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 Numerical codes

10. A unique standard three-digit numerical code is assigned for each country or area and each grouping of countries or areas shown in this publication. These codes lie within the range from 000 to 899, inclusive.

11. Codes 896 and 898 are assigned for "Areas not elsewhere specified" and "Not specified" respectively. The item "Areas not elsewhere specified" is used for the data of countries or areas not named in a given tabulation. The item "Not specified" is used for the data (or part of the data) of countries or areas named in a given tabulation where, for special reasons (such as confidentiality of the data or non-availability of the exact identity of the country), the allocation has not been made.

12. The codes from 900 to 999 inclusive are available for individual users of this coding system to use for their own purposes (for instance, to identify countries or areas and groupings not shown in this publication).

Abbreviations of names

13. Standard abbreviations of the English language name given for each country or area and each grouping shown in this publication have been developed within the United Nations Statistical Office. They are shown in maximum lengths of 8 and 12 characters and have been designed to establish some measure of visual association with the name of the country or area. In a case where the length of a name is less than or equal to the limit of the abbreviation (that is, either 8 or 12 characters), the name is used in place of an abbreviation. In some instances an acronym or a widely used short representation of a name is used.

ISO alphabetical codes

14. Alphabetical codes for the representation of names of countries or areas, of two and three letters (ALPHA-2 and ALPHA-3, respectively), have been developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and are given, if available, for the countries or areas shown in this publication. The ALPHA-2 codes have been established for general purposes and are recommended by ISO for international exchange. The ALPHA-3 codes have been provided for use in those specific instances where three-letter codes would be of particular advantage.

Changes since last issue

15. Most countries or areas shown in the 1975 issue are included in the present publication. A few for which the United Nations Statistical Office does not publish data have been deleted. The following are new entries: Anguilla (660), Channel Islands (830), Isle of Man (833), Kiribati (296), Panama (591), St.Kitts-Nevis (659), Tuvalu (798) and Viet Nam (704) In addition, a number of names have changed or are presented differently; see the annex for a complete list

General considerations regarding changes

16. The geographical coverage of a country or area, or the composition of a grouping, may change over time, and users should take such changes into account when using codes in this publication in relating data for different time periods. A change in the geographical coverage of a country or area, or in the composition of a grouping would generally not be accompanied by a change in the numerical or ISO alphabetical codes.