A country code is what you dial in to call another country. +46 is the country code for Sweden. But how is it that Sweden has that particular number? When were the country codes created and who decided which countries would receive which codes? That is something we are going to give answers to below.
Why was country codes created?
For us, it may sound obvious to have different country codes. But considering that the phone was invented in the 1870s, it took a long time before they were introduced. It was not before the early 1960s that the concept of country codes emerged.
At that time, rotary phones were used, you know those who had a number disc where you rotated one digit at a time. The mechanism in the disk then controlled the rotation counterclockwise to produce pulses down the telephone line. Entering telephone numbers took time and therefore they wanted to avoid telephone numbers being too long. With the country codes, it was ensured that a telephone number never became more than 11 digits.
Who decided how the country codes would be distributed?
It was the ITU – International Telecom Union, a body that contains various countries’ network suppliers, which together agreed on how the different codes would be distributed.
Which countries have which codes?
On a rotary phone, a “1” takes significantly shorter time to enter than a “9”. The countries that were most influential in the telecommunications union, combined with those who had the largest population, were given the shortest and thus the simplest codes to enter. Therefore, it may not be surprising that the US and Canada received the single-digit country code +1. They had a well-developed network and had good contacts with the rest of the world which made this an area that many people were presumed to call.
A bit more surprising may be that Africa got the + 2-series. Europe got the following numbers, +3 and +4. Countries with much influence received “nicer” country codes, such as +33 (France) and +44 (England).
At that time, the then USSR network was rather poorly developed but had a large land mass and large population. Therefore, they got the world’s other single-digit code but with the fairly high number +7. Only North America and the USSR received single-digit codes. The rest of the world later got two or three digits.
Uzbekistan drew the shortest straw, or the longest number, when they were assigned the country number +998.
Politics affects
There is a country code listed as “Reserved” without other comments in the official list of country codes, namely +886. But the fact is that if you use the country code +886 you will call Taiwan. This is because mainland China did not receive any code at all to begin with. Instead, the country code belonged to the People’s Republic of China, which at that time was advocated by Taiwan. The mainland China did not receive its own code because Taiwan still claimed the Chinese mainland. China now has +86 as its country code, but because of China’s influence over this list, Taiwan is not shown in the list of official codes.
Country codes in alphabetical order
If you want to find the country code for a specific country, there are plenty of websites that can help you, for example CountryCode.org.
Latest update nov 2019
excellent &useful
I would like to see the list arranged numerically
Country Country Code
Canada 1
United States 1
Kazakhstan 7
Russia 7
Egypt 20
South Africa 27
Greece 30
Netherlands 31
Belgium 32
France 33
Spain 34
Hungary 36
Italy 39
Romania 40
Switzerland 41
Austria 43
United Kingdom 44
Denmark 45
Sweden 46
Norway 47
Svalbard and Jan Mayen 47
Poland 48
Germany 49
Peru 51
Mexico 52
Cuba 53
Argentina 54
Brazil 55
Chile 56
Colombia 57
Venezuela 58
Malaysia 60
Australia 61
Christmas Island 61
Cocos Islands 61
Indonesia 62
Philippines 63
New Zealand 64
Pitcairn 64
Singapore 65
Thailand 66
Japan 81
South Korea 82
Vietnam 84
China 86
Turkey 90
India 91
Pakistan 92
Afghanistan 93
Sri Lanka 94
Myanmar 95
Iran 98
South Sudan 211
Morocco 212
Western Sahara 212
Algeria 213
Tunisia 216
Libya 218
Gambia 220
Senegal 221
Mauritania 222
Mali 223
Guinea 224
Ivory Coast 225
Burkina Faso 226
Niger 227
Togo 228
Benin 229
Mauritius 230
Liberia 231
Sierra Leone 232
Ghana 233
Nigeria 234
Chad 235
Central African Republic 236
Cameroon 237
Cape Verde 238
Sao Tome and Principe 239
Equatorial Guinea 240
Gabon 241
Republic of the Congo 242
Democratic Republic of the Congo 243
Angola 244
Guinea-Bissau 245
British Indian Ocean Territory 246
Seychelles 248
Sudan 249
Rwanda 250
Ethiopia 251
Somalia 252
Djibouti 253
Kenya 254
Tanzania 255
Uganda 256
Burundi 257
Mozambique 258
Zambia 260
Madagascar 261
Mayotte 262
Reunion 262
Zimbabwe 263
Namibia 264
Malawi 265
Lesotho 266
Botswana 267
Swaziland 268
Comoros 269
Saint Helena 290
Eritrea 291
Aruba 297
Faroe Islands 298
Greenland 299
Gibraltar 350
Portugal 351
Luxembourg 352
Ireland 353
Iceland 354
Albania 355
Malta 356
Cyprus 357
Finland 358
Bulgaria 359
Lithuania 370
Latvia 371
Estonia 372
Moldova 373
Armenia 374
Belarus 375
Andorra 376
Monaco 377
San Marino 378
Vatican 379
Ukraine 380
Serbia 381
Montenegro 382
Kosovo 383
Croatia 385
Slovenia 386
Bosnia and Herzegovina 387
Macedonia 389
Czech Republic 420
Slovakia 421
Liechtenstein 423
Falkland Islands 500
Belize 501
Guatemala 502
El Salvador 503
Honduras 504
Nicaragua 505
Costa Rica 506
Panama 507
Saint Pierre and Miquelon 508
Haiti 509
Saint Barthelemy 590
Saint Martin 590
Bolivia 591
Guyana 592
Ecuador 593
Paraguay 595
Suriname 597
Uruguay 598
Curacao 599
Netherlands Antilles 599
East Timor 670
Antarctica 672
Brunei 673
Nauru 674
Papua New Guinea 675
Tonga 676
Solomon Islands 677
Vanuatu 678
Fiji 679
Palau 680
Wallis and Futuna 681
Cook Islands 682
Niue 683
Samoa 685
Kiribati 686
New Caledonia 687
Tuvalu 688
French Polynesia 689
Tokelau 690
Micronesia 691
Marshall Islands 692
North Korea 850
Hong Kong 852
Macau 853
Cambodia 855
Laos 856
Bangladesh 880
Taiwan 886
Maldives 960
Lebanon 961
Jordan 962
Syria 963
Iraq 964
Kuwait 965
Saudi Arabia 966
Yemen 967
Oman 968
Palestine 970
United Arab Emirates 971
Israel 972
Bahrain 973
Qatar 974
Bhutan 975
Mongolia 976
Nepal 977
Tajikistan 992
Turkmenistan 993
Azerbaijan 994
Georgia 995
Kyrgyzstan 996
Uzbekistan 998
Bahamas 1-242
Barbados 1-246
Anguilla 1-264
Antigua and Barbuda 1-268
British Virgin Islands 1-284
U.S. Virgin Islands 1-340
Cayman Islands 1-345
Bermuda 1-441
Grenada 1-473
Turks and Caicos Islands 1-649
Montserrat 1-664
Northern Mariana Islands 1-670
Guam 1-671
American Samoa 1-684
Sint Maarten 1-721
Saint Lucia 1-758
Dominica 1-767
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 1-784
Puerto Rico 1-787, 1-939
Dominican Republic 1-809, 1-829, 1-849
Trinidad and Tobago 1-868
Saint Kitts and Nevis 1-869
Jamaica 1-876
Guernsey 44-1481
Jersey 44-1534
Isle of Man 44-1624
Now that we have the technology that does not depend on physical pulses, we should revise the systems, namely: 1 North America, 2 South America, 3 Europe (Including Russia), 4 Africa, 5 Middle East, 6 South East Asia, 7 Oceania. 8 and 9 should be reserved of special communication. The second and the third digit should be within that area …It shall simplify remembering and recognizing …The Telecommunication World has become too big and too complex. We should try to reach ordinary people and make it as simple as possible.
And why does USA still got to have 1. Why not UK be 1 or France be 1 and go from there? Why does it have to be USA first??
Hi colleagues,
I am really excited to heard that there is a reserved country code which our case bit similar to Taiwan cases, therefore, if you help us getting that reserved codes and requirements. It will enable us to communicate more if needed.
I will like to know Egypt has got 20 while USA has 1 what is the phenomena that were used to create the system that named even in Africa as top 20 countries however I would also like to know why the numbers are not arranged from number one because they omitted other numbers
On a rotary phone, a “1” takes significantly shorter time to enter than a “9”. The countries that were most influential in the telecommunications union, combined with those who had the largest population, were given the shortest and thus the simplest codes to enter.
yesterday i was sitting on the toilet. My mother came in and as i yelled at her also decided to go eat an oreo from the pantry, i sat down at my computer to do some work and i came across this post, i read it and thank holy god hallelujah I needid it. so i sat down to do work and then i thought, what if zimbabwes country code wasnt what it was, what if it was 212312312312312312434234143. so i went on change.org and gofundme. i set up a petition on one and a fundraiser on the other. now my sick dog is dead.
Lol, can relate
Frankly speaking,I don’t really know who nd how dey did dis country code stuff, but yes, why is d omission of other numbers and by the way what strategy or system did dey use so we can figure it out ourselves.
Amah computer science student and ahm totally confused how dis codes where formed…
Hoping for ah helping answer plzzzz…
Just curious…