ISO 3166-2
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: ISO 3166-2:
|
|
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 topicssubnational entitylist of subnational entitieslist of capitals of subnational entities
External links Track changes, sorted by country http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/04background-on-iso-3166/iso3166-2.html http://www.unece.org/cefact/locode/service/sublocat.htm This says that it has permission to reproduce all codes. Some codes and names are outdated. Uses ISO codes internally in the free geolocation database download http://www.mindspring.com/~mjfriedman/countrysubentity.txt
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