ISO 3166-2

ISO 3166-2 is the second part of the ISO 3166 standard. It is a geocode system created for coding the names of subdivisions of countries (subnational entities) and dependent areas. The purpose of the standard is to establish a worldwide series of short abbreviations for places, for use on package labels, containers, and such; anywhere where a short alphanumeric code can serve to clearly indicate a location in a more convenient and less ambiguous form than the full place name.

Number of entries

Around 3700.

Format

ISO 3166-2 codes consist of two parts, separated by "-". The first part is the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code element, the second is alphabetic or numeric and has one, two or three digits. The second part often is based on national standards.

Changes / Editions

Changes were announced in 6 Newsletters

1. ISO 3166-2:2000-06-21
2. ISO 3166-2:2002-05-21
3. ISO 3166-2:2002-08-20
4. ISO 3166-2:2002-12-10
5. ISO 3166-2:2003-09-05
6. ISO 3166-2:2004-03-08

Decoding / Encoding lists

To find the ISO 3166-2 codes for each country see ISO 3166-1, a list of countries. If you are familiar with the two-letter country codes (similar to internet country codes) you can also use the format matrix given below.

Both ways would lead to articles like ISO 3166-2:XX, where XX stands for the ISO 3166-1 code, e.g. ISO 3166-2:AU leads to the code list for Australia.

Format matrix with links to codes

Some of the codes are developed by ISO 3166/MA, these are copyrighted. Others are already in use in the specific countries.

length	alpha	numeric	alpha-numeric
constant 1 char	Free: Partially free: ISO - Copyright: Unsorted: AR, BO, CR, EC, FJ, GM, KG, KI, KM, LS, LU, MG, NE, RW, SL, ST, TG, TM, VE	GA, IS, AT	PA
constant 2 chars	Free: CH, US Partially free: AL, ID ISO - Copyright: Unsorted: AE, AM, AU, BI, BJ, BN, BR, BS, BW, BY, CA, CD, CF, CL, CM, CV, CZ, DE, DJ, ER, ET, FI, GE, GH, GN, GT, GW, GY, HN, HT, HU, IN, IT, IQ, JO, KW, LA, LB, LR, LT, LV, LY, MD, MU, MW, NA, NG, NI, NL, NP, OM, PK, PL, QA, SB, SH, SK, SN, SO, SR, SV, SY, SZ, TJ, TL, UY, UZ, WS, YE, YU, ZA, TN ISO - Copyright: Unsorted: BD, BG, BH, CI, CN, CU, CY, DO, DZ, EE, GR, HR, IR, JM, JP, KR, LK, MM, MY, NO, PT, SA, SD, TR, TZ, UA, UM, VN, FR Unsorted: KP ISO - Copyright: MA Unsorted: AO, AF, BA, BE, BF, CS, FM, GB, KZ, MD, MH, MX, NZ, PE, PG, PH, TT, TW	Free: Partially free: ISO - Copyright: Unsorted: DK, KE, SI, UG, ES, GQ, IE, KG 1 for capital, 2 for departments: RO 1 as the general rule, 2 for exceptions SE	Free: Partially free: ISO - Copyright: Unsorted: KH	Free: Partially free: ISO - Copyright: Unsorted: TH
mixed 2,3	Free: Partially free: ISO - Copyright: CO Unsorted: ?:BZ, EG, RU 2 for cities, 3 for rayons: AZ 2 for capital, 3 other: ??		MR, MN	Free: Partially free: ISO - Copyright: Unsorted: CG, PY

Related topics

• subnational entity
• list of subnational entities
• list of capitals of subnational entities