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ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes are two-letter country codes in the ISO 3166-1 standard to represent countries and dependent areas. They are published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) as part of its ISO 3166 standard. They are the most widely used of the country codes published by ISO, and are used most prominently for the Internet country code top-level domains (with a few changes). Uses and applications The codes are used in different environments and are also part of other standards. In some cases they are not perfectly implemented. Perfect implementations The two-letter ISO 3166-1 codes are used in: Imperfect implementations Starting in 1985, two-letter codes have been used in the domain name system as country code top-level domains (ccTLDs). Nowadays, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority assign the ccTLDs, mostly following the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes, but with a few exceptions (e.g., the United Kingdom uses .uk instead of .gb). The WIPO standard ST.3, for encoding country which issued a patent or trademark, also uses the alpha-2 codes, but with additional codes for many organizations. For these codes, see the section Codes currently agreed not to use. NATO country codes are also based on ISO 3166-1 alpha-2. Changes Changes to ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 are tracked by ISO 3166-3. Officially assigned code elements Below is a complete list of the current officially assigned ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes, with three columns: User-assigned code elements The following alpha-2 codes can be user-assigned: AA, from QM to QZ, from XA to XZ, and ZZ. These code elements are 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 them in the updating process of the standard. For example: Reserved code elements Reserved code elements are codes which, while not ISO 3166-1 codes, are in use for some applications in conjunction with the ISO 3166 codes. The ISO 3166/MA therefore reserves them, so that they are not used for new official ISO 3166 codes, thereby creating conflicts between the standard and those applications. The alpha-2 reserved code elements list is divided into the following four categories. Exceptional reservations Exceptionally reserved alpha-2 code elements are reserved permanently because they are needed for particular purposes. ISO 3166/MA only authorizes their use for the particular purpose for which they were established. The following alpha-2 codes are currently exceptionally reserved: The following three codes were also under exceptional reservation, until the update from 2006-03-29 included them in the standard as official codes: Transitional reservations A transitional reservation refers to a code which was formerly present in ISO 3166, but which since has been deleted. It will be maintained as a transitional reservation for at least five years, for the sake of users who still need to refer to the former entity or whose systems have not yet been updated to refer to the new code. The following alpha-2 codes are currently transitionally reserved: Indeterminate reservations The indeterminately reserved alpha-2 code elements are code elements used to identify vehicles under the 1949 and 1968 United Nations Road Traffic Conventions. These codes differ from those used in ISO 3166. The ISO 3166/MA hopes that these codes will eventually be phased out and that ISO 3166-1 codes will be used instead; but in the meantime they are reserved, to avoid conflicts between ISO 3166-1 and the Conventions, and to facilitate any transition from the Convention codes to ISO 3166-1 codes. However, they can be reassigned at any time by the ISO 3166/MA. The following alpha-2 codes are currently indeterminately reserved: The following codes have been reassigned: Notes: Codes currently agreed not to use In addition, the ISO 3166/MA has undertaken, for the time being, not to use the following alpha-2 codes from WIPO Standard ST.3. However, this undertaking is not classified as a transitional, indeterminate or transitional reservation, since the codes do not refer to countries, dependent areas or other geographic regions or localities: In addition, WIPO Standard ST.3 also uses EA to code the Eurasian Patent Organization. However, ISO 3166/MA has stated it cannot guarantee to reserve the code EA from use, since it is already used for customs purposes to represent Ceuta and Melilla. ISO 3166/MA proposed in 1995 that EV be used by WIPO for the purpose of representing the Eurasian Patent Organization; however, this request was not honoured by WIPO. Other withdrawn codes for a full list of withdrawn codes These codes have also been withdrawn from ISO 3166-1 since the first edition in 1974: See also | |||||||
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