ISO 3166-3

ISO 3166-3 is part of the ISO 3166 standard published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and defines codes for country names which have been deleted from ISO 3166-1 since its first publication in 1974. The official name of the standard is Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions Part 3: Code for formerly used names of countries. It was first published in 1999.

Each former country name in ISO 3166-3 is assigned a four-letter alphabetic code. The first two letters are the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code of the former country, while the last two letters are allocated according to the following rules:[1][2][3]

Besides the former country name and its ISO 3166-3 code, each entry in ISO 3166-3 also contains its former ISO 3166-1 codes, its period of validity, and the new country names and ISO 3166-1 codes used after its deletion from ISO 3166-1.

After a country is deleted from ISO 3166-1, its alpha-2 and alpha-3 codes will be transitionally reserved for a transitional period of at least fifty years. After the expiration of the transitional period, these codes are free to be reassigned.

If a country changes its name without any territorial change, its ISO 3166-1 numeric code remains the same. For example, when Burma was renamed Myanmar without territorial change in 1989, its alphabetic codes were changed, but its numeric code 104 has remained the same.

Currently, a few ccTLDs using deleted alpha-2 codes are still active or being phased out. However, alpha-2 codes which were deleted before the popularization of the Domain Name System in the late 1980s and early 1990s were never used for the Internet's country code top-level domains (ccTLDs). Likewise, ISO 3166-2, the ISO standard for country subdivision codes which was first published in 1998, predated the deletion of many alpha-2 codes.

Current codes

The following is a complete list of the current ISO 3166-3 codes, with the following columns:

Click on the button in the header to sort by ISO 3166-3 code.

Former country name Former codes Period of validity ISO 3166-3 code New country names and codes
British Antarctic Territory BQ, ATB, 080 19741979 BQAQ Merged into Antarctica (AQ, ATA, 010)
Burma BU, BUR, 104 19741989 BUMM Name changed to Myanmar (MM, MMR, 104)
Byelorussian SSR BY, BYS, 112 19741992 BYAA Name changed to Belarus (BY, BLR, 112)
Canton and Enderbury Islands CT, CTE, 128 19741984 CTKI Merged into Kiribati (KI, KIR, 296)
Czechoslovakia CS, CSK, 200 19741993 CSHH
Divided into:
Czech Republic (CZ, CZE, 203)
Slovakia (SK, SVK, 703)
Dahomey DY, DHY, 204 19741977 DYBJ Name changed to Benin (BJ, BEN, 204)
Dronning Maud Land NQ, ATN, 216 19741983 NQAQ Merged into Antarctica (AQ, ATA, 010)
East Timor [note 1] TP, TMP, 626 19742002 TPTL Name changed to Timor-Leste (TL, TLS, 626)
France, Metropolitan FX, FXX, 249 19931997 FXFR Merged into France (FR, FRA, 250)
French Afar and Issas AI, AFI, 262 19741977 AIDJ Name changed to Djibouti (DJ, DJI, 262)
French Southern and Antarctic Territories FQ, ATF, 260 19741979 FQHH Divided into:
Part of Antarctica (AQ, ATA, 010) (i.e., Adélie Land)
French Southern Territories (TF, ATF, 260)
German Democratic Republic DD, DDR, 278 19741990 DDDE Merged into Germany (DE, DEU, 276)
Gilbert and Ellice Islands GE, GEL, 296 19741979 GEHH Divided into:
Kiribati (KI, KIR, 296)
Tuvalu (TV, TUV, 798)
Johnston Island JT, JTN, 396 19741986 JTUM Merged into United States Minor Outlying Islands (UM, UMI, 581)
Midway Islands MI, MID, 488 19741986 MIUM Merged into United States Minor Outlying Islands (UM, UMI, 581)
Netherlands Antilles AN, ANT, 530
[note 2]
19742010 [note 3] ANHH Divided into:
Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba (BQ, BES, 535) [note 4]
Curaçao (CW, CUW, 531)
Sint Maarten (Dutch part) (SX, SXM, 534)
Neutral Zone NT, NTZ, 536 19741993 NTHH Divided into:
Part of Iraq (IQ, IRQ, 368)
Part of Saudi Arabia (SA, SAU, 682)
New Hebrides NH, NHB, 548 19741980 NHVU Name changed to Vanuatu (VU, VUT, 548)
Pacific Islands, Trust Territory of the PC, PCI, 582 19741986 PCHH Divided into:
Marshall Islands (MH, MHL, 584)
Micronesia, Federated States of (FM, FSM, 583)
Northern Mariana Islands (MP, MNP, 580)
Palau (PW, PLW, 585)
Panama Canal Zone PZ, PCZ, 594 19741980 PZPA Merged into Panama (PA, PAN, 591)
Serbia and Montenegro CS, SCG, 891 20032006 CSXX
[note 5]
Divided into:
Montenegro (ME, MNE, 499)
Serbia (RS, SRB, 688)
Sikkim SK, SKM, 698 19741975 SKIN Merged into India (IN, IND, 356)
Southern Rhodesia RH, RHO, 716 19741980 RHZW Name changed to Zimbabwe (ZW, ZWE, 716)
Upper Volta HV, HVO, 854 19741984 HVBF Name changed to Burkina Faso (BF, BFA, 854)
U.S. Miscellaneous Pacific Islands PU, PUS, 849 19741986 PUUM Merged into United States Minor Outlying Islands (UM, UMI, 581)
USSR SU, SUN, 810 19741992 SUHH Divided into: [note 6]
Armenia (AM, ARM, 051)
Azerbaijan (AZ, AZE, 031)
Estonia (EE, EST, 233)
Georgia (GE, GEO, 268)
Kazakhstan (KZ, KAZ, 398)
Kyrgyzstan (KG, KGZ, 417)
Latvia (LV, LVA, 428)
Lithuania (LT, LTU, 440)
Moldova, Republic of (MD, MDA, 498)
Russian Federation (RU, RUS, 643)
Tajikistan (TJ, TJK, 762)
Turkmenistan (TM, TKM, 795)
Uzbekistan (UZ, UZB, 860)
Viet-Nam, Democratic Republic of VD, VDR, 704 19741977 VDVN Merged into Viet Nam (VN, VNM, 704)
Wake Island WK, WAK, 872 19741986 WKUM Merged into United States Minor Outlying Islands (UM, UMI, 581)
Yemen, Democratic YD, YMD, 720 19741990 YDYE Merged into Yemen (YE, YEM, 887)
Yugoslavia YU, YUG, 891
[note 7]
19742003 YUCS Name changed to Serbia and Montenegro (CS, SCG, 891)
Zaire ZR, ZAR, 180 19741997 ZRCD Name changed to Congo, the Democratic Republic of the (CD, COD, 180)
Notes
  1. East Timor was included in ISO 3166-1 under the name of Portuguese Timor from 1974 to 1977.
  2. The ISO 3166-1 numeric code of the Netherlands Antilles was changed from 532 to 530 after Aruba split away in 1986.
  3. The period of validity was corrected from 1974-2011 to 1974-2010 with a reissue of ISO 3166-3 Newsletter I-6.
  4. The territory name was corrected from "Bonaire, Saint Eustatius and Saba" to "Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba" in ISO 3166-1 Newsletter VI-9.
  5. Initially the ISO 3166-3 code CSHH was assigned to represent Serbia and Montenegro (Newsletter I-4), even though it had already been assigned to represent Czechoslovakia. The ISO 3166/MA later rectified the problem by agreeing to assign the ISO 3166-3 code CSXX to represent Serbia and Montenegro (Newsletter I-5).
  6. Despite being part of the USSR, Belarus (then Byelorussian SSR) and Ukraine (then Ukrainian SSR) already had their own ISO 3166-1 codes due to them being UN members since 1945.
  7. The ISO 3166-1 numeric code of Yugoslavia was changed from 890 (for the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) to 891 (for the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) in 1993.

Changes

The ISO 3166/MA updates ISO 3166-3 when necessary. The updating of ISO 3166-3 is totally dependent on the updating of ISO 3166-1.

ISO used to announce changes in newsletters which updated the currently valid standard, and releasing new editions which comprise a consolidation of newsletter changes. As of July 2013, changes are published in the online catalogue of ISO only and no newsletters are published anymore. Past newsletters remain available on the ISO website.[4]

Edition/Newsletter Date issued Former country name added Notes
ISO 3166-3:1999 1999-03-11 First edition of ISO 3166-3
Newsletter I-1 2002-11-15 East Timor In accordance with ISO 3166-1 Newsletter V-5 and Newsletter V-6
Newsletter I-2 2002-11-22 France, Metropolitan Correction. Entry inadvertently omitted from ISO 3166-3 when first published in 1999
Newsletter I-3 2003-07-23 Yugoslavia In accordance with ISO 3166-1 Newsletter V-8
Newsletter I-4 2006-09-26 Serbia and Montenegro In accordance with ISO 3166-1 Newsletter V-12
Newsletter I-5 2006-12-01 None Rectify Newsletter I-4 by assigning the code CSXX to represent Serbia and Montenegro
Newsletter I-6 2011-03-14
(corrected
2013-02-06)
Netherlands Antilles In accordance with ISO 3166-1 Newsletter VI-8
ISO 3166-3:2013 2013-11-19 Second edition of ISO 3166-3 (changes are published in the online catalogue of ISO only and no newsletters are published anymore)

References

  1. "ISO 3166-3". International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
  2. "Codes to history: Code for formerly used names of countries completes the trilogy of country codes" (PDF). ISO Bulletin. ISO. April 2000. pp. 10–12.
  3. Clive Feather (2003-07-25). "Country codes in ISO 3166 (Table 2: codes withdrawn from use)".
  4. "Updates on ISO 3166". ISO.

Sources and external links