Uninhabited areas like Antarctica, Bouvet Island, French Southern Territories, Heard and McDonald Islands, South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands all have a country code provided by the ISO, for example ISO 3166. Does this country code have a practical function, or is it just pro forma?

elburcher

ISO 3166-1, as part of the ISO 3166 standard, provides codes for the names of countries and dependent areas. It was first published in 1974 by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and defines three different codes for each area: ISO 3166-1 alpha-2, a two-letter system with many applications, most notably the Internet top-level domains (ccTLD) for countries (with some exceptions). ISO 3166-1 alpha-3, a three-letter system. ISO 3166-1 numeric, a three-digit numerical system, which is identical to that defined by the United Nations Statistical Division. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-1 Sep 29 06, 8:47 AM

satguru

Having confirmed none have permanent populations, most of these areas have scientific bases and South Georgia used to have a whaling station, now abandoned. The personnel change every so often, and some are only populated outside the winter months but given that it would be helpful to be included as real places as well. Sep 29 06, 9:35 AM