Worldwide Country List

[Victor Odhner]

AZ Pete wrote:
> I'm building a web form and need a list of all countries in the world
> for the "Country" drop down box.

Fascinating subject.

Go to http://www.din.de/gremien/nas/nabd/iso3166ma/

This is the official ISO list.

Especially look at the link labeled:
  ISO 3166-1: The Code List 

That page offers a link to an import-formatted list.

The discrepancies you have found should be checked.
There are some pseudo-countries that might appear,
and there are some good reasons for that.

You might find that standard country codes don't
line up with the way people are looking for a hotel,
for example.  Hotel reservations systems use several
country codes of their own invention.

The ISO list shows the United Kingdom (GB) as a
country, and England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales
are subdivisions, which are further subdivided into
"counties".  Further, the Channel Islands generally fall
under the GB heading.  But for some purposes, folks make up
"country codes" to identify these very distinctive places.

In the Caribbean, you have the French Overseas Department
of Guadaloupe, including half of one island and several other
islands.  But these are geographically some distance
apart, and often get lumped or confused with neighboring
islands.

Country names are also an issue.  Do you use Cambodia or
Kampuchea?  The latter is what the locals have called it,
but their current government has swung back to favoring
the English spelling.  Your audience is a factor here,
and you have to decide how formal you want to be about
the country names (e.g., China, People's Republic Of).

So bear in mind what your site is doing with these codes,
and act accordingly.

Vic