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 United States' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) with almanac-style information about the countries of the world. The official print ve ...

''. The standard was also known as

DAFIF The Digital Aeronautical Flight Information File or DAFIF () is a comprehensive database of up-to-date aeronautical data, including information on airports, airways, airspaces, navigation data, and other facts relevant to flying in the entire wo ...

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 (DoD) specializing in military intelligence. A component of the Department of Defense and the United States In ...

, 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 ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 codes are two-letter country codes defined in ISO 3166-1, part of the ISO 3166 standard published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), to represent countries, dependent territories, and special ...

country code A country code is a short alphanumeric identification code for countries and dependent areas. Its primary use is in data processing and communications. Several identification systems have been developed. The term ''country code'' frequently re ...

s. The standard also includes codes for the top-level subdivision of the countries, similar to but usually incompatible with the

ISO 3166-2 ISO 3166-2 is part of the ISO 3166 standard published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and defines codes for identifying the principal subdivisions (e.g., provinces or states) of all countries coded in ISO 3166-1. Th ...

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On September 2, 2008, FIPS 10-4 was one of ten standards withdrawn by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

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) to support national se ...

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 The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and supervising the six U.S. armed services: the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Space Force, t ...

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 Diplomatic recognition in international law is a unilateral declarative political act of a state that acknowledges an act or status of another state or government in control of a state (may be also a recognized state). Recognition can be acc ...

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