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):
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: AAA to AAZ, QMA to QZZ, XAA to XZZ, and ZZA to ZZZ.
Examples The following codes are used in ISO/IEC 7501-1 for special machine-readable passports:
XOM is used to represent the Sovereign Military Order of Malta XPO is used for Interpol travel documents AUS is used to represent a stateless person, as defined in Article 1 of the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons
XXB 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 XXC is used to represent a refugee, other than as defined above XXX 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:
XKX is an ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 equivalent user-assigned code element for Kosovo in the European Union, and XKK 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:
ASC Ascension Island – Reserved on request of Universal Postal Union (UPU), also used by International Telecommunication Union (ITU) CPT Clipperton Island – Reserved on request of ITU CRQ Sark – Reserved on request of the United Kingdom DGA Diego Garcia – Reserved on request of ITU FXX France, Metropolitan – Reserved on request of France; Officially assigned before being deleted from ISO 3166-1 SUN USSR – From June 2008; Transitionally reserved from September 1992; Officially assigned before being deleted from ISO 3166-1 TAA Tristan da Cunha – Reserved on request of UPU The following alpha-3 codes were previously exceptionally reserved, but are now officially assigned:
GGY Guernsey – Reserved on request of UPU IMN Isle of Man – Reserved on request of UPU JEY 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:
ANT Netherlands Antilles – From December 2010 BUR Burma – From December 1989 BYS Byelorussian SSR – From June 1992 CSK Czechoslovakia – From June 1993 NTZ Neutral Zone – From July 1993 ROM Romania – From February 2002; Code changed to ROU SCG Serbia and Montenegro – From September 2006 TMP East Timor – From May 2002 YUG Yugoslavia – From July 2003 ZAR 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:
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
