The FIPS 10-4 standard, ''Countries, Dependencies, Areas of Special Sovereignty, and Their Principal Administrative Divisions'', was a list of two-letter country codes that were used by the U.S. Government for geographical data processing in many publications, such as the ''

CIA World Factbook ''The World Factbook'', also known as the ''CIA World Factbook'', is a reference resource produced by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) with almanac-style information about the countries of the world. The official print version is available ...

''. The standard was also known as DAFIF 0413 ed 7 Amdt. No. 3 (November 2003) and as DIA 65-18 (

Defense Intelligence Agency The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) is an intelligence agency and combat support agency of the United States Department of Defense, specializing in defense and military intelligence. A component of the Department of Defense (DoD) and the ...

, 1994, "Geopolitical Data Elements and Related Features"). The FIPS 10-4 codes are similar to (but sometimes incompatible with) the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country codes. The standard also includes codes for the top-level subdivision of the countries, similar to but usually incompatible with the ISO 3166-2 standard.

History

On September 2, 2008, FIPS 10-4 was one of ten standards withdrawn by

NIST The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into physical sci ...

as a Federal Information Processing Standard. The

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is a combat support agency within the United States Department of Defense whose primary mission is collecting, analyzing, and distributing geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) in support of natio ...

continued to maintain the FIPS 10-4 codes in an informal document titled "Geopolitical Entities and Codes" (GEC) until December 31, 2014, retiring the GEC on March 31, 2015. On January 23, 2013, the U.S. Department of Defense released the first edition of "Geopolitical Entities, Names and Codes" (GENC), a U.S. federal government profile of ISO 3166-1 and ISO 3166-2. GENC is designed to be compatible with ISO 3166 but reflect U.S. government diplomatic recognition and naming decisions by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names; it is intended to be the basis for a future U.S. national profile of the ISO standards.

References

{{reflist

History

See also

References