Country codes GRC Data Intelligence has always maintained its own list of country codes. Country codes and lists from other sources have proved unsuitable for managing international name and address data - they are created with political influences and are not updated fast enough (or at all) as the world changes. Our list is created on a pragmatic (non political) basis and we are now making it available for free download. Countries and territories ("entities") are included on the basis of: • Having an ISO-3166 code. Though the “logic” behind giving ISO 3166 codes to uninhabited rocks escapes me, I have provided a code for each one so that users can match the ISO3166 codes to our code. Otherwise, the inclusion is based on: • Being populated. Unpopulated entities are not included in the list. • Geographical imperative: a territory may be part of another country, but its geographical isolation from that country requires it to be treated separately. o Examples: Guadeloupe, Bonaire • De facto control by an alternative entity (usually resulting in address, postal and telephone number differences) o Examples: Abkhazia, Transdniestria, Nagorno-Karabakh • Address/Postal imperative: a country or territory uses a different address system and/or postal code; and/or mail is routed through a different country. o Examples: Hong Kong, Macao, Åland Islands • Telephone imperative: a different international access code is required to dial in to the country/territory. o Examples:Northern Cyprus • Currency imperative: the entity uses a different currency. o Examples: Saba • Political imperative: in a small number of cases, where control is split or disputed, a country or territory is included o Examples: Western Sahara • Legacy: entities which no longer exist are sometimes included for legacy reasons while changes on the ground are not finalised. o Examples: Netherlands Antilles This means that the list contains entities which are politically part of another country (e.g. Guadeloupe, Bonaire) and entities which have limited or no international political recognition (e.g. Kosovo, Transdniestria, Puntland) but not some of those with a wider measure of political independence (Scotland, Catalonia). Where useful, the reasons for inclusions have been given within the file. Though the list has been created without a political agenda, your use of it, and the country names in the list, may need to be used with political and cultural sensitivity. The country names are given in English according to common English use. However, these are for identification purposes only. You would not, for example, use "Falkland Islands" in Argentina, or "Taiwan" in China. Lists need to be created with your own needs and customers in mind. DOWNLOAD the file (Excel (xls) format, version 29th April 2020) here If you would like to be informed as this file is updated, send your e-mail address to We welcome your input and comments on this file. Please contact us here These country codes are now included as a data store in the free data profiling and cleansing tool DataCleaner If you have any questions about any of our products, or would like to order them, please contact us.

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