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Matt Rosenberg

ISO 3166-1 Country Names and Codes

By , About.com GuideJune 23, 2008

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A reader wrote to ask why there are so many "countries" listed on the ISO 3166-1 list of 246 "countries" while here on my site I report that there are 195 countries in the world. Well, the ISO 3166-1 list (which also provides the two-letter abbreviation for Internet domains) includes 51 non-countries such as territories and non-independent entities. For example, the ISO 3166-1 list includes such notable non-countries as American Samoa, Falkland Islands, Greenland, Hong Kong, Palestinian Territory, Puerto Rico, Western Sahara, and even has a code for the "United States Minor Outlying Islands!" Notably, however, lacking from the ISO list are England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, which are also not independent countries.

Comments

June 30, 2008 at 10:40 pm
(1) Kevin says:

“Taiwan Province of China” only makes sense if it is 1945-1949. I doubt that these internet codes were created then. If it is after 1949, “Taiwan Republic of China” is proper, and anything else is convenient political fiction.

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