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Country codes, how did they arise and why?

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

COUNTRY COUNTRY CODE
Afghanistan 93
Albania 355
Algeria 213
American Samoa 1-684
Andorra 376
Angola 244
Anguilla 1-264
Antarctica 672
Antigua and Barbuda 1-268
Argentina 54
Armenia 374
Aruba 297
Australia 61
Austria 43
Azerbaijan 994
Bahamas 1-242
Bahrain 973
Bangladesh 880
Barbados 1-246
Belarus 375
Belgium 32
Belize 501
Benin 229
Bermuda 1-441
Bhutan 975
Bolivia 591
Bosnia and Herzegovina 387
Botswana 267
Brazil 55
British Indian Ocean Territory 246
British Virgin Islands 1-284
Brunei 673
Bulgaria 359
Burkina Faso 226
Burundi 257
Cambodia 855
Cameroon 237
Canada 1
Cape Verde 238
Cayman Islands 1-345
Central African Republic 236
Chad 235
Chile 56
China 86
Christmas Island 61
Cocos Islands 61
Colombia 57
Comoros 269
Cook Islands 682
Costa Rica 506
Croatia 385
Cuba 53
Curacao 599
Cyprus 357
Czech Republic 420
Democratic Republic of the Congo 243
Denmark 45
Djibouti 253
Dominica 1-767
Dominican Republic 1-809, 1-829, 1-849
East Timor 670
Ecuador 593
Egypt 20
El Salvador 503
Equatorial Guinea 240
Eritrea 291
Estonia 372
Ethiopia 251
Falkland Islands 500
Faroe Islands 298
Fiji 679
Finland 358
France 33
French Polynesia 689
Gabon 241
Gambia 220
Georgia 995
Germany 49
Ghana 233
Gibraltar 350
Greece 30
Greenland 299
Grenada 1-473
Guam 1-671
Guatemala 502
Guernsey 44-1481
Guinea 224
Guinea-Bissau 245
Guyana 592
Haiti 509
Honduras 504
Hong Kong 852
Hungary 36
Iceland 354
India 91
Indonesia 62
Iran 98
Iraq 964
Ireland 353
Isle of Man 44-1624
Israel 972
Italy 39
Ivory Coast 225
Jamaica 1-876
Japan 81
Jersey 44-1534
Jordan 962
Kazakhstan 7
Kenya 254
Kiribati 686
Kosovo 383
Kuwait 965
Kyrgyzstan 996
Laos 856
Latvia 371
Lebanon 961
Lesotho 266
Liberia 231
Libya 218
Liechtenstein 423
Lithuania 370
Luxembourg 352
Macau 853
Macedonia 389
Madagascar 261
Malawi 265
Malaysia 60
Maldives 960
Mali 223
Malta 356
Marshall Islands 692
Mauritania 222
Mauritius 230
Mayotte 262
Mexico 52
Micronesia 691
Moldova 373
Monaco 377
Mongolia 976
Montenegro 382
Montserrat 1-664
Morocco 212
Mozambique 258
Myanmar 95
Namibia 264
Nauru 674
Nepal 977
Netherlands 31
Netherlands Antilles 599
New Caledonia 687
New Zealand 64
Nicaragua 505
Niger 227
Nigeria 234
Niue 683
North Korea 850
Northern Mariana Islands 1-670
Norway 47
Oman 968
Pakistan 92
Palau 680
Palestine 970
Panama 507
Papua New Guinea 675
Paraguay 595
Peru 51
Philippines 63
Pitcairn 64
Poland 48
Portugal 351
Puerto Rico 1-787, 1-939
Qatar 974
Republic of the Congo 242
Reunion 262
Romania 40
Russia 7
Rwanda 250
Saint Barthelemy 590
Saint Helena 290
Saint Kitts and Nevis 1-869
Saint Lucia 1-758
Saint Martin 590
Saint Pierre and Miquelon 508
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 1-784
Samoa 685
San Marino 378
Sao Tome and Principe 239
Saudi Arabia 966
Senegal 221
Serbia 381
Seychelles 248
Sierra Leone 232
Singapore 65
Sint Maarten 1-721
Slovakia 421
Slovenia 386
Solomon Islands 677
Somalia 252
South Africa 27
South Korea 82
South Sudan 211
Spain 34
Sri Lanka 94
Sudan 249
Suriname 597
Svalbard and Jan Mayen 47
Swaziland 268
Sweden 46
Switzerland 41
Syria 963
Taiwan 886
Tajikistan 992
Tanzania 255
Thailand 66
Togo 228
Tokelau 690
Tonga 676
Trinidad and Tobago 1-868
Tunisia 216
Turkey 90
Turkmenistan 993
Turks and Caicos Islands 1-649
Tuvalu 688
U.S. Virgin Islands 1-340
Uganda 256
Ukraine 380
United Arab Emirates 971
United Kingdom 44
United States 1
Uruguay 598
Uzbekistan 998
Vanuatu 678
Vatican 379
Venezuela 58
Vietnam 84
Wallis and Futuna 681
Western Sahara 212
Yemen 967
Zambia 260
Zimbabwe 263

 

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