ISO 3166-2 is part of the ISO 3166 standard published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and defines codes for the names of the principal subdivisions (e.g., provinces or states) of all countries coded in ISO 3166-1. The official name of the standard is Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions โ Part 2: Country subdivision code. It was first published in 1998.
The purpose of ISO 3166-2 is to establish an international standard of short and unique alphanumeric codes to represent the relevant administrative divisions of all countries in a more convenient and less ambiguous form than their full names. Each complete ISO 3166-2 code consists of two parts, separated by a hyphen:
- The first part is the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code of the country;
- The second part is a string of up to three alphanumeric characters, which is usually obtained from national sources and stems from coding systems already in use in the country concerned, but may also be developed by the ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency (ISO 3166/MA) itself.
Each complete ISO 3166-2 code can then be used to uniquely identify a country subdivision in a global context. Currently there are more than 4200 codes defined in ISO 3166-2.[1]
For some countries, codes are defined for more than one level of subdivisions. Typically the codes for higher-level subdivisions are defined in the official standard without the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code of the country as prefix, and thus do not guarantee uniqueness in a global context by themselves. However, these codes can be completed by adding the alpha-2 code.[2]
ISO 3166-2 is not the only standard for region codes. Examples of other region codes include:
- Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 10-4, developed by the federal government of the United States (see list of FIPS region codes)
- Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS), developed by the European Union
Moreover, ISO 3166-2 codes may differ from codes defined in local standards or other commonly-used local codes.
Contents |
Current codes
For a complete list of the ISO 3166-2 codes of each country sorted by country name, see the last column of the table in the section Officially assigned code elements in ISO 3166-1.
Format
The format of the ISO 3166-2 codes is different for each country. The codes may be alphabetic, numeric, or alphanumeric, and they may also be of constant or variable length. The following is a table of the ISO 3166-2 codes of each country grouped by their format (excluding countries with no defined codes):
| Number of characters (second part) | Alphabetic | Numeric | Alphanumeric |
|---|---|---|---|
| constant 1 character |
AR, BO, EC, FJ, GM, KI, KM, LS, LU, MG, SL, ST, TG, TM, VE | AT, GA, IS, NE, PA | |
| constant 2 characters |
AE, AM, AL, BI, BJ, BN, BR, BS, BW, BY, CA, CD, CH, CL, CM, CV, DE, DJ, ER, ET, FI, GE, GH, GN, GQ, GT, GW, GY, HN, HT, HU, ID, IN, IQ, IT, JO, KW, LA, LB, LR, LT, LY, MD, MU, MW, NA, NG, NI, NL, NP, OM, PK, PL, QA, SB, SH, SK, SN, SO, SR, SV, SY, SZ, TJ, TL, US, UY, UZ, WS, YE, ZA, ZW | AD, AG, BA, BB, BD, BG, BH, CI, CN, CU, CY, DK, DM, DO, DZ, EE, GD, HR, IR, JM, JP, KN, KR, LC, LI, LK, ME, MK, MM, MT, MY, NO, NR, PT, RS, RW, SA, SC, SD, SG, SM, TN, TO, TR, TZ, UA, UM, VC, VN, ZM | BT, FR, GR |
| constant 3 characters |
AF, AO, BE, BF, FM, GB, KP, KZ, MA, MH, MX, NZ, PE, PG, PH, TT, TV, TW, VU | KE, PW, SI, UG | CZ |
| variable 1 or 2 characters |
CR, ES, IE, IL, KG, RO, SE | KH | TH |
| variable 1 or 3 characters |
MZ | MN | ML |
| variable 2 or 3 characters |
AU, AZ, BZ, CF, CO, LV, RU, TD | MR, MV | |
| variable 1, 2, or 3 characters |
EG | CG, PY |
Note: The formats shown here are of the codes which contain the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code of the country as prefix, i.e., those for the lowest-level coded subdivisions of each country.
Editions and changes
There have been two editions of ISO 3166-2. The first edition (ISO 3166-2:1998) was published on 1998-12-20, and the second edition (ISO 3166-1:2007) was published on 2007-12-13.
Between different editions, the ISO 3166/MA updates the code lists by announcing the changes in newsletters.[3] Changes in ISO 3166-2 comprise mostly of spelling corrections, addition and deletion of subdivisions, and modification of the administrative structure.
| Newsletter updates on the 1st edition of ISO 3166-2 (ISO 3166-2:1998) | ||
| Newsletter | Publication date | Affected codes |
|---|---|---|
| I-1 | 2000-06-21 | BY, CA, DO, ER, ES, IT, KR, NG, PL, RO, RU, TR, VN, YU |
| I-2 | 2002-05-21 | AE, AL, AO, AZ, BD, BG, BJ, CA, CD, CN, CV, CZ, ES, FR, GB, GE, GN, GT, HR, ID, IN, IR, KZ, LA, MA, MD, MW, NI, PH, TR, UZ, VN |
| I-3 | 2002-08-20 | AE, CZ, IN, KZ, MD, MO, PS (new entry), TP (changed to TL), UG |
| I-4 | 2002-12-10 | BI, CA, EC, ES, ET, GE, ID, IN, KG, KH, KP, KZ, LA, MD, MU, RO, SI, TJ, TM, TL, TW, UZ, VE, YE |
| I-5 | 2003-09-05 | BW, CH, CZ, LY, MY, SN, TN, TZ, UG, VE, YU (changed to CS) |
| I-6 | 2004-03-08 | AF, AL, AU, CN, CO, ID, KP, MA, TN, ZA |
| I-7 | 2005-09-13 | AF, DJ, ID, RU, SI, VN |
| I-8 | 2007-04-17 | AD, AG, BB, BH, CI, DM, GB, GD, GG (new entry), IM (new entry), IR, IT, JE (new entry), KN, LI, ME (new entry), MK, NR, PW, RS (new entry), RU, RW, SB, SC, SM, TD, TO, TV, VC, YU (deleted) |
| I-9 | 2007-11-28 | BG, BL (new entry), CZ, FR, GB, GE, LB, MF (new entry), MK, MT, RU, SD, SG, UG, ZA |
| 2nd edition | 2007-12-13 | These changes were made in the 2nd edition of ISO 3166-2, and were not announced in any newsletter:[4] BA, DK, DO, EG, GN, HT, KE, KW, LC, LR, TV, YE |
| Newsletter updates on the 2nd edition of ISO 3166-2 (ISO 3166-2:2007) | ||
| Newsletter | Publication date | Affected codes |
| None yet | ||
See also
- Table of administrative divisions by country
- UN/LOCODE โ United Nations Code for Trade and Transport Locations
References
- ^ "ISO 3166-2 State Codes". CommonDataHub. http://www.commondatahub.com/live/geography/state_province_region/iso_3166_2_state_codes.
- ^ "Country sub-entity name code". GEFEG.FX. http://www.gefeg.com/edifact/d03a/s3/codes/cl1h.htm.
- ^ "Updates on ISO 3166". International Organization for Standardization (ISO). http://www.iso.org/iso/country_codes/updates_on_iso_3166.htm.
- ^ "Statoids Newsletter January 2008". Statoids.com. http://www.statoids.com/n0801.html.
External links
- ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency, International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
- Administrative Divisions of Countries ("Statoids"), Statoids.com
- Appendix A: Standard Codes used for ADAMS Import Files, from ADAMS User Guide, World Anti-Doping Agency
- http://docs.equest.com/eQuestCountryAndStateCodes.xls
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