Details

These are the British English-language names and descriptive terms for sovereign countries, UK Crown Dependencies and UK Overseas Territories, as well as their citizens. ‘Sovereign’ means that they are independent states, recognised under international law.

The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) approved these names. The FCDO leads on geographical names for the UK government, working closely with the Permanent Committee on Geographical Names.

In these lists:

• ‘country’ is the 2-letter ISO 3166-1 code for the country
• the ‘name’ is the FCDO-approved name for the country

All UK government departments and other public bodies must use the approved country and territory names in these datasets. Using these names ensures consistency and clarity across public and internal communications, guidance and services.

• the full ‘official name’ is also provided for use when the formal version of a country’s name is needed

• citizen names in the lists are not the legal names for the citizen, they do not relate to the citizen’s ethnicity

You can also view the Welsh language version of the geographical names index on GOV.WALES: international place-names.