ISO 3166-2:GB


ISO 3166-2:GB is the entry for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in ISO 3166-2, part of the ISO 3166 standard published by the International Organization for Standardization, which defines codes for the names of the principal divisions and subdivisions of all countries coded in ISO 3166-1. The codes and structures for the United Kingdom are provided to the ISO in Geneva by the British Standards and the Office for National Statistics.

Primary divisions

Currently for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, ISO 3166-2 codes are defined for the following primary divisions and subdivisions:
  • [Countries of the United Kingdom|Three countries and one province], as follows:
;England
the standard has codes for the divisions in place until 31 March 2023. On 1 April 2023, the non-metropolitan county of Cumbria was abolished and replaced by two unitary authorities, as well as the non-metropolitan counties of North Yorkshire and Somerset became unitary authorities, which as of 2025 are not reflected in ISO 3166-2.
;Northern Ireland
;Scotland
;Wales
Each ISO 3166-2:GB code consists of two parts; both parts are in upper-case capital letters, and are separated by a hyphen. The first part for the is ', the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The second part is three letters, which is the British Standard ' three-letter code of the individual subdivision.
Though is the United Kingdom's ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code, is exceptionally reserved for the United Kingdom on the request of the country. Its main usage is the internet country code top-level domain and, on 28 September 2021, replaced as the official country code on motor vehicle registration plates.

Current codes

Subdivision names are listed as in the ISO 3166-2 standard, as published by the ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency.
gives alternative name forms in Welsh for some of the Welsh unitary authorities. Since this part of ISO 3166 does not allow for duplicate coding of identical subdivisions, such alternative names in Welsh and code elements are shown for information purposes only in square brackets after the English name of the subdivision.

Countries and province

Wales was changed from being described as a 'principality' to being described as a 'country' in the December 2011 update to the standard. England and Scotland were maintained as 'country', and Northern Ireland was maintained as 'province'.

Included for completeness

The codes,, and are only mentioned in remark part 2 in the ISO website, where they are 'included for completeness'.

Second-level subdivisions

The British Overseas Territories of Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Indian Ocean Territory, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat, the Pitcairn Islands, Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and the Turks and Caicos Islands have their own ISO 3166-1 codes and are not included in the United Kingdom's entry in ISO 3166-2. There are no ISO 3166-2 codes for:
The following changes to the entry have been announced in newsletters by the ISO 3166/MA since the first publication of ISO 3166-2 in 1998. ISO stopped issuing newsletters in 2013.
newsletterdate issueddescription of change in newslettercode / subdivision change
Various corrections of name forms, i.e., deletion of name adjuncts
Modification of the administrative structureSubdivisions deleted:
– Channel Islands
– Isle of Man '
– Guernsey '
– Jersey '
Modification of administrative structure
Update and reorganisation of the subdivision data,
update of the list source		Subdivisions added:
– Bedford
– Central Bedfordshire
– Cheshire East
– Cheshire West and Chester
Subdivisions deleted:
– Bedfordshire
– Cheshire
– Isles of Scilly

'		NL II-2 correction for administrative name changesStatus change:
– Wales principality → country

The following changes to the entry are listed on ISO's online catalogue, the Online Browsing Platform:
effective date of changeshort description of change
Deletion of two-tier county GB-NTH; addition of unitary authorities GB-NNH, GB-WNH; change of category name from two-tier county to unitary authority for GB-BKM; update list source.
2022-03-03Correction of parent subdivision of GB-PEM
2021-11-25Addition of subdivision categories country and province in eng & fra; modification of remark part 2; addition of country GB-ENG, GB-WLS, GB-SCT; addition of province GB-NIR; addition of parent subdivisions
2020-11-24Deletion of GB-BMH, GB-POL; addition of GB-BCP; correction of spelling for GB-BFS, GB-DRS, GB-DUR, GB-MUL, GB-RCT, GB-SCB; modification of remark, part 2; update list source
2019-11-22Change of subdivision name of GB-ABC, GB-DRS; modification of remark part 2; update list source
2015-11-27Deletion of Northern Ireland district council areas GB-ANT, GB-ARD, GB-ARM, GB-BLA, GB-BLY, GB-BNB, GB-CKF, GB-CSR, GB-CLR, GB-CKT, GB-CGV, GB-DRY, GB-DOW, GB-DGN, GB-FER, GB-LRN, GB-LMV, GB-LSB, GB-MFT, GB-MYL, GB-NYM, GB-NTA, GB-NDN, GB-OMH, GB-STB; change of subdivision category from district council area to district GB-BFS; addition of Northern Ireland districts GB-ANN, GB-AND, GB-ABC, GB-CCG, GB-DRS, GB-FMO, GB-LBC, GB-MEA, GB-MUL, GB-NMD; update list source
2014-12-18Alignment of the English and French short names upper and lower case with UNTERM; update of the remarks in French
2014-10-30Re-add GB-IOS
2011-12-13NL II-2 correction for administrative name changes
2010-06-30Update and reorganization of the subdivision data and update of the list source