| ISO 3166-2 is the second part of the ISO
3166 standard. It is a geocode
system created for coding the names of subdivisions of countries (subnational entities) and dependent areas. The purpose of the standard is to establish a worldwide series of short abbreviations for
places, for use on package labels, containers, and such; anywhere where a short alphanumeric code can serve to clearly indicate a
location in a more convenient and less ambiguous form than the full place name. There are around 3700 different codes.
Format
ISO 3166-2 codes consist of two parts, separated by a hyphen. The first part is the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code element, the second is alphabetic or numeric and has one, two or three digits.
The second part often is based on national standards.
Changes / Editions
Changes were announced in 6 Newsletters
- ISO 3166-2:2000-06-21
- ISO 3166-2:2002-05-21
- ISO 3166-2:2002-08-20
- ISO 3166-2:2002-12-10
- ISO 3166-2:2003-09-05
- ISO 3166-2:2004-03-08
Decoding / Encoding lists
To find the ISO 3166-2 codes for each country see ISO 3166-1, a list of
countries. If you are familiar with the two-letter country codes (similar to internet country codes) you can also use the format
matrix given below.
Both ways would lead to articles like ISO 3166-2:XX, where XX stands for the ISO 3166-1 code, e.g. ISO 3166-2:AU leads to the code list for Australia.
Format matrix with links to codes
Some of the codes are developed by ISO 3166/MA, these are copyrighted. Others are already in use in the specific
countries.
| length |
alpha |
numeric |
alpha-numeric |
constant
1 char |
Free:
Partially free:
ISO - Copyright:
Unsorted: AR, BO,
CR, EC, FJ, GM,
KI, KM, LS, LU, MG,
NE, RW, SL, ST, TG, TM, VE
|
GA, IS, AT
|
PA
|
constant
2 chars |
Free: CH, US
Partially free: AL, ID
ISO - Copyright:
Unsorted: AE, AM, AU, BI, BJ, BN, BR, BS,
BW, BY, CA, CD, CF, CL, CM,
CV, CZ, DE, DJ, ER, ET, FI, GE, GH,
GN, GT, GW, GY, HN, HT, HU, IN, IT, IQ, JO, KW, LA, LB, LR, LT, LV, LY, MD, MU, MW, NA, NG, NI,
NL, NP, OM, PK,
PL, QA, SB, SH,
SK, SN, SO, SR,
SV, SY, SZ, TJ, TL, UY, UZ, WS,
YE, YU, ZA, ZW
|
Free:
Partially free: TN
ISO - Copyright:
Unsorted: BD, BG,
BH, CI, CN, CU, CY, DO, DZ,
EE, GR, HR, IR, JM, JP, KR, LK, MM, MY, NO, PT, SA, SD, TR, TZ,
UA, UM, VN, ZM
|
Free: FR Unsorted: BT
|
constant
3 chars |
Free:
Partially free: KP
ISO - Copyright: MA
Unsorted: AO, AF,
BA, BE, BF, CS, FM, GB, KZ, MD, MH, MX, NZ, PE, PG, PH, TT, TW
|
Free:
Partially free:
ISO - Copyright:
Unsorted: DK, KE, SI, UG, VU
|
|
mixed
1,2 chars |
Free:
Partially free:
ISO - Copyright:
Unsorted: no system?: ES, GQ, IE, IL
1 for regions, 2 for capital: KG
1 for capital, 2 for departments: RO
1 as the general rule, 2 for exceptions SE
|
Free:
Partially free:
ISO - Copyright:
Unsorted: KH
|
Free:
Partially free:
ISO - Copyright:
Unsorted: TH
|
mixed
2,3 |
Free:
Partially free:
ISO - Copyright: CO
Unsorted: ?:BZ, EG, TD
2 for republics, 3 for cities, regions, districts: RU
2 for cities, 3 for rayons: AZ
2 for capital, 3 other: ??
|
|
MR, MV
|
mixed
1,3 |
Free:
Partially free:
ISO - Copyright:
Unsorted: MZ
|
Free:
Partially free:
ISO - Copyright:
Unsorted: MN
|
Free:
Partially free:
ISO - Copyright:
Unsorted: ML
|
mixed
1,2,3 |
|
|
Free:
Partially free:
ISO - Copyright:
Unsorted:CG, PY
|
Related topics
External links
|
