A country code top-level domain (ccTLD) is an Internet top-level domain generally used or reserved for a country, sovereign state, or dependent territory identified with a country code. All ASCII ccTLD identifiers are two letters long, and all two-letter top-level domains are ccTLDs.
In 2018, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) began implementing internationalized country code top-level domains, consisting of language-native characters when displayed in an end-user application. Creation and delegation of ccTLDs is described in RFC 1591, corresponding to ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country codes. While gTLDs have to obey international regulations, ccTLDs are subjected to requirements that are determined by each country's domain name regulation corporation. With over 150 million domain name registrations as of 2022, ccTLDs make up about 40% of the total domain name industry.[1]
Country code extension applications began in 1985. The registered country code extensions in that year included .us (United States), .uk (United Kingdom) and .il (Israel). The registered country code extensions in 1986 included .au (Australia), .de (Germany), .fi (Finland), .fr (France), .is (Iceland), .jp (Japan), .kr (South Korea), .nl (Netherlands) and .se (Sweden). The registered country code extensions in 1987 included .nz (New Zealand), .ch (Switzerland) and .ca (Canada).[2] The registered country code extensions in 1988 included .ie (Ireland) .it (Italy), .es (Spain) and .pt (Portugal). The registered country code extensions in 1989 included .in (India) and .yu (Yugoslavia). In the 1990s, .cn (People's Republic of China) and .ru (Russian Federation) were first registered.
There are 308 delegated ccTLDs. The .cn, .tk, .de, .uk, .nl and .ru ccTLDs contain the highest number of domains. The top ten ccTLDs account for more than five-eighths of registered ccTLD domains. There were about 153 million ccTLD domains registered at the end of March 2022.[1]
IANA is responsible for determining an appropriate trustee for each ccTLD. Administration and control are then delegated to that trustee, which is responsible for the policies and operation of the domain. The current delegation can be determined from IANA's list of ccTLDs.[3] Individual ccTLDs may have varying requirements and fees for registering subdomains. There may be a local-presence requirement (for instance, citizenship or other connection to the ccTLD), as, for example, the American (us), Japanese (jp), Canadian (ca), French (fr) and German (de) domains, or registration may be open.
The first registered ccTLD was .us, which was registered in 1985. Later ccTLDs registered in that year included .uk and .il. Then, .au, .de, .fi, .fr, .is, .jp, .kr, .nl and .se were also registered in 1986.[3] In 1987, .nz, .ch, .my and .ca were registered. Later on, in 1988, .ie, .it, .es and .pt were also registered.
As of 20 May 2017, there were 255 country-code top-level domains, purely in the Latin alphabet, using two-character codes. The number was 316, with the addition of internationalized domains.[3]
| Name | DNS name of the two-letter country-code top-level domain. They follow ISO 3166-1 alpha-2, with some exceptions such as ".ac" for Ascension Island, ".eu" for the European Union, or ".uk" for United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland instead of ".gb". ISO codes,,,,, and are not used for country code top-level domains. | |
|---|---|---|
| Entity | Country, dependency, or region | |
| Explanation | Explanation of the code when it is not self-evident from the English name of the country. These are usually domains that arise from native name of the country (e.g. .de for Deutschland, German language name for Germany). | |
| Notes | General remarks | |
| Registry | Domain name registry operator, sometimes called a network information center (NIC) | |
| IDN | Support for internationalized domain names (IDN) | |
| DNSSEC | Presence of DS records for Domain Name System Security Extensions | |
| SLD | Second level domain; that is, whether names may be registered directly under the TLD | |
| IPv6 | Registry fully supports IPv6 access |
| Name | Entity | Explanation (language of origin, if different from English) | Notes | Registry | IDN | DNSSEC | SLD | IPv6 | Introduction Date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (United Kingdom) | Ascension Island | Commonly used for academic websites, such as universities. However, is not to be confused with the official academic domains used by several countries such as the United Kingdom (.ac.uk), India (.ac.in) or Indonesia (.ac.id). Also used in the accounting, consulting, and air-conditioning industries. | Ascension Island Network Information Centre (run by Internet Computer Bureau) | |||||||
| Andorra | Local trademark, trade name or citizenship required.[4] | Nic.ad | ||||||||
| United Arab Emirates | .aeDA | |||||||||
| Afghanistan | ||||||||||
| Antigua and Barbuda | Also unofficially used by German businesses (where AG is an abbreviation of Aktiengesellschaft). | |||||||||
 Anguilla (United Kingdom) | Anguilla | Also unofficially used by tech companies specializing in AI (Artificial Intelligence). | ||||||||
| Albania | Citizenship no longer required. | |||||||||
| Armenia | Also unofficially used by AM radio stations, podcasts or related business. | |||||||||
| Angola | ||||||||||
| Antarctique (French) | Defined by the Antarctic Treaty as everything south of latitude 60°S. AQ domain names are available to government organizations who are signatories to the Antarctic Treaty and to other registrants who have a physical presence in Antarctica. Domain names can be registered and renewed free of charge. | |||||||||
| Argentina | nic.ar | |||||||||
 American Samoa (United States) | American Samoa | In some countries, like Norway and Denmark, "AS" or "A/S" is used as an abbreviation for stock-based or limited companies. Such companies will often make use of the domain. Also unofficially used by the Principality of Asturias, Spain. | ||||||||
| Austria | Nic.at | |||||||||
| Australia | Restrictions apply. In general, registrants must have an "Australian presence", and can be registered anywhere between 1 and 5 years.[5] Includes Ashmore and Cartier Islands and Coral Sea Islands. Direct second-level domain registration (marketed as ".au Direct") has been made available commencing 24 March 2022.[6] | (*From 24 Mar 2022) | ||||||||
 Aruba (Kingdom of the Netherlands) | Aruba, West Indies | Restricted to registered Aruban companies, organisations and citizens. | ||||||||
| (Finland) | and already allocated | |||||||||
| Azerbaijan | Only for Residents. Has no WHOIS-Server. | |||||||||
| Bosnia and Herzegovina | University of Sarajevo - University tele-informatic Centre https://www.utic.unsa.ba https://www.nic.ba | |||||||||
| Barbados | ||||||||||
| Bangladesh | For individuals, registrant must have a valid NID. For companies, registrant must have company or trademark registered in Bangladesh. | |||||||||
| Belgium | Used for YouTube-related domains. Also unofficially used in the Canton of Bern, Switzerland. | DNS Belgium | [7] | |||||||
| Burkina Faso | ||||||||||
| Bulgaria | See also .бг (in Cyrillic) for IDN ccTLD. | |||||||||
| Bahrain | ||||||||||
| Burundi | ||||||||||
| ,, and already allocated | ||||||||||
 Bermuda (United Kingdom) | Bermuda | Local corporate registration required. | ||||||||
| Brunei | ||||||||||
| Bolivia | ||||||||||
| (and) | and already allocated | |||||||||
| Brasil (Portuguese) | Restricted. Registration is done under several categories (i.e.: for higher education institutions, for government agencies, etc.).[8] | [9] | ||||||||
| Bahamas | ||||||||||
| Bhutan | Must have local presence in Bhutan, and valid trade license.[10] | |||||||||
| Botswana | May also be used for the Province of Walloon Brabant, Wallonia, Belgium. | [11] | ||||||||
| Byelorussia (Russian) | Also unofficially used to denote Bayern (Bavaria), Germany. | |||||||||
| Belize | Also unofficially used in the province of Bozen (or South Tyrol, see .st). | |||||||||
| Canada | Subject to Canadian Presence Requirements. Also unofficially used by some websites in the U.S. state of California. | [12] | ||||||||
| Cocos Islands | Australian territory: not to be confused with Cocos Island in Guam. Currently marketed as global domain, registration allowed worldwide, local presence not required; the domain is currently operated by eNIC, a VeriSign company. | |||||||||
| Congo, Democratic Republic | Also unofficially used for Compact disc-related domains. | |||||||||
| Central African Republic | Was previously used as a free domain service to the public | SOCATEL | ||||||||
| Congo | ||||||||||
| Confoederatio Helvetica (Latin) | SWITCH | |||||||||
| Côte d'Ivoire (French) | ||||||||||
| Cook Islands | ||||||||||
| Chile | NIC Chile | |||||||||
| Cameroon | A local entity or company in Cameroon is required to register a domain name. | |||||||||
| China | A local company in China is required to register a domain name, or for personal registrations a valid Resident Identity Card. See ICP license for more information regarding registrations. Hong Kong and Macau also maintain TLDs.Also unofficially used for Cartoon Network-related domains. | |||||||||
| Colombia | Marketed as a global domain. Anyone can register. | |||||||||
| Costa Rica | ||||||||||
| Cuba | ||||||||||
| Cape Verde | Also unofficially used for curriculum vitae-related domains. | |||||||||
| (Kingdom of the Netherlands) | Curaçao, West Indies | |||||||||
| Christmas, Xmas | Made infamous from Goatse.cx. | |||||||||
| Cyprus | ||||||||||
| Czechia | ||||||||||
| Deutschland (German) | German postal address for administrative contact (admin-c) required. Proxy registrations are allowed. | |||||||||
| Djibouti | Also unofficially used by disc jockeys. | |||||||||
| Danmark (Danish) | Punktum dk | |||||||||
| Dominica | ||||||||||
| Dominican | ||||||||||
| El Djazair / Dzayer (Arabic) | ||||||||||
| Ecuador | In Japan, "EC" is used as an acronym for "electronic commerce". Because of that, it's used unofficially by companies dedicated to provide online stores like BASE, a company that has two domains related to e-commerce: "base.in" and "official.ec". | Nic.ec | ||||||||
| Eesti (Estonian) | ||||||||||
| Egypt | ||||||||||
| Español Sahara (Spanish) | Unassigned. | |||||||||
| Eritrea | ||||||||||
| España (Spanish) | Red.es | [13] | ||||||||
| Ethiopia | ||||||||||
| European Union | Restricted to legal and natural persons in European Union member states. Previously unofficially used for sites in the Basque language, but now .eus is in official use. | EURid | [14] | |||||||
| Finland | Registration allowed worldwide, local presence not required. | Traficom | ||||||||
| Fiji | ||||||||||
| (United Kingdom) | Falkland | |||||||||
| Federated States of Micronesia | Also unofficially used by FM radio stations, podcasts or related business. | |||||||||
 Faroe Islands (Kingdom of Denmark) | Føroyar (Faroese) | FO Council | ||||||||
| France | Restricted to individuals and companies in European Union, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. | AFNIC | [15] | |||||||
| Gabon | Must have presence in Gabon or justify any other direct or indirect link with Gabon. Geographical names and names associated with public/government entities prohibited.Was previously used as a free domain service to the public | ANINF | ||||||||
| Grenada | ||||||||||
| Georgia | Available for registration for residents of Georgia (unlimited) or for foreign companies via representation of any local legal person (one domain name per registrant).[16] | |||||||||
 French Guiana (France) | Guyane Française (French) | |||||||||
| ,, and already allocated | Also unofficially used by video game-related websites (see GG (gaming)). | Island Networks Ltd. | ||||||||
| Ghana | ||||||||||
 Gibraltar (United Kingdom) | Gibraltar | |||||||||
 Greenland (Kingdom of Denmark) | Greenland | Previously also unofficially used in Galicia, Spain, but .gal has now been approved for such use and was implemented in mid-2014. | ||||||||
| Gambia | Domain name should match the domain owner's name or trademarks. Common nouns are blocked. | |||||||||
| Guinea | A local contact is required. | |||||||||
 Guadeloupe (France) | Guadeloupe | Still used for Saint-Barthélemy and Saint-Martin. | ||||||||
| Guinée équatoriale (French) | Was previously used as a free domain service to the public | GETESA | ||||||||
| Greece | ||||||||||
 South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (United Kingdom) | South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands | |||||||||
| Guatemala | ||||||||||
 Guam (United States) | Guam | |||||||||
| Gine-Bisaawo (Fula) | ||||||||||
| Guyana | ||||||||||
| Hong Kong | ||||||||||
| Heard Island and McDonald Islands | Unused for its intended purposes (islands are uninhabited and government sites instead use .aq); registry open to the public. | |||||||||
| Honduras | ||||||||||
| Hrvatska (Serbo-Croatian) | March 1993[17] | |||||||||
| Haiti | ||||||||||
| Hungary | Limited to citizens of the European Union or entities established by law within the territory of the EU. | [18] | ||||||||
| Indonesia | Restricted to Indonesian companies, organisations, academic (&) and citizens (&). Second-level domains are becoming available now and opened to general registration on 17 August 2014.[19] | PANDI | ||||||||
| Ireland | In 2002, registration was expanded to include persons or businesses with a "real and substantive" connection with the island of Ireland (including Northern Ireland).[20] [21] | [22] | ||||||||
| Israel | ||||||||||
| Isle of Man | ||||||||||
| India | Under INRegistry since April 2005 (except for,,,,, and). | NIXI[23] | [24] | |||||||
 British Indian Ocean Territory (United Kingdom) | Indian Ocean | Used unofficially by technology companies, startups, and web applications as IO can be an acronym for "input/output" that is useful for domain hacks. | NIC.IO (run by Internet Computer Bureau) | |||||||
| Iraq | ||||||||||
| Iran | IRNIC | |||||||||
| Ísland (Icelandic) | Also unofficially used and marketed as a domain hack (for example it.is, that.is, etc.). | ISNIC | ||||||||
| Italy | Restricted to companies and individuals in the European Union. | [25] | [26] | 1 January 1988 | ||||||
| Jersey | Island Networks Ltd. | |||||||||
| Jamaica | ||||||||||
| Jordan | ||||||||||
| Japan | Restricted to individuals or companies with a physical address in Japan. | Japan Registry Services | [27] | |||||||
| Kenya | [28] | |||||||||
| Kyrgyzstan | ||||||||||
| Khmer | ||||||||||
| Kiribati | ||||||||||
| Komori (Comorian) | ||||||||||
| Saint Kitts and Nevis | ||||||||||
| Korea, Democratic People's Republic | Restricted to companies, organizations, or government entities based in North Korea. Despite this, few domains are actually registered because of internet censorship in North Korea. | |||||||||
| Korea, Republic | ||||||||||
| Kuwait | ||||||||||
 Cayman Islands (United Kingdom) | and already allocated | |||||||||
| Kazakhstan | "A prerequisite for server hardware is its physical location on the territory of the Republic ofKazakhstan."[29] | |||||||||
| Laos | Currently being marketed as the unofficial domain for Los Angeles.[30] | |||||||||
| Lebanon | Restricted to registration with companies in Lebanon. | |||||||||
| Saint Lucia | ||||||||||
| Liechtenstein | Also unofficially used by entities on Long Island, New York or people with the last name Li. In Russian, li can be used to create domain names that mean a verb with a past tense plural ending li . | SWITCH | ||||||||
| Sri Lanka | ||||||||||
| Liberia | ||||||||||
| Lesotho | ||||||||||
| Lithuania | ||||||||||
| Luxembourg | Also unofficially used in Lucerne, Switzerland. | |||||||||
| Latvia | IMCS UL | |||||||||
| Libya | Used unofficially as a domain hack for words ending in -ly. | |||||||||
| Maroc (French) | ||||||||||
| Monaco | Only for companies with a trademark registered in Monaco. | |||||||||
| Moldova | Restricted to individuals or companies with a physical address in Moldova. | |||||||||
| Montenegro | Also unofficially used and marketed as a domain hack (for example love.me, meet.me, etc.). | |||||||||
| Madagascar | Restricted to registration with companies in Madagascar. | NIC-MG | ||||||||
| Marshall | Inactive. | |||||||||
| Makedonija (Serbo-Croatian) | Restricted to individuals and companies in European Union. | |||||||||
| Mali | Was previously used as a free domain service to the public | AGETIC | ||||||||
| Myanmar | ||||||||||
| Mongolia | The second-level domains,, and are reserved for special use. See .mn for more information. | |||||||||
| Macao | Registrants must have a registered business in Macau, with the same name as the domain they wish to register. | |||||||||
 Northern Mariana Islands (United States) | Marianas Pacific | |||||||||
 Martinique (France) | Martinique (French) | |||||||||
| Mauritania | ||||||||||
 Montserrat (United Kingdom) | Montserrat | Also unofficially used for Microsoft-related domains. | ||||||||
| Malta | ||||||||||
| Mauritius | ||||||||||
| Maldives | ||||||||||
| Malawi | ||||||||||
| Mexico | ||||||||||
| Malaysia | Restricted to registration by individuals or companies in Malaysia. | MYNIC | [31] | |||||||
| Mozambique | ||||||||||
| Namibia | ||||||||||
 New Caledonia (France) | New Caledonia | Restricted to companies that have a New Caledonian Business Registration Certificate or individuals living in New Caledonia for at least 6 months. | ||||||||
| Niger | ||||||||||
| Norfolk | ||||||||||
| Nigeria | ||||||||||
| Nicaragua | ||||||||||
| Netherlands | First active country-code domain outside the US.[32] | |||||||||
| Norway | Businesses and professionals must be registered as an approved type of organization in the Brønnøysund Register Centre. Individual applicants must be of age (18 years) and be registered in Folkeregisteret. All applicants must have a Norwegian postal address. | Norid | ||||||||
| Nepal | All domains were free to register for individuals and registered businesses but now it needs some amount to register. Foreign businesses must provide proof of local presence in Nepal. | |||||||||
| Nauru | Was previously used as a free domain service to the public as .[33] | |||||||||
| Niue | Commonly used by Danish, Dutch, and Swedish websites, as in their respective languages "nu" means "now". | The Swedish Internet Foundation | [34] | |||||||
| New Zealand | [35] | [36] | ||||||||
| Oman | Registrant must have company or trademark registered in Oman as well as a local administrative contact. | |||||||||
| Panama | Some use in Pennsylvania. | |||||||||
| Peru | Also unofficially used for Private Equity-related businesses. | |||||||||
 French Polynesia (France) | Polynésie française (French) | With Clipperton Island. | ||||||||
| Papua New Guinea | ||||||||||
| Philippines | ||||||||||
| Pakistan | Operated by PKNIC since 1992. | |||||||||
| Poland | [37] | |||||||||
| (France) | Saint Pierre and Miquelon | Restricted to individuals and companies in European Union, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein. | AFNIC | |||||||
| (United Kingdom) | Pitcairn | As a part of a marketing campaign, Lionsgate used the TLD for some (now defunct) sites related to The Hunger Games franchise, presenting it as the "official" country code of the fictional nation of Panem; notable sites included thecapitol.pn and revolution.pn. | ||||||||
 Puerto Rico (United States) | Puerto Rico | |||||||||
| [38] | Palestine | |||||||||
| Portugal | [39] | |||||||||
| Pelew (archaic English spelling) | [40] | |||||||||
| Paraguay | ||||||||||
| Qatar | ||||||||||
 Reunion (France) | Réunion | Restricted to individuals and companies in European Union, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein. | AFNIC | |||||||
| Romania | [41] | |||||||||
| Republika Srbija (Serbo-Croatian) | See also .срб (.srb in Cyrillic). Also unofficially used for Rust (programming language)-related domains. | 10 March 2008 | ||||||||
| Russia | See also .su, still in use, and .рф, for IDN. | |||||||||
| Rwanda | RICTA | |||||||||
| Saudi Arabia | Registrant must have a registered trademark in Saudi Arabia matching the domain name to register or provide company incorporation documents of a company in Saudi Arabia or for personal registrations a copy of valid ID. A letter on the official letterhead of your organization addressed to SaudiNIC requesting the domain name registration is also required. Local administrative contact required. 2LD registrations rolled out in 2011.[42] | [43] | [44] | |||||||
| Solomon Islands, British | ||||||||||
| Seychelles | Also unofficially used for Snapchat-related domains. | |||||||||
| Sudan | ||||||||||
| Sverige (Swedish) | The Swedish Internet Foundation | |||||||||
| Singapore | Also unofficially used in the Canton of St. Gallen, Switzerland. | |||||||||
| Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha (United Kingdom) | Saint Helena | Also unofficially used by Canton of Schaffhausen in Switzerland | NIC.SH (run by Internet Computer Bureau) | [45] | ||||||
| Slovenia | ||||||||||
| Slovensko (Slovak) | Restricted to individuals and companies in European Union, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein. | |||||||||
| Sierra Leone | ||||||||||
| San Marino | Domain name must be same as company name or trademark. | |||||||||
| Senegal | Registration allowed for companies only. Individuals are not allowed to register. | |||||||||
| Somalia | Relaunched on 1 November 2010. | SONIC | ||||||||
| Suriname | ||||||||||
| South Sudan | SSNIC[46] | 2 February 2019 | ||||||||
| São Tomé | Also unofficially used in South Tyrol (or province of Bozen, see .bz) and Styria. | |||||||||
| Soviet Union | Still in use. Also unofficially used by Student Unions. | [47] | ||||||||
| Salvador | ||||||||||
| (Kingdom of the Netherlands) | , , and already allocated; airport code is SXM. | CIRA | ||||||||
| Syria | ||||||||||
| Swaziland | Registration is restricted to Eswatini organizations with Eswatini Trading Licenses. | |||||||||
 Turks and Caicos Islands (United Kingdom) | Turks and Caicos | Also marketed in Turkey. The official abbreviation of 'Türkiye Cumhuriyeti' (Republic of Turkey) is TC. | ||||||||
| Tchad (French) | Available for registration to entities connected with Chad only. | |||||||||
| Terres australes et antarctiques françaises (French) | Seldom used. Restricted to individuals and companies in European Union, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein. The domain also sees frequent use for community-run sites related to the video game Team Fortress 2. | AFNIC | ||||||||
| Togo | ||||||||||
| Thai | ||||||||||
| Tajik | ||||||||||
| Tokelau | Was previously used as a free domain service to the public | Dot TK | ||||||||
| Timor-Leste | Previous code .tp has been deactivated since 2015. | |||||||||
| Turkmen | [48] | |||||||||
| Tunisia | Official ccTLDs (country code top-level domains) of Tunisia. | |||||||||
| Tonga | Often used unofficially for Torrent, Turin (Torino in Italian), Toronto, Tokyo, or Tocantins, and also as a domain hack in Slavic languages (to meaning it). | |||||||||
| Turkey | .ct.tr and .nc.tr used by Northern Cyprus. | |||||||||
| Trinidad and Tobago | ||||||||||
| Tuvalu | Used as an abbreviation of television, the domain is currently operated by dotTV, a VeriSign company; the Tuvalu government owns twenty percent of the company. | |||||||||
| Taiwan | Registration allowed worldwide, local presence not required. In line with ISO 3166-1, IANA's official position is that "TW" is "designated for use to represent Taiwan, Province of China".[49] | |||||||||
| Tanzania | TLD registrations allowed as of July 2022, no local presence in Tanzania required. | TCRA | ||||||||
| Ukraina (Russian) | Registrations in TLD are restricted to trademark holders only; SLD registrations are open | Hostmaster Ltd. | ||||||||
| Uganda | Uganda Online Ltd. | |||||||||
| United Kingdom | The ISO 3166-1 code for the United Kingdom is GB (for Great Britain). UK is a specially reserved ISO 3166-1 code. However, the creation of the .uk TLD predates the ISO 3166-1 list of ccTLD and is the primary TLD for the United Kingdom.[50] | Nominet UK | ||||||||
| United States | Registrants must be United States citizens, residents, or organizations, or a foreign entity with a presence in the United States. Formerly commonly used by U.S. State and local governments; see also .gov TLD. | Go Daddy | ||||||||
| Uruguay | 2LD rollout began on 10 July 2012.[51] | |||||||||
| Uzbekistan | Uzinfocom | |||||||||
| Vatican | Limited to the official sites of the Holy See (including those of the Vatican City State). | |||||||||
| Vincent | ||||||||||
| Venezuela | Registration is at the third level. | |||||||||
| (United Kingdom) | Virgin Islands | |||||||||
| (United States) | Virgin Islands | |||||||||
| Viet Nam (Vietnamese) | [52] | |||||||||
| Vanuatu | ||||||||||
| Wallis and Futuna | Restricted to individuals and companies in European Union, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein. | AFNIC | ||||||||
| Western Samoa | Marketed for use in general websites. | [53] | ||||||||
| Yemen | ||||||||||
| Mayotte | Restricted to individuals and companies in European Union, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. Also unofficially used for YouTube-related domains. | AFNIC | ||||||||
| Zuid-Afrika (Dutch) | .za derives from the Dutch name of the country, even though Dutch is no longer an official language of South Africa. | ZA Domain Name Authority[54] [55] [56] | ||||||||
| Zambia | ||||||||||
| Zimbabwe |
| DNS name | IDN ccTLD | Country/Region | Language | Script | Transliteration | Comments | Other ccTLD | DNSSEC | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| xn--lgbbat1ad8j | Arabic (Arabic) | al-Jazā'ir | |||||||
| xn--y9a3aq | hay | ||||||||
| xn--mgbcpq6gpa1a | al-Baḥrain | Not in use | |||||||
| xn--54b7fta0cc | Bangla | ||||||||
| xn--90ais | bel | ||||||||
| xn--90ae | .бг[58] | bg | |||||||
| xn--fiqs8s | Chinese (Simplified) | ||||||||
| xn--fiqz9s | Chinese (Traditional) | ||||||||
| xn--wgbh1c | Arabic (Arabic) | Miṣr / Maṣr[59] | |||||||
| xn--e1a4c | eyu | ||||||||
| xn--qxa6a | ey | In use since 2022 | |||||||
| xn--node | Georgian (Mkhedruli) | GE | |||||||
| xn--qxam | Greek, Modern (1453-);: [[.ελ]] | el | In use since July 2018 | ||||||
| xn--j6w193g | Chinese (Simplified and Traditional) | Hoeng1 gong2 / Xiānggǎng | .hk | ||||||
| xn--h2brj9c | Bhārat | Became available 27 August 2014[60] | |||||||
| xn--mgbbh1a71e | Arabic (Urdu) | Bhārat | Became available 2017 | ||||||
| xn--fpcrj9c3d | Bhārat | Became available 2017 | |||||||
| xn--gecrj9c | Bhārat | Became available 2017 | |||||||
| xn--s9brj9c | Bhārat | Became available 2017 | |||||||
| xn--xkc2dl3a5ee0h | Intiyā | Became available 2015 | |||||||
| xn--45brj9c | Bharôt | Became available 2017 | |||||||
| xn--2scrj9c | Kannada | Bhārata | Became available 2020 | ||||||
| xn--rvc1e0am3e | Malayalam | Bhāratam | Became available 2020 | ||||||
| xn--45br5cyl | Bengali | Bharatam | Became available 2022 | ||||||
| xn--3hcrj9c | Oriya | Bhārat | Became available 2021 | ||||||
| xn--mgbbh1a | Arabic (Kashmiri) | Bārat | Became available 2022 | ||||||
| xn--h2breg3eve | Devanagari | Bhāratam | Became available 2022 | ||||||
| xn--h2brj9c8c | Devanagari | Bharot | Became available 2022 | ||||||
| xn--mgbgu82a | Arabic (Sindhi) | Bhārat | Became available 2022 | ||||||
| xn--mgba3a4f16a | Arabic (Persian) | Īrān | |||||||
| xn--mgbtx2b | Arabic (Arabic) | ʿIrāq | Not in use | .iq | |||||
| xn--4dbrk0ce | Israel | Became available 2022 | .il | ||||||
| xn--mgbayh7gpa | Arabic (Arabic) | al-Urdun | .jo | ||||||
| xn--80ao21a | Cyrillic (Kazakh) | qaz | |||||||
| xn--q7ce6a | Lao | Became available 2020 | |||||||
| xn--mix082f | Chinese (Simplified) | Not in use | |||||||
| xn--mix891f | Chinese (Traditional) | Became available 2020 | |||||||
| xn--mgbx4cd0ab | Arabic (Jawi) | Malaysīyā | |||||||
| xn--mgbah1a3hjkrd | Arabic (Arabic) | Mūrītāniyā | |||||||
| xn--l1acc | Cyrillic (Mongolian) | mon | |||||||
| xn--mgbc0a9azcg | Arabic (Arabic) | al-Maġrib | |||||||
| xn--d1alf | Cyrillic (Macedonian) | mkd | |||||||
| xn--mgb9awbf | Arabic (Arabic) | ʿUmān | |||||||
| xn--mgbai9azgqp6j | Arabic (Urdu) | Pākistān | |||||||
| xn--ygbi2ammx | Arabic (Arabic) | Filasṭīn | .ps | ||||||
| xn--wgbl6a | Arabic (Arabic) | Qaṭar | .qa | ||||||
| xn--p1ai | Cyrillic (Russian) | rf | .ru | ||||||
| xn--mgberp4a5d4ar | Arabic (Arabic) | as-Suʿūdīya | .sa | ||||||
| xn--90a3ac | Cyrillic (Serbian) | srb | |||||||
| xn--yfro4i67o | Chinese (Simplified and Traditional) | ||||||||
| xn--clchc0ea0b2g2a9gcd | Cinkappūr | ||||||||
| xn--3e0b707e | |||||||||
| xn--fzc2c9e2c | Lanka | ||||||||
| xn--xkc2al3hye2a | Ilaṅkai | .lk | |||||||
| xn--mgbpl2fh | .سودان | Arabic (Arabic) | Sūdān | ||||||
| xn--ogbpf8fl | Arabic (Arabic) | Sūriyya | |||||||
| xn--kprw13d | Chinese (Simplified) | .tw | |||||||
| xn--kpry57d | Chinese (Traditional) | .tw | |||||||
| xn--o3cw4h | Thai | .th | |||||||
| xn--pgbs0dh | Arabic (Arabic) | Tūnis | .tn | ||||||
| xn--j1amh | Cyrillic (Ukrainian) | ukr | |||||||
| xn--mgbaam7a8h | Arabic (Arabic) | Imārāt | .ae | ||||||
| xn--mgb2ddes | Arabic (Arabic) | al-Yaman | Not delegated |
Internationalised domain names have been proposed for Japan and Libya.
Almost all current ISO 3166-1 codes have been assigned and do exist in DNS.However, some of these are effectively unused. In particular, the ccTLDs for the Norwegian dependency Bouvet Island ([[.bv|bv]]) and the designation Svalbard and Jan Mayen ([[.sj|sj]]) do exist in DNS, but no subdomains have been assigned, and it is Norid policy to not assign any at present. Two French territories—[[.bl|bl]] (Saint Barthélemy) and [[.mf|mf]] (Saint Martin)— await local assignment by France's government.
The code [[.eh|eh]], although eligible as ccTLD for Western Sahara, has never been assigned and does not exist in DNS. Only one subdomain is still registered in [[.gb|gb]][61] (ISO 3166-1 for the United Kingdom), and no new registrations are being accepted for it. Sites in the United Kingdom generally use[[.uk|uk]] (see below).
The former .um ccTLD for the U.S. Minor Outlying Islands was removed in April 2008. Under RFC 1591 rules, .um is eligible as a ccTLD on request by the relevant governmental agency and local Internet user community.
Several ASCII ccTLDs are in use that are not ISO 3166-1 two-letter codes. Some of these codes were specified in older versions of the ISO list.
[[.uk|uk]] (United Kingdom): The ISO 3166-1 code for the United Kingdom is GB. However, the JANET network had already selected uk as a top-level identifier for its pre-existing Name Registration Scheme, and this was incorporated into the DNS root. [[.gb|gb]] was assigned with the intention of a transition, but this never occurred and the use of uk is now entrenched.[62][[.su|su]] This obsolete ISO 3166 code for the Soviet Union was assigned when the Soviet Union still existed; moreover, new su registrations are accepted.[[.ac|ac]] (Ascension Island): This code is a vestige of IANA's decision in 1996 to allow the use of codes reserved in the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 reserve list for use by the Universal Postal Union. The decision was later reversed, with Ascension Island now the sole outlier. (Three other ccTLDs, [[.gg|gg]] (Guernsey), [[.im|im]] (Isle of Man) and [[.je|je]] (Jersey) also fell under this category from 1996 until they received corresponding ISO 3166 codes in March 2006.)[[.eu|eu]] (European Union): On September 25, 2000, ICANN decided to allow the use of any two-letter code in the ISO 3166-1 reserve list that is reserved for all purposes. Only EU currently meets this criterion. Following a decision by the EU's Council of Telecommunications Ministers in March 2002, progress was slow, but a registry (named EURid) was chosen by the European Commission, and criteria for allocation set: ICANN approved [[.eu|eu]] as a ccTLD, and it opened for registration on 7 December 2005 for the holders of prior rights. Since 7 April 2006, registration is open to all in the European Economic Area.ccTLDs may be removed if that country ceases to exist. There are three ccTLDs that have been deleted after the corresponding 2-letter code was withdrawn from ISO 3166-1: [[.cs|cs]] (for Czechoslovakia), [[.zr|zr]] (for Zaire) and [[.tp|tp]] (for East Timor). There may be a significant delay between withdrawal from ISO 3166-1 and deletion from the DNS; for example, ZR ceased to be an ISO 3166-1 code in 1997, but the zr ccTLD was not deleted until 2001. Other ccTLDs corresponding to obsolete ISO 3166-1 codes have not yet been deleted. In some cases they may never be deleted due to the amount of disruption this would cause for a heavily used ccTLD. In particular, the Soviet Union's ccTLD [[.su|su]] remains in use more than twenty years after SU was removed from ISO 3166-1.
The historical country codes [[.dd|dd]] for the German Democratic Republic and yd for South Yemen were eligible for a ccTLD, but not allocated; see also [[.de|de]] and [[.ye|ye]].
The temporary reassignment of country code cs (Serbia and Montenegro) until its split into [[.rs|rs]] and [[.me|me]] (Serbia and Montenegro, respectively) led to some controversies[63] [64] about the stability of ISO 3166-1 country codes, resulting in a second edition of ISO 3166-1 in 2007 with a guarantee that retired codes will not be reassigned for at least 50 years, and the replacement of RFC 3066 by RFC 4646 for country codes used in language tags in 2006.
The previous ISO 3166-1 code for Yugoslavia, YU, was removed by ISO on 23 July 2003, but the [[.yu|yu]] ccTLD remained in operation. Finally, after a two-year transition to Serbian [[.rs|rs]] and Montenegrin [[.me|me]], the .yu domain was phased out in March 2010.
Australia was originally assigned the [[.au#Historic second-level domains|oz]] country code, which was later changed to [[.au|au]] with the .oz domains moved to .oz.au.
An internationalized country code top-level domain (IDN ccTLD) is a top-level domain with a specially encoded domain name that is displayed in an end user application, such as a web browser, in its native language script or a non-alphabetic writing system, such as Latin script (.us, .uk and .br), Indic script (.) and Korean script (.), etc. IDN ccTLDs are an application of the internationalized domain name (IDN) system to top-level Internet domains assigned to countries, including the United Kingdom, or independent geographic regions.
ICANN started to accept applications for IDN ccTLDs in November 2009,[65] and installed the first set into the Domain Names System in May 2010. The first set was a group of Arabic names for the countries of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. By May 2010, 21 countries had submitted applications to ICANN, representing 11 languages.[66]
ICANN requires all potential international TLDs to use at least one letter that does not resemble a Latin letter, or have at least three letters, in an effort to avoid IDN homograph attacks. Nor shall the international domain name look like another domain name, even if they have different alphabets. Between Cyrillic and Greek alphabets, for example, this could happen.
Generic Country Code Top-Level Domain or gccTLD refers to those TLDs which are technically "non-restricted ccTLDs" but used like traditional generic TLDs (gTLDs) rather than "country"-targeted ones.[67] [68] [69] Most of the gccTLDs are primarily used as domain hacks:
| gccTLD | Country/Region | Domain hacks | |
|---|---|---|---|
| advertising | |||
| Aktiengesellschaft (German for corporation) | |||
| Artificial intelligence | |||
| Compact disc | |||
| "see you" | |||
| curriculum vitae | |||
| Disc jockey | |||
| Georgia | |||
| it.is, that.is, etc. | |||
| Information technology | |||
| Keygen | |||
| words ending in -ly | |||
| Private equity | |||
| Phone number | |||
| Professional web | |||
| Reverse engineering | |||
| Rust | |||
| "sex" | |||
| Trademark | |||
| link-to | |||
| television and broadcasts | |||
| YouTube |
See main article: Vanity URL. Lenient registration restrictions on certain ccTLDs have resulted in various domain hacks. Domain names such as I.am, tip.it, start.at and go.to form well-known English phrases, whereas others combine the second-level domain and ccTLD to form one word or one title, creating domains such as [[blo.gs]] of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands ([[.gs|gs]]), [[YouTube|youtu.be]] of Belgium ([[.be|be]]), [[Delicious (website)|del.icio.us]] of the United States ([[.us|us]]), and [[cr.yp.to]] of Tonga ([[.to|to]]). The .co domain of Colombia has been cited since 2010 as a potential competitor to generic TLDs for commercial use, because it may be an abbreviation for company.[70]
Several ccTLDs allow the creation of emoji domains.
Some ccTLDs may also be used for typosquatting. The domain cm of Cameroon has generated interest due to the possibility that people might miss typing the letter o for sites in the com.[71]
Some of the world's smallest countries and non-sovereign or colonial entities with their own country codes have opened their TLDs for worldwide commercial use, some of them free like .tk.