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  Country Code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs)


Information About Existing ccTLDs

Please see the IANA ccTLD Database.

This listing contains basic information for the top-level domains for each country, such as the organization name and the technical and administrative contacts. If you desire to register a domain name under one of these top level domains, you should contact the person(s) listed via email or visit their website if one is listed.

 

Information About the Process for Establishing ccTLDs

The IANA is not in the business of deciding what is and what is not a country, nor what code letters are appropriate for a particular country. Instead, the IANA employs a neutral list of two-letter codes maintained by the ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency. The IANA's policy is to create new ccTLDs only when they are listed on the ISO 3166-1 list. For a recent case in which this policy was applied, see the IANA Report on Request for Delegation of the .ps Top-Level Domain.

The codes IANA uses are two-letter codes from the ISO 3166-1 list.  (Click here for the French-language version and here for a list suitable for database import.) The selection of the ISO 3166-1 list as a basis for country code top-level domain names was made with the knowledge that ISO has a politically neutral procedure for determining which entities should be and should not be on that list.

The ISO 3166-1 list is a broadly accepted list of country codes intended for many uses, not simply for use as ccTLD codes. Accordingly, in describing the procedure for getting a new code onto the ISO 3166-1 list, the ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency includes the following:

"If you intend to apply for an ISO 3166-1 Alpha-2 code element because ICANN quite rightly told you that you need such a code element in order for them to create a new ccTLD then you can stop reading after the next paragraph.

"WE DO NOT ASSIGN ISO 3166-1 TWO-LETTER CODE ELEMENTS IF THE ONLY JUSTIFICATION FOR THE REQUEST IS THAT USERS OF THE INTERNET WISH TO ESTABLISH A COUNTRY CODED TOP-LEVEL-DOMAIN."

 

Information for ccTLD Managers

It is important that all TLD administrators follow the guidelines of RFC 1591 and ICP-1 (link below).  TLD administrators should treat this stewardship responsibility as a service to the global Internet community.

If you are a current administrative or technical contact, and you need to modify information concerning your domain, please fill out the modification template and send it to root-mgmt@iana.org.

 

IANA Reports

The IANA issues reports on particularly noteworthy delegation and redelegation matters. Here are the past reports:

ccTLD News

IANA provides occasional email memos to country code administrators to help coordinate administrative activities as well as communicate news of interest to the administrators.


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Page Updated 23-Jun-2001
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