ISO 3166 - Definition and Overview

ISO 3166 is a three-part geographic coding standard for coding the names of countries and dependent areas, and the principal subdivisions thereof.

• ISO 3166-1 codes for country and dependent area names, first published in 1974
  • ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 the famous two-letter country codes
  • ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 three-letter country codes
  • ISO 3166-1 numeric three-digit country codes
• ISO 3166-2 defines codes for the principal subdivisions of a country or dependent area.
  • ISO 3166-2:2000-06-21 Newsletter I-1
  • ISO 3166-2:2002-05-21 Newsletter I-2
  • ISO 3166-2:2002-08-20 Newsletter I-3
  • ISO 3166-2:2002-12-10 Newsletter I-4
  • ISO 3166-2:2003-09-05 Newsletter I-5
  • ISO 3166-2:2004-03-08 Newsletter I-6
• ISO 3166-3 defines codes for superseded ISO 3166-1 codes, first published in 1998.

External links

• From ISO website
  • http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/index.html -- The ISO 3166/MA-Secretariat
  • ISO 3166 and You (http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/04background-on-iso-3166/you-and-iso3166.html)
  • Implementations of ISO 3166-1 (http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/04background-on-iso-3166/implementations-of-iso3166-1.html)
• http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/codes/country.htm -- Country codes
• Country Codes with comparison (http://www.statoids.com/wab.html)