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glossary

What are ISO country codes?

The ISO country codes are internationally recognized means of identifying countries (and their subdivisions) using a two-letter or three-letter combination (known as ISO alpha-2 and ISO alpha-3 respectively). This approach to identifying countries negates confusion that might arise due to differing naming conventions (e.g. “Netherlands” versus “The Netherlands”) as well as different languages used.

Here are application examples:

• Two-letter country codes are used as suffixes in top-level domains for each country (for example, .de for Germany and .it for Italy)
• Three-letter country codes are typically used in international sporting events and cultural competitions to designate participants from each location (e.g. AUS for Australia and ZAF for South Africa)

Applications in web development

ISO alpha-2 codes are often used in interactive world maps to give each country a unique identifier. Content editors may populate the two-letter codes for each country to activate specific regions in a map.

List of country codes

Here is a list of ISO alpha-2 country codes as described in the ISO 3166-1 standard.