International Country Codes (ISO) and Calling Codes

The  International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is responsible for defining internationally recognized codes of letters that we can use when referring to a country and its subdivision.

Better known as ISO 3166, the organization came up with a set of 2 or 3 letter codes to represent a particular country.

These country ISO codes are used in internet domain names such as “.ke” for Kenya and “.za” for South Africa, and to sort international mails into containers heading to various destinations worldwide.

See also: List of Postal Codes in Kenya for all Post Offices

In addition, in machine-readable passports, the ISO codes are used to determine the nationality of the user.

Also when we send money from one bank to another, or through mobile money, the country ISO codes are used to identify where the bank or receiver is based.

Country ISO Codes vs Calling Codes (Phone Codes)

While ISO codes use 2 or 3 letters to represent a country, the calling code is a set of digits normally used when making an international call.

ISO codes include KE for Kenya, UG for Uganda, and AU for Australia.

How Calling Codes are Given

Phone international dialing calling codes include 254 for Kenya and 234 for Nigeria, and 1 for the USA.

Calling codes are assigned by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a specialized agency of the UN.

Countries are grouped into 9 regions. The first digit represents the region the country falls into while the rest of the digits represent the country.

African countries are in region 2 hence these countries’ codes start with a 2 followed by two other digits.

On the other hand, countries in the first region (mostly in North America or the Caribbean) start with a prefix 1 followed by a three-digit code, for instance, Bahamas country and area code are +1 242 whereas Dominica’s is +1 767.

Region 3 and 4 represent countries in Europe.

List of Country ISO Codes and Calling Codes