science

ISO 3166-2:GB

ISO 3166-2:GB is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand ISO 3166-2:GB rather than just read about it. In short: ISO 3166-2:GB is the entry for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (GBNI) in ISO 3166-2, part of the ISO 3166 standard published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), which defines codes for the names of the principal divisions and subdivisions (e.g., provinces or states) of all countries coded in ISO 3166-1. The codes and structures for the United Kingdom (UK) are provide…

Key takeaways

ISO 3166-2:GB belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect ISO 3166-2:GB to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of ISO 3166-2:GB from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

ISO 3166-2:GB is the entry for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (GBNI) in ISO 3166-2, part of the ISO 3166 standard published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), which defines codes for the names of the principal divisions and subdivisions (e.g., provinces or states) of all countries coded in ISO 3166-1. The codes and structures for the United Kingdom (UK) are provided to the ISO in Geneva by the British Standards (BS) and the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Primary divisions Currently for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, ISO 3166-2 codes are defined for the following primary divisions and subdivisions:

Three countries and one province, as follows: England 25 two-tier counties, 36 metropolitan districts, 58 unitary authorities, 32 London boroughs, and one city corporation As of August 2025, the standard has codes for the divisions in place until 31 March 2023. On 1 April 2023, the non-metropolitan county of Cumbria was abolished and replaced by two unitary authorities (Cumberland and Westmorland and Furness), as well as the non-metropolitan counties of North Yorkshire and Somerset became unitary authorities, which as of August 2025 are not reflected in ISO 3166-2.

Northern Ireland 11 districts Scotland 32 council areas Wales 22 unitary authorities Each ISO 3166-2:GB code consists of two parts; both parts are in upper-case capital letters, and are separated by a hyphen (without spaces). The first part for the is GB, the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The second part is three letters, which is the British Standard BS 6879 three-letter code of the individual subdivision. Though GB is the United Kingdom's ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code, UK is exceptionally reserved for the United Kingdom on the request of the country (United Kingdom). Its main usage is the .uk internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) and, on 28 September 2021, UK replaced GB as the official country code on motor vehicle registration plates.

Current codes Subdivision names are listed as in the ISO 3166-2 standard, as published by the ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency (ISO 3166/MA). BS 6879 gives alternative name forms in Welsh (cy) for some of the Welsh unitary authorities (together with alternative code elements). Since this part of ISO 3166 does not allow for duplicate coding of identical subdivisions, such alternative names in Welsh and code elements are shown for information purposes only in square brackets after the English name of the subdivision.

Countries and province

Wales was changed from being described as a 'principality' to being described as a 'country' in the December 2011 update to the standard. England and Scotland were maintained as 'country', and Northern Ireland was maintained as 'province'.

Included for completeness

The codes GB-EAW, GB-GBN, and GB-UKM are only mentioned in remark part 2 in the ISO website, where they are 'included for completeness'.

Second-level subdivisions

The British Overseas Territories of Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Indian Ocean Territory, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat, the Pitcairn Islands, Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and the Turks and Caicos Islands (and the Crown Dependencies of Guernsey, the Isle of Man and Jersey as of 2006) have their own ISO 3166-1 codes and are not included in the United Kingdom's entry in ISO 3166-2. There are no ISO 3166-2 codes for:

Akrotiri and Dhekelia British Antarctic Territory (part of Antarctica with country code AQ)

Changes The following changes to the entry have been announced in newsletters by the ISO 3166/MA since the first publication of ISO 3166-2 in 1998. ISO stopped issuing newsletters in 2013.

The following changes to the entry are listed on ISO's online catalogue, the Online Browsing Platform:

See also Subdivisions of the United Kingdom Subdivisions of England Subdivisions of Northern Ireland Subdivisions of Scotland Subdivisions of Wales FIPS region codes of the United Kingdom NUTS codes of the United Kingdom Chapman codes Neighbouring countries: CY (via Akrotiri and Dhekelia), IE

References

External links ISO Online Browsing Platform: GB Statoids.com: Divisions of the United Kingdom

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with ISO 3166-2:GB

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what ISO 3166-2:GB claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to ISO 3166-2:GB before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about ISO 3166-2:GB ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of ISO 3166-2:GB

In research: ISO 3166-2:GB appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses ISO 3166-2:GB in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: ISO 3166-2:GB is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Council areas of Scotland, Districts of Northern Ireland, 2015-present, ISO 3166, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for ISO 3166-2:GB outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “ISO 3166-2:GB” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study ISO 3166-2:GB in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what ISO 3166-2:GB means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain ISO 3166-2:GB out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is ISO 3166-2:GB in simple terms?

Why does ISO 3166-2:GB matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study ISO 3166-2:GB?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on ISO 3166-2:GB.