# Historical Country Names and Withdrawn Codes

Former country names, withdrawn identifiers and withdrawal dates for historical record matching.

## Contents

| File | Records | Format |
|---|---:|---|
| records.json | 31 | JSON array |

The download contains the populated data, a field dictionary, source metadata, reuse terms, a change log and file digests. It contains no scripts, libraries, executables or conversion tools.

## Coverage

All entries in the retrieved ISO 3166-3 table. This records withdrawn names and identifiers, not a complete geopolitical event ledger. Withdrawal dates can differ from political-event dates. The source does not provide complete predecessor/successor relationships.

## Sources and dates

- [Debian iso-codes, via its Sailfish OS mirror](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sailfishos-mirror/iso-codes/main/data/iso_3166-3.json): retrieved snapshot; source hash recorded. Retrieved 2026-09-08T02:02:39.993251+00:00.

## Read the data

JSON tables are arrays of records. GeoJSON files are FeatureCollections, with data fields under each feature’s properties. `data-dictionary.json` defines the fields, units, nulls and observed types. `metadata.json` supplies primary keys and source hashes. Preserve identifiers as text and distinguish missing values from zero.

## Example record

This is an actual record from the data. For map layers, the example shows properties; the downloaded GeoJSON also contains the complete geometry.

```json
{
  "alpha_2": "AI",
  "alpha_3": "AFI",
  "alpha_4": "AIDJ",
  "name": "French Afars and Issas",
  "numeric": "262",
  "withdrawal_date": "1977"
}
```

## Reuse terms

LGPL-2.1-or-later. Copyright 2016 Dr. Tobias Quathamer and iso-codes contributors. Data field selection and packaging modified by Arcomm on 2026-09-08.

[Publisher terms](https://github.com/sailfishos-mirror/iso-codes/blob/main/REUSE.toml). License notices are included where supplied.

## Tracking changes

Compare by alpha_4 on upstream releases. Preserve withdrawn records in a new revision and record changed names separately from changed identifiers.

This publication is a snapshot. No automatic refresh is scheduled. New imports must preserve their source version, retrieval date and hashes, then publish a new Arcomm revision.

## Download

[Download the file](/files/eae8b0020fd4b7e2f42802e985864a4875545863da91e7be48797b729f7fb784)

SHA-256: `eae8b0020fd4b7e2f42802e985864a4875545863da91e7be48797b729f7fb784`

Size: 14771 bytes.

## Revisions

[Revision history](/agent/docs/historical-country-codes/history)