ISO Country Codes

AfterEffect · 23 Apr 2013 at 13:42

Could somebody please explain to me how the ISO country code for the United Kingdom is GB??

Not sure people in NI would be happy about that... it seems a bit odd :confused:

Ceryndrion · 23 Apr 2013 at 14:28

Because the United Kingdom, is properly named, The United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland. So, the code is based upon Great Britain, rather than United Kingdom, otherwise, we'd be "United kingdom of where?" hence why the United States, is officially the United States of America.

MickeyFinns · 23 Apr 2013 at 14:30

Ceryndrion said:
Because the United Kingdom, is properly named, The United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland. So, the code is based upon Great Britain, rather than United Kingdom

Yeah but he means that the ISO country code GB is assigned to both.

Ceryndrion · 23 Apr 2013 at 14:33

So, the issue is that the ISO code for northern ireland, is also GB? well that's because its still part of the UK, and not an independent country..

Gibbs · 23 Apr 2013 at 14:35

Ceryndrion said:
So, the issue is that the ISO code for northern ireland, is also GB? well that's because its still part of the UK, and not an independent country..

its fairly simple to work out isn't it.

Dave M · 23 Apr 2013 at 14:40

I heard it was because us and the ukraine couldn't agree on who got uk, so nobody did.

jas72 · 23 Apr 2013 at 14:46

lol it's probably right which is why the .uk is .co.uk?

MickeyFinns · 23 Apr 2013 at 14:54

Ceryndrion said:
So, the issue is that the ISO code for northern ireland, is also GB? well that's because its still part of the UK, and not an independent country..

Great Britain and the United Kingdom are not the same thing. The UK contains NI but GB does not.

Zogger · 23 Apr 2013 at 14:56

Ceryndrion said:
So, the issue is that the ISO code for northern ireland, is also GB? well that's because its still part of the UK, and not an independent country..

but Northern Ireland is not part of "GB", hence the United Kingdom of Great Britan and Northern Ireland. Bit like "Team GB" really.

I don't have an answer, but I guess if for some reason we can't have UK as above then there's not much else recognisable you can fit into two letters

Pudney · 23 Apr 2013 at 15:19

Quick wiki search and:

The codes are chosen, according to the ISO 3166/MA, "to reflect the significant, unique component of the country name in order to allow a visual association between country name and country code".[7] For this reason, common components of country names like "Republic", "Kingdom", "United", "Federal" or "Democratic" are normally not used for deriving the code elements. As a consequence, for example, the United Kingdom is officially assigned the alpha-2 code GB rather than UK, based on its official name "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland"

Souleh · 23 Apr 2013 at 15:54

AfterEffect said:
Could somebody please explain to me how the ISO country code for the United Kingdom is GB??

Not sure people in NI would be happy about that... it seems a bit odd

Now theres a divisive statement..................

Yes there is a segment of the population which would be offended at the labelling but the only reason NI is a member state of GB is due to a greater volume of the population wishing it to be so.

(Much like the falklands)