An advantage of numeric codes over alphabetic codes is script (writing system) independence.[2] The ISO 3166-1 alphabetic codes (alpha-2 and alpha-3) use letters from the 26-letter English alphabet and are suitable for languages based on the Latin alphabet. For people and systems using non-Latin scripts (such as Arabic or Japanese), the English alphabet may be unavailable or difficult to use, understand, or correctly interpret. While numeric codes overcome the problems of script dependence, this independence comes at the cost of loss of mnemonic convenience.
Another advantage is that when countries merge or split, they will get a new numeric code, while the alphabetic code stays in use for (a part of) that country. A persistent number is needed in datasets with historical country information.
Current codes
Officially assigned code elements
The following is a complete list of the current officially assigned ISO 3166-1 numeric codes,[3] using a title case version of the English short names officially used by the ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency (ISO 3166/MA):
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. The ISO 3166/MA will never use these codes in the updating process of the standard. The numeric codes 900 to 999 can be user-assigned.[4]
Withdrawn codes
When countries merge, split, or undergo territorial change, their numeric codes are withdrawn and new numeric codes are assigned. For example:
East Germany and West Germany used numeric codes 278 and 280 respectively before their unification in 1990. Since then, the unified Germany has used numeric code 276, while keeping the alphabetic codes for West Germany (except in the banking area where they still use the 280 code[5]).
Ethiopia used numeric code 230 before Eritrea split away in 1993. Since then, Ethiopia has used numeric code 231, while keeping the same alphabetic codes.
Sudan used numeric code 736 before South Sudan split away in 2011. Since then, Sudan has used numeric code 729, while keeping the same alphabetic codes.
If a country changes its name without any territorial change, its numeric code remains the same. For example, when Burma was renamed Myanmar without territorial change in 1989, its alphabetic codes were changed, but its numeric code 104 has remained the same.
The following numeric codes have been withdrawn from ISO 3166-1:[6]
The following numeric codes were also assigned by the United Nations Statistics Division, but these territories were never officially included in ISO 3166-1:[1]
In the UN M.49 standard developed by the United Nations Statistics Division, additional numeric codes are used to represent geographical regions and groupings of countries and areas for statistical processing purposes, but these codes are not included in ISO 3166-1. Unlike alphabetic codes, there are no reserved numeric codes in ISO 3166-1.
References
^ ab"Appendix 1. United Nations Standard Country Codes"(PDF). Cancer Registration: Principles and Methods, IARC Scientific Publication No. 95. International Agency for Research on Cancer. 1991. pp. 208–211. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2011-07-20. Retrieved 2009-05-11.