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. There are around 3700 different codes.

Contents

1 Format 2 Changes / Editions 3 Decoding / Encoding lists 4 Format matrix with links to codes 5 Related topics 6 External links

Format

ISO 3166-2 codes consist of two parts, separated by a hyphen. 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 , 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 , ZW	Free: Partially free: 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, ZM	Free: FR Unsorted: BT
constant 3 chars	Free: Partially free: 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 , VU
mixed 1,2 chars	Free: Partially free: ISO - Copyright: Unsorted: no system?: ES, GQ , IE , IL 1 for regions, 2 for capital: 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 , TD 2 for republics, 3 for cities, regions, districts: RU 2 for cities, 3 for rayons: AZ 2 for capital, 3 other: ??		MR , MV
mixed 1,3	Free: Partially free: ISO - Copyright: Unsorted: MZ	Free: Partially free: ISO - Copyright: Unsorted: MN	Free: Partially free: ISO - Copyright: Unsorted: ML
mixed 1,2,3			Free: Partially free: ISO - Copyright: Unsorted:CG , PY

Related topics

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

External links

• Track changes, sorted by country
• http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/iso3166ma/04background-on-iso-3166/iso3166-2.html
• http://www.unece.org/cefact/locode/service/sublocat.htm
• This says that it has permission to reproduce all codes. Some codes and names are outdated.
• Uses ISO codes internally in the free geolocation database download
• http://www.mindspring.com/~mjfriedman/countrysubentity.txt