3166landcodes

3166landcodes is the commonly used shorthand for ISO 3166-1, the International Organization for Standardization’s standard for country codes. The system assigns unique identifiers to sovereign states, dependent territories, and areas of geographical interest to enable consistent identification in data exchange, shipping, statistics, and information technology.

Code forms and examples: Each entry includes three representations: an alpha-2 two-letter code, an alpha-3 three-letter code, and a three-digit numeric code. Alpha-2 codes are widely used in internet domains and software; alpha-3 codes are common in international documents; numeric codes support legacy databases that rely on digits. Examples include United States — US, USA, 840; United Kingdom — GB, GBR, 826; France — FR, FRA, 250; Japan — JP, JPN, 392; Australia — AU, AUS, 036.

Scope and related standards: ISO 3166-1 covers sovereign states and certain dependent territories, with changes reflecting geopolitical developments such as independence or status changes. The standard is complemented by ISO 3166-2 for country subdivisions and ISO 3166-3 for formerly used country names.

Usage and maintenance: Updates are overseen by the ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency and released as needed, often in response to political changes or administrative reorganizations. The codes are widely adopted in government, business, and technology. In practice, many top-level domains derive from the alpha-2 codes (for example, .us, .fr, .cn), though there are exceptions, such as the United Kingdom’s .uk, which reflects historical allocation.

Related topics include ISO 3166, ISO 3166-1, ISO 3166-2, and ISO 3166-3, all forming the broader family of standardized country coding.