Undata Api

Feature Request: Adding ISO Country Codes to API Answers

Request: ISO Country Codes in API Responses

This forum thread, opened on 23 September 2009, puts forward a practical idea for the UN Data API: whenever a response contains a country name, could it also include the corresponding ISO code? The original poster, webving, proposed a field such as CountryISO carrying values like "DE" for Germany, "SA" for Saudi Arabia or "US" for the USA, sitting alongside the existing Country or Area field to simplify work for multilingual services.

The thread holds two posts and stays open for further replies. A follow-up note in the same thread apologised for the forum engine's formatting quirks.

Common Questions

What does this forum topic request?
It asks whether responses containing country names could also carry a field with the country's ISO code (for example "DE" for Germany or "SA" for Saudi Arabia), next to the existing "Country or Area" field.
What makes ISO country codes useful?
As the post explains, a stable ISO code field would simplify multilingual services, because a code identifies a country regardless of how its name is written in a given language.
How are country names handled by the API today?
Per the Data Information page, country and area names are normalized because each organization formats names differently, and the original name string is kept on the record to prevent confusion.
Where can I learn more about country name normalization?
Visit the Data Information page, which covers Country and Area Name Normalization, and the Documentation for endpoints that return countries in a dataset.
How do I follow up on this feature request?
Reply in this forum topic, or use the Support link in the footer to contact the team.

Discover the UN Data API

Go directly to the site sections that back this discussion.

  • Home — the starting point for the UN Data API.
  • Documentation — endpoint references, including those returning countries in a dataset.
  • Forum — where feature requests like this one are raised and discussed.
  • Sign in — access your account to take part.
  • UN Data — the underlying data service.
  • Support — reach the team with questions or follow-ups.
  • 3scale — the platform behind the API.

Forum Sign In Support

Adding an ISO code field would let clients match countries reliably across languages while still showing the original name string stored on each record. If you have thoughts on the proposed CountryISO field, share them in this thread so the discussion can move forward.