Statistics Explained

Glossary:Country codes

Member States of the European Union (EU) and other countries have been assigned a two-letter country code, always written in capital letters, and often used as an abbreviation in statistical analyses, tables, figures or maps.


The protocol order in which countries are often listed is based on the alphabetical list of countries in their national language for EU and EFTA Member States and for candidate countries; for potential candidates, it is based on the alphabetical order of their country code.

EU Member States come first, followed by European Free Trade Association (EFTA) Member States, candidate countries for EU membership, potential candidates and, finally, other countries. The order in the tables below is first column down, then second column down, etc..

European Union (EU)

Belgium (BE) Greece (EL) Lithuania (LT) Portugal (PT)
Bulgaria (BG) Spain (ES) Luxembourg (LU) Romania (RO)
Czechia (CZ) France (FR) Hungary (HU) Slovenia (SI)
Denmark (DK) Croatia (HR) Malta (MT) Slovakia (SK)
Germany (DE) Italy (IT) Netherlands (NL) Finland (FI)
Estonia (EE) Cyprus (CY) Austria (AT) Sweden (SE)
Ireland (IE) Latvia (LV) Poland (PL)


European Free Trade Association (EFTA)

Iceland (IS) Norway (NO)
Liechtenstein (LI) Switzerland (CH)


EU candidate countries

Bosnia and Herzegovina (BA)
Montenegro (ME)
Moldova (MD)
North Macedonia (MK)
Georgia (GE)
Albania (AL)
Serbia (RS)
Türkiye (TR)
Ukraine (UA)


Potential candidates

Kosovo* (XK[1])

(*) This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244/1999 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence. (with asterisk and footnote in written documents, only the first time that Kosovo is mentioned).


European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP)-East countries:

Armenia (AM)
Belarus (BY)
Azerbaijan (AZ)


European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP)-South countries:

Algeria (DZ) Lebanon (LB) Syria (SY)
Egypt (EG) Libya (LY) Tunisia (TN)
Israel (IL) Morocco (MA)    
Jordan (JO) Palestine [2] (PS)    


Other countries

Argentina (AR)
Australia (AU)
Brazil (BR)
Canada (CA)
China (except Hong Kong) (CN_X_HK)
Hong Kong (HK)
India (IN)
Japan (JP)
Mexico (MX)
Nigeria (NG)
New Zealand (NZ)
Russia (RU)
Singapore (SG)
South Africa (ZA)
South Korea (KR)
Taiwan (TW)
United Kingdom (UK)
United States (US)


Further information

Related concepts

External links

Interinstitutional style guide (Publications Office)

Notes

  1. 'XK' is a code used for practical reasons and not an official ISO country code.
  2. This designation shall not be construed as recognition of a State of Palestine and is without prejudice to the individual positions of the Member States on this issue.