ISO 3166-1 alpha-3

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.

Officially assigned code elements
The following is a complete list of the current officially assigned ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 codes, using the English short country names officially used 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. For example, the following codes are used in ISO/IEC 7501-1 for special machine-readable passports:
 * XOM</tt> is used to represent the Sovereign Military Order of Malta
 * XPO</tt> is used for Interpol travel documents
 * XXA</tt> is used to represent a stateless person, as defined in Article 1 of the 1954 Convention Relating to the Status of Stateless Persons
 * XXB</tt> 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</tt> is used to represent a refugee, other than as defined above
 * XXX</tt> is used to represent a person of unspecified nationality
 * WSA</tt> is used for the World Service Authority World Passport (The World Service Authority World Passport contains "WSA" as the authority code. It has been filed with the International Civil Aviation Organization, but it is unclear if the code is officially registered.)

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 can be divided into the following four categories: exceptional reservations, transitional reservations, indeterminate reservations, and codes currently agreed not to use.

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</tt> Ascension Island &mdash; Reserved on request of UPU, also used by ITU
 * CPT</tt> Clipperton Island &mdash; Reserved on request of ITU
 * DGA</tt> Diego Garcia &mdash; Reserved on request of ITU
 * FXX</tt> France, Metropolitan &mdash; Reserved on request of France; Officially assigned before deleted from ISO 3166-1
 * SUN</tt> USSR &mdash; From June 2008; Transitionally reserved from September 1992; Officially assigned before deleted from ISO 3166-1
 * TAA</tt> Tristan da Cunha &mdash; Reserved on request of UPU

The following alpha-3 codes were previously exceptionally reserved, but are now officially assigned:
 * GGY</tt> Guernsey &mdash; Reserved on request of UPU
 * IMN</tt> Isle of Man &mdash; Reserved on request of UPU
 * JEY</tt> Jersey &mdash; 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:
 * <tt>ANT</tt> Netherlands Antilles &mdash; From December 2010
 * <tt>BUR</tt> Burma &mdash; From December 1989
 * <tt>BYS</tt> Byelorussian SSR &mdash; From June 1992
 * <tt>CSK</tt> Czechoslovakia &mdash; From June 1993
 * <tt>NTZ</tt> Neutral Zone &mdash; From July 1993
 * <tt>ROM</tt> Romania &mdash; From February 2002; Code changed to <tt>ROU</tt>
 * <tt>SCG</tt> Serbia and Montenegro &mdash; From September 2006
 * <tt>TMP</tt> East Timor &mdash; From May 2002
 * <tt>YUG</tt> Yugoslavia &mdash; From July 2003
 * <tt>ZAR</tt> Zaire &mdash; From July 1997

Indeterminate reservations
Indeterminately reserved code elements are codes used to designate road vehicles under the 1949 and 1968 United Nations Conventions on Road Traffic but differing from those contained in ISO 3166-1. These code elements are expected eventually to be either eliminated or replaced by code elements within ISO 3166-1. In the meantime, the ISO 3166/MA has reserved such code elements for an indeterminate period. Any use beyond the application of the two Conventions is discouraged and will not be approved by the ISO 3166/MA. Moreover, these codes may be reassigned by the ISO 3166/MA at any time. The following alpha-3 codes are currently indeterminately reserved:
 * <tt>ADN</tt> Aden
 * <tt>BDS</tt> Barbados
 * <tt>BRU</tt> Brunei
 * <tt>CDN</tt> Canada
 * <tt>EAK</tt> Kenya
 * <tt>EAT</tt> Tanganyika [Part of Tanzania, United Republic of]
 * <tt>EAU</tt> Uganda
 * <tt>EAZ</tt> Zanzibar [Part of Tanzania, United Republic of]
 * <tt>GBA</tt> Alderney
 * <tt>GBG</tt> Guernsey
 * <tt>GBJ</tt> Jersey
 * <tt>GBM</tt> Isle of Man
 * <tt>GBZ</tt> Gibraltar
 * <tt>GCA</tt> Guatemala
 * <tt>HKJ</tt> Jordan
 * <tt>MAL</tt> Malaysia
 * <tt>RCA</tt> Central African Republic
 * <tt>RCB</tt> Congo, People's Republic of
 * <tt>RCH</tt> Chile
 * <tt>RMM</tt> Mali
 * <tt>RNR</tt> Zambia
 * <tt>ROK</tt> Korea, Republic of
 * <tt>RSM</tt> San Marino
 * <tt>RSR</tt> Southern Rhodesia [now Zimbabwe]
 * <tt>SLO</tt> Slovenia
 * <tt>SME</tt> Surinam
 * <tt>TMN</tt> Turkmenistan
 * <tt>WAG</tt> Gambia
 * <tt>WAL</tt> Sierra Leone
 * <tt>WAN</tt> Nigeria
 * <tt>ZRE</tt> Zaire

The following alpha-3 code was previously indeterminately reserved, but has been reassigned to another country as its official code:
 * <tt>ROU</tt> Uruguay &mdash; Code reassigned to Romania

Codes currently agreed not to use
In addition, the ISO 3166/MA will not use the following alpha-3 codes at the present stage, as they are used in ISO/IEC 7501-1 for special machine-readable passports:
 * <tt>GBD</tt> identifies a British Passport holder who is a British Overseas Territories Citizen
 * <tt>GBN</tt> identifies a British Passport holder who is a British National (Overseas)
 * <tt>GBO</tt> identifies a British Passport holder who is a British Overseas Citizen
 * <tt>GBP</tt> identifies a British Passport holder who is a British Protected Person
 * <tt>GBS</tt> identifies a British Passport holder who is a British Subject
 * <tt>UNA</tt> is used as a substitute for nationality where the holder is an Official of a Specialized Agency of the UN Organization
 * <tt>UNK</tt> identifies Kosovo residents to whom travel documents were issued by the United Nations Interim Administration in Kosovo (UNMIK)
 * <tt>UNO</tt> is used to designate the UN Organization as the issuer and used as a substitute for nationality where the holder is an Official of the UN Organization

Deleted codes
Besides the codes currently transitionally reserved and two other codes currently exceptionally reserved (<tt>FXX</tt> for France, Metropolitan and <tt>SUN</tt> for USSR), the following alpha-3 codes have also been deleted from ISO 3166-1:
 * <tt>AFI</tt> French Afar and Issas
 * <tt>ATB</tt> British Antarctic Territory
 * <tt>ATN</tt> Dronning Maud Land
 * <tt>CTE</tt> Canton and Enderbury Islands
 * <tt>DDR</tt> German Democratic Republic
 * <tt>DHY</tt> Dahomey
 * <tt>GEL</tt> Gilbert and Ellice Islands
 * <tt>HVO</tt> Upper Volta
 * <tt>JTN</tt> Johnston Island
 * <tt>MID</tt> Midway Islands
 * <tt>NHB</tt> New Hebrides
 * <tt>PCI</tt> Pacific Islands, Trust Territory of the
 * <tt>PCZ</tt> Panama Canal Zone
 * <tt>PHI</tt> Philippines &mdash; Code changed to <tt>PHL</tt>
 * <tt>PUS</tt> U.S. Miscellaneous Pacific Islands
 * <tt>RHO</tt> Southern Rhodesia
 * <tt>SKM</tt> Sikkim
 * <tt>VDR</tt> Viet-Nam, Democratic Republic of
 * <tt>WAK</tt> Wake Island
 * <tt>YMD</tt> Yemen, Democratic

=Resources=

Sources and external links

 * ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency, International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
 * Reserved code elements under ISO 3166-1 "Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions – Part 1: Country codes", available on request from ISO 3166/MA
 * Standard Country or Area Codes for Statistical Use, United Nations Statistics Division
 * Countries or areas, codes and abbreviations &mdash; list of alpha-3 and numeric codes (a few territories officially assigned codes in ISO 3166-1 are not included in this list)
 * The World Factbook (public domain), Central Intelligence Agency
 * Appendix D – Cross-Reference List of Country Data Codes &mdash; comparison of FIPS 10, ISO 3166, and STANAG 1059 country codes
 * Administrative Divisions of Countries ("Statoids"), Statoids.com
 * Country codes &mdash; comparison of ISO 3166-1 country codes with other country codes
 * ISO 3166-1 Change History