ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 codes are three-letter country codes defined in ISO 3166-1, part of the ISO 3166 standard published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), to represent countries, dependent territories, and special areas of geographical interest. They allow a better visual association between the codes and the country names than the two-letter alpha-2 codes (the third set of codes is numeric and hence offers no visual association). They were first included as part of the ISO 3166 standard in its first edition in 1974.
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 Naoero 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 to represent the Sovereign Military Order of Malta 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:
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.
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