Data Reference Standard on Codes for Current and Past Official Names of Countries, Territories and Geographic Areas Recognized by the Government of Canada
1. Preamble
- 1.1. This data reference standard provides Government of Canada (GC) departments with a consistent way to present data on GC-recognized countries, territories and geographic areas.
- 1.2. Included in this data reference standard are the current and past names and codes for countries, territories and geographic areas.
- 1.3. Global Affairs Canada assigns unique numeric codes called the
GC_IDandGC_HIST_IDto each country, territory and geographic area to enable interoperability between systems and datasets with this information. Each of these codes was chosen to maintain consistency over time. - 1.4. The steward of this data reference standard will review the reference data in Appendix A as required to ensure it remains current.
- 1.4.1. Data reference standard steward: Global Affairs Canada
- 1.4.2. Data reference standard custodian: Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat, Office of the Chief Information Officer of Canada
2. Effective date
- 2.1 This data reference standard takes effect on .
3. Requirements
- 3.1 This data reference standard provides details on the requirements set out in subsections 4.4 of the Directive on Service and Digital.
- 3.2 Service owners, data practitioners and other individuals who interact with data must:
- 3.2.1 Apply the reference data linked in Appendix A by using the codes in the table column(s) called “GC_ID” or “GC_HIST_ID” when storing, sharing and publishing data on countries, territories and geographic areas.
4. Application
- 4.1 This data reference standard applies to departments described in section 6 of the Directive on Service and Digital.
- 4.2 This data reference standard applies to datasets and systems developed after the effective date of this data reference standard.
5. References
- 5.1 This data reference standard should be read in conjunction with the following:
Policy instruments
Additional information
- ISO Standard 3166, Country Codes: The International Standard for country codes and codes for their subdivisions, International Organization for Standardization
- M49 Standard, Standard Country or Area Codes for Statistical Use, United Nations Statistics Division
- Principles and Procedures for Geographical Naming, Geographical Names Board of Canada (2011)
- Standard Classification of Countries and Areas of Interest (SCCAI) 2022, Statistics Canada
6. Enquiries
- 6.1 For interpretation of any aspect of this data reference standard, contact ServiceDigital-ServicesNumerique@tbs-sct.gc.ca.
Appendix A: Reference data
The reference data for this data reference standard is available in machine-readable formats.
Visit the Open Government Portal page on reference data on countries, territories and geographic areas (with data dictionary) for more information and related resources.