This dataset is sourced from multiple sources which includes United Nations Statistics Division, Unicode Common Locale Data Repository (CLDR) Project, International Organization for Standardization (ISO), Statoids, Geonames and US Securities and Exchange Commission. This list states the country names (official short names in English) in alphabetical order as given in ISO 3166-1 and the corresponding ISO 3166-1-alpha-2 code elements.
ISO 3166 is the International Standard for country codes and codes for their subdivisions. The purpose of ISO 3166 is to define internationally recognized codes of letters and/or numbers that can be used to refer to different countries and subdivisions. However, it does not define the names of countries (Source: Terminology Bulletin Country Names and the Country and Region Codes for Statistical Use maintained by the United Nations Statistics Divisions).
Using codes saves time and avoids errors instead of using a country’s name (which will change depending on the language being used) a combination of letters and/or numbers can also be used that are understood all over the world. For example, all national postal organizations throughout the world exchange international mail in containers identified with the relevant country code. Internet domain name systems use the codes to define top level domain names such as ‘.fr’ for France, ‘.au’ for Australia. In addition, in machine readable passports, the codes are used to determine the nationality of the user and when money is sent from one bank to another, the country codes are a way to identify where the bank is based. The country codes for ISO 3166 can be represented either as a two-letter code (alpha-2) which is recommended as the general purpose code, a three-letter code (alpha-3) which is more closely related to the country name and a three digit numeric code (numeric -3) which can be useful if a person needs to avoid using Latin script.
ISO 4217 specifies the structure for a three-letter alphabetic code and an equivalent three-digit numeric code for the representation of currencies. The most recent edition is ISO 4217:2015. The purpose of ISO 4217:2015 is to establish internationally recognized codes for the representation of currencies. Currencies can be represented in the code in two ways: a three-letter alphabetic code and a three-digit numeric code. The alphabetic code is based on another ISO standard, ISO 3166, which lists the codes for country names. The first two letters of the ISO 4217 three-letter code are the same as the code for the country name, and where possible the third letter corresponds to the first letter of the currency name. For example: the US dollar is represented as USD – the US coming from the ISO 3166 country code and the D for dollar. The Swiss franc is represented by CHF – the CH being the code for Switzerland in the ISO 3166 code and F for franc.
On the other hand, the three-digit numeric code is useful when currency codes need to be understood in countries that do not use Latin scripts and for computerized systems. Where possible the 3 digit numeric code is the same as the numeric country code. For currencies having minor units, ISO 4217:2015 also shows the relationship between the minor unit and the currency itself (i.e. whether it divides into 100 or 1000). The scope of this International Standard also includes funds and precious metals. It is intended for use in any application of trade, commerce and banking, where currencies and, where appropriate, funds are required to be described. It is designed to be equally suitable for manual users and for those employing automated systems.
