and their subdivisions". ISO.
6. "European Union laissez-passer (video at 0:47)".
7. "Geospatial reference data: Corporate list of countries and territories".
8. (2023-10-25). "Unicode Locale Data Markup Language (LDML)".
9. ISO International Organization for Standardization, ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency. (1 February 2002). "RE: Change of alpha-3 Code Element". ISO 3166-1 NEWSLETTER No. V-3.
10. Clive Feather. (2003-07-25). "Country codes in ISO 3166 (Table 2: codes withdrawn from use)".
11. Gwillim Law. (2014-07-17). "Changes in ISO 3166-1".