ccTLD Domains - nations

In addition to the generic/global TLDs there are geopolitical TLDs: one for each country, for Antarctica and for several territories.

A list of those Country Code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs) is given below. The territories are identified on the following page.

Most of the ccTLDs include several Second Level Domains (2LDs), discussed later in this profile.

     basis

Each ccTLD is identified using a two-character International Organization for Standardization (ISO) identifier.

That identifier is drawn from the ISO 3166-1 list, managed by the ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency and envisaged as politically neutral. Sites within the Australian domain space are for example identified with the dot-au code. At present, there are 244 ccTLDs. That is somewhat more than the 191 Member States of the United Nations (with around 170 discrete currencies), 189 members of the International Telecommunications Union and 190 members of the Universal Postal Union.

When the internet was first established the ccTLDs were envisaged as simple identifiers, rather than the sovereign property of individual states.

Inevitably, that has changed, with governments positioning themselves to exploit a 'strategic resource' and administration of most ccTLDs moving from one or two individuals to a body that is embedded in national telecommunications or commercial law. An example is Australia, discussed here.

As discussed below, use of ccTLDs predates the 1994 Domain Name System Structure and Delegation memo (RFC 1591), the standards document concerned with ccTLDs.

RFC 1591 indicated that IANA (the entity then responsible for overseeing implementation of ccTLD delegations) was

not in the business of deciding what is and what is not a country. The selection of the ISO 3166 list as a basis for country code top-level domain names was made with the knowledge that ISO has a procedure for determining which entities should be and should not be on that list.

That has been reiterated in ICANN's ICP-1 statement on Internet Domain Name System Structure and Delegation.

No international authority currently exists to govern the use of country domains. As a result, the rules for who can register an entity within a ccTLD vary from country to country. For example, Moldova (dot-md) and Armenia (dot-am) have granted private companies the right to sell domestic ccTLD domain names to anyone. Sweden initially strict limited the dot-se ccTLD to its own residents or people/companies with "legitimate" business in Sweden; many of those restrictions were subsequently lifted after dot-se was perceived as 'uncompetitive' relative to other ccTLDs.

The shape of ccTLD administration - highlighting the basic models and particular issues - is discussed later in this profile. ICANN's ccTLD resource page is here.

ccTLD

state

af al dz ad ao ag ar am au at az bs bh bd bb by be bz bj bm bt bo ba bw br bn bg bf bi kh cm ca ky cf td cl cn co km cg cd ck cr ci hr cu cy cz dk dj dm do tp ec eg ie sv gq er ee et fj fi fr fx ga gm ge de gh gr gd gt gn gw gy ht hn hu is in id ir iq il it jm jp jo kz ke ki kp kr kw kg la lv lb ls lr ly li lt lu mk mg mw my mv ml mt mh mr mu mx fm md mc mn ma mz mm na nr np nl nc nz ni ne ng nu mp no om pk pw pa pg py pe ph pl pt qa ro ru rw kn lc vc ws sm st sa sn sc sl sg sk si sb so za es lk sd sr sz se ch sy tw tj tz th tg tk to tt tn tr tm tv ug ua ae uk us uy uz vu va ve vn eh ye yu zm zw

Afghanistan Albania Algeria Andorra Angola Antigua & Barbuda Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia & Herzegovina Botswana Brazil Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Colombia Comoros Congo Democratic Republic of Congo Cook Islands Costa Rica Ivory Coast Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic East Timor Ecuador Egypt Eire El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Fiji Finland France France (offshore) Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Greece Grenada Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Honduras Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati North Korea South Korea Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macedonia Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Mauritania Mauritius Mexico Fed States of Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Northern Marianas Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Qatar Romania Russia Rwanda Saint Kitts & Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Vincent & the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Sao Tome & Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Syria Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Togo Tokelau Tonga Trinidad & Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Tuvalu Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Vatican City State Venezuela Vietnam Western Sahara Yemen Yugoslavia Zambia Zimbabwe

     uptake and departures

Uptake of ccTLDs was progressive. Dot-uk was the first ccTLD (in 1985). By 1992 there were 31 ccTLDs online, rising to 51 in 1993, 61 in 1994 (the year in which RFC 1591 was issued), 87 in 1995, 133 in 1996, 177 in January 1997 and 215 in May of that year.

Year	new ccTLDs	total ccTLDs
1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998	3 7 9 9 8 11 22 17 23 22 29 31 47 2	3 10 19 28 36 47 69 86 109 131 160 191 238 240

Political changes have meant that particular ccTLDs, such as those for the USSR and Zaire, are now no longer used. For example the 1997 ISO 3166-1 list included 'zr' for Zaire. When Zaire became the Democratic Republic of the Congo' the ISO code (and thus the ccTLD) changed to 'cd'.



    next page  (ccTLDs - territories)