# CD.COM.05 country

The International Organization for Standardization ([ISO](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Organization_for_Standardization)) created and maintains the [ISO 3166 standard – Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166).[\[1\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ISO_3166_country_codes#cite_note-ISO_3166-1) The ISO 3166 standard contains three parts:

* [ISO 3166-1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-1) – Codes for the representation of names of [countries](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Country) and their subdivisions – Part 1: Country codes[\[2\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ISO_3166_country_codes#cite_note-ISO_3166-1-2) defines codes for the names of countries, dependent territories, and special areas of geographical interest. It defines three sets of [country codes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Country_code):
  * [ISO 3166-1 alpha-2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-1_alpha-2) – Two-letter country codes, which are also used to create the [ISO 3166-2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-2) country subdivision codes and the [Internet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet) [country code top-level domains](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Country_code_top-level_domain).
  * [ISO 3166-1 alpha-3](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-1_alpha-3) – Three-letter country codes, which may allow a better visual association between the codes and the country names than the 3166-1 alpha-2 codes.
  * [ISO 3166-1 numeric](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-1_numeric) – Three-digit country codes, which are identical to those developed and maintained by the [United Nations Statistics Division](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Statistics_Division), with the advantage of script ([writing system](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Writing_system)) independence, and, hence, useful for people or systems using non-[Latin scripts](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_script).
* [ISO 3166-2](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-2) – Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions – Part 2: Country subdivision code[\[3\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ISO_3166_country_codes#cite_note-ISO_3166-2-3) defines codes for the names of the principal subdivisions (e.g., [provinces](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Province), [states](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constituent_state), [departments](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Department_\(country_subdivision\)), [regions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Region)) of all countries coded in ISO 3166-1.
* [ISO 3166-3](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-3) – Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions – Part 3: Code for formerly used names of countries[\[4\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ISO_3166_country_codes#cite_note-ISO_3166-3-4) defines codes for country names that have been deleted from [ISO 3166-1](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-1) since its first publication in 1974.

The ISO 3166-1 standard currently comprises 249 countries, 193 of which are [sovereign states](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sovereign_state) that are [members](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Member_states_of_the_United_Nations) of the [United Nations](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations). Many dependent territories in the ISO 3166-1 standard are also listed as a subdivision of their administering state in the ISO 3166-2 standard.

Reference 

{% embed url="<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166>" %}

{% embed url="<https://www.iso.org/iso-3166-country-codes.html>" %}


---

# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://standards.spdci.org/standards/standards-for-interoperability-interfaces/common-standards-for-interoperability-interfaces/data/code-directory/cd.com.05-country.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.