The Complete Guide to Country Code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs)

Country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) are an essential part of the internet’s domain name system.

These two-letter codes represent specific countries or territories and are used to create unique web addresses associated with particular geographic regions.

In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore everything you need to know about ccTLDs, including their purpose, structure, and a complete list of current ccTLDs.

What are Country Code Top-Level Domains (ccTLDs)?

A country code top-level domain (ccTLD) is a unique identifier assigned to a country, sovereign state, or dependent territory for use in the Domain Name System (DNS). ccTLDs are typically two letters long and based on the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country codes.

Some key points about ccTLDs:

• They are managed by designated organizations within each country or territory
• ccTLDs are regulated by ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers)
• There are currently over 300 ccTLDs in use

The Value of ccTLDs in the Domain Name Industry

Image Source: SAS.com

Country code top-level domains play a crucial role in the global internet landscape:

1. Geographic Targeting: ccTLDs allow websites to target specific countries or regions, which can be beneficial for businesses and organizations operating in particular markets.
2. Local Presence: Using a ccTLD can help establish a local online presence and build trust with users in that country.
3. SEO Benefits: Search engines often give preference to websites using local ccTLDs when users search from that country.
4. Branding Opportunities: Some ccTLDs have become popular for creative domain hacks or brand names (e.g., .io, .tv, .me).

How ccTLDs Differ from Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs)

While ccTLDs are specific to countries or territories, generic top-level domains (gTLDs) are not tied to any particular geographic location. Here’s a comparison:

Aspect	ccTLDs	gTLDs
Length	Usually two letters	Three or more letters
Purpose	Represent countries/territories	Represent general categories or brands
Examples	.uk, .de, .jp	.com, .org, .net
Management	Country-specific organizations	ICANN-approved registry operators

The Structure of ccTLDs

Country code top-level domains typically follow a specific structure:

[second-level domain].[ccTLD]

For example:

• bbc.co.uk (United Kingdom)
• amazon.de (Germany)
• rakuten.co.jp (Japan)

Some countries allow direct registration under the ccTLD (e.g., example.fr), while others require the use of specific second-level domains (e.g., .co.uk, .com.au).

Internationalized ccTLDs

As the internet became more global, the need for internationalized domain names (IDNs) arose. This led to the creation of internationalized ccTLDs, which use non-Latin scripts or characters with diacritical marks.

Examples of internationalized ccTLDs include:

• .中国 (China)
• .рф (Russia)
• .ελ (Greece)

These IDN ccTLDs allow countries to represent their domain names in local languages and scripts, making the internet more accessible to non-English speakers.

The Role of ICANN in ccTLD Management

ICANN plays a crucial role in overseeing ccTLDs:

• Coordinates the assignment of ccTLDs based on ISO 3166-1 codes
• Develops policies for ccTLD management
• Maintains the root zone database of all TLDs

However, ICANN does not directly manage individual ccTLDs. Each country or territory has its own designated organization responsible for ccTLD administration.

Using ccTLDs for Business and Branding

Many businesses and organizations use ccTLDs strategically:

1. Local Market Targeting: Companies often register ccTLDs to create country-specific websites (e.g., amazon.co.uk, amazon.de, amazon.fr).
2. Brand Protection: Registering ccTLDs can help protect a brand across multiple countries.
3. Creative Domain Hacks: Some ccTLDs are used creatively for branding purposes:

• del.icio.us (uses the .us ccTLD)
• instagr.am (uses the .am ccTLD for Armenia)
• youtu.be (uses the .be ccTLD for Belgium)

1. Industry-Specific Uses: Certain ccTLDs have become popular in specific industries:

• .io (British Indian Ocean Territory) for tech startups
• .tv (Tuvalu) for video-related websites
• .fm (Federated States of Micronesia) for radio and music sites

Current List of ccTLDs

Below is a comprehensive list of current country code top-level domains, along with their corresponding countries or territories:

ccTLD	Country (or region)	DNSSEC	IDN
.ac	Ascension Island	Yes	Yes
.ad	Andorra	Yes	No
.ae	United Arab Emirates	No	No
.af	Afghanistan	Yes	No
.ag	Antigua and Barbuda	Yes	No
.ai	Anguilla	No	No
.al	Albania	No	No
.am	Armenia	Yes	No
.an	Netherlands Antilles (now deleted – with the 2010 political dissolution of this region as an overseas territory, the ccTLD was closed down in 2015)	No	No
.ao	Angola	No	No
.aq	Antarctic	No	No
.ar	Argentina	Yes	Yes
.as	American Samoa	No	Yes
.at	Austria	Yes	No
.au	Australia	Yes	No
.aw	Aruba	Yes	No
.ax	Åland Islands (until March 2006 still accessable at .aland.fi)	No	No
.az	Azerbaijan	No	No
.ba	Bosnia and Herzegovina	No	No
.bb	Barbados	No	No
.bd	Bangladesh	No	Yes
.be	Belgium	Yes	Yes
.bf	Burkina Faso	No	No
.bg	Bulgaria	Yes	Yes
.bh	Bahrain	No	No
.bi	Burundi	No	No
.bj	Benin	No	No
.bl	Saint-Barthélemy	No	No
.bm	Bermuda	No	No
.bn	Brunei	No	No
.bo	Bolivia	No	No
.br	Brazil	Yes	Yes
.bq	Bonaire,  Saba,  Sint Eustatius	No	No
.bs	Bahamas	No	No
.bt	Bhutan	No	No
.bv	Bouvet Island (registration not yet possible)	No	No
.bw	Botswana	Yes	No
.by	Belarus	Yes	No
.bz	Belize	Yes	No
.ca	Canada	Yes	Yes
.cc	Cocos Islands	Yes	No
.cd	Democratic Republic of the Congo	No	No
.cf	Central African Republic	No	No
.cg	Republic of the Congo	Yes	No
.ch	Switzerland	Yes	Yes
.ci	Côte d’Ivoire	No	No
.ck	Cook Islands	Yes	No
.cl	Chile	Yes	Yes
.cm	Cameroon	Yes	No
.cn	China	Yes	Yes
.co	Colombia	Yes	No
.cr	Costa Rica	Yes	No
.cs	Czechoslovakia (now deleted)	No	No
.cu	Cuba	No	No
.cv	Cape Verde	No	No
.cw	Curaçao	Yes	No
.cx	Christmas Island	No	No
.cy	Cyprus	Yes	No
.cz	Czech Republic	Yes	No
.dd	German Democratic Republic (never activated)	No	No
.de	Germany	Yes	Yes
.dj	Djibuti	Yes	No
.dk	Denmark	Yes	Yes
.dm	Dominica	No	No
.do	Dominican Republic	No	No
.dz	Algeria	No	No
.ec	Ecuador	Yes	No
.ee	Estonia	No	Yes
.eg	Egypt	No	No
.eh	Western Sahara (due to the political   conflict between the countries of Western Sahara and Morocco, this is ccTLD is currently not live)	No	No
.er	Eritrea	Yes	No
.es	Spain	No	No
.et	Ethiopia	Yes	No
.eu	European Union	Yes	Yes
.fi	Finland	Yes	Yes
.fj	Fiji	No	No
.fk	Falkland Islands	No	No
.fm	Micronesia	Yes	No
.fo	Faroe	Yes	No
.fr	France	Yes	Yes
.ga	Gabon	No DS resource record available	No
.gb	United Kingdom (no longer in use since .uk became the established ccTLD)	Yes	No
.gd	Grenada	No	No
.ge	Georgia	No	No
.gf	French Guiana	No	No
.gg	Guernsey	No	No
.gh	Ghana	Yes	No
.gi	Gibraltar	Yes	No
.gl	Greenland	No	No
.gm	Gambia	Yes	No
.gn	Guinea	No DS resource record available	No
.gp	Guadeloupe	No	No
.gq	Equatorial Guinea	Yes	No
.gr	Greece	Yes	Yes
.gs	South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands	No	No
.gt	Guatemala	No	Yes
.gu	Guam	No	No
.gw	Guinea-Bissau	No	No
.gy	Guyana	No	No
.hk	Hong Kong	No	Yes
.hm	Heard Island and McDonald Islands	Yes	No
.hn	Honduras	Yes	No
.hr	Croatia	No	No
.ht	Haiti	Yes	Yes
.hu	Hungary	Yes	No
.id	Indonesia	Yes	Yes
.ie	Ireland	No	No
.il	Israel	No	Yes
.im	Isle of Man	Yes	No
.in	India	Yes	No
.io	British Indian Ocean Territory	Yes	No
.iq	Iraq	No	No
.ir	Iran	No	Yes
.is	Iceland	No	Yes
.it	Italy	No	Yes
.je	Jersey	No	No
.jm	Jamaica	No	No
.jo	Jordan	Yes	No
.jp	Japan	Yes	No
.ke	Kenya	Yes	No
.kg	Kyrgyzstan	Yes	No
.kh	Cambodia	Yes	No
.ki	Kiribati	No	No
.km	Comoros	No	No
.kn	St. Kitts and Nevis	No	No
.kp	North Korea	Yes	No
.kr	South Korea	Yes	Yes
.kw	Kuwait	Yes	No
.ky	Cayman Islands	No	No
.kz	Kazakhstan	Yes	No
.la	Laos	Yes	No
.lb	Lebanon	Yes	No
.lc	St. Lucia	Yes	No
.li	Liechtenstein	Yes	Yes
.lk	Sri Lanka	Yes	Yes
.lr	Liberia	No DS resource record available	No
.ls	Lesotho	Yes	No
.lt	Lithuania	Yes	Yes
.lu	Luxembourg	Yes	Yes
.lv	Latvia	Yes	Yes
.ly	Libya	Yes	No
.ma	Marocco	No	No
.mc	Monaco	No	No
.md	Moldova	Yes	No
.me	Montenegro	Yes	No
.mf	Saint Martin	No	No
.mg	Madagascar	No	No
.mh	Marshall Islands	No	No
.mk	Macedonia	Yes	No
.ml	Mali	Yes	No
.mm	Myanmar	Yes	No
.mn	Mongolia	Yes	No
.mo	Macau	No	No
.mp	Northern Mariana Islands	No	No
.mq	Martinique	No	No
.mr	Mauritania	No	No
.ms	Montserrat	No	No
.mt	Malta	No	No
.mu	Mauritius	No	No
.mv	Maldives	Yes	No
.mw	Malawi	Yes	No
.mx	Mexico	No	No
.my	Malaysia	Yes	Yes
.mz	Mozambique	Yes	No
.na	Namibia	Yes	No
.nc	New Caledonia	Yes	No
.ne	Niger	No	No
.nf	Norfolk Island	No	No
.ng	Nigeria	Yes	No
.ni	Nicaragua	Yes	No
.nl	Netherlands	Yes	No
.no	Norway	No	Yes
.np	Nepal	Yes	No
.nr	Nauru	Yes	No
.nu	Niue	Yes	Yes
.nz	New Zealand	Yes	Yes
.om	Oman	Yes	No
.pa	Panama	No	No
.pe	Peru	No	Yes
.pf	French Polynesia	No	No
.pg	Papua New Guinea	No	No
.ph	Philippines	Yes	No
.pk	Pakistan	Yes	No
.pl	Poland	Yes	Yes
.pm	Saint Pierre and Miquelon	Yes	Yes
.pn	Pitcairn Islands	No	No
.pr	Puerto Rico	Yes	No
.ps	Palestine	Yes	No
.pt	Portugal	Yes	Yes
.pw	Palau	No	No
.py	Paraguay	Yes	No
.qa	Qatar	Yes	No
.re	Réunion	Yes	Yes
.ro	Romania	Yes	Yes
.rs	Serbia	No	No
.ru	Russia	No	No
.rw	Rwanda	Yes	No
.sa	Saudi Arabia	Yes	Yes
.sb	Solomon Islands	No	No
.sc	Seychelles	Yes	No
.sd	Sudan	No	No
.se	Sweden	Yes	Yes
.sg	Singapore	Yes	No
.sh	St. Helena	Yes	Yes
.si	Slovenia	Yes	Yes
.sj	Svalbard and Jan Mayen (registration is not yet possible)	No	No
.sk	Slovakia	No	No
.sl	Sierra Leone	No	No
.sm	San Marino	No	No
.sn	Senegal	No	No
.so	Somalia	No	No
.sr	Suriname	No	No
.ss	South Sudan	Yes	No
.st	São Tomé and Príncipe	No	No
.su	Soviet Union (this TLD has been managed by Russia since the dissolution of the USSR)	Yes	Yes
.sv	El Salvador	No	No
.sx	Sint Maarten	Yes	No
.sy	Syria	No	No
.sz	Swaziland	No	No
.tc	Turks and Caicos Islands	Yes	No
.td	Chad	No	No
.tf	French Southern and Antarctic Lands	Yes	Yes
.tg	Togo	No	No
.th	Thailand	No	Yes
.tj	Tajikistan	No	No
.tk	Tokelau	Yes	No
.tl	Timor-Leste (formerly .tp)	Yes	No
.tm	Turkmenistan	Yes	Yes
.tn	Tunisia	No	Yes
.to	Tonga	No	Yes
.tp	Timor-Leste (now deleted – replaced by .tl in 2002)	Yes	No
.tr	Turkey,  Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus	Yes	Yes
.tt	Trinidad and Tobago	Yes	No
.tv	Tuvalu	Yes	No
.tw	Taiwan	Yes	Yes
.tz	Tanzania	No DS resource record available	No
.ua	Ukraine	Yes	No
.ug	Uganda	Yes	No
.uk	United Kingdom	Yes	No
.um	United States Minor Outlying Islands (now deleted)	No	No
.us	United States	No	No
.uy	Uruguay	Yes	No
.uz	Uzbekistan	No	No
.va	Vatican City	No	No
.vc	St. Vincent and the Grenadines	No DS resource record available	No
.ve	Venezuela	No	No
.vg	Britische Virgin Islands	Yes	No
.vi	United States Virgin Islands	Yes	No
.vn	Vietnam	Yes	Yes
.vu	Vanuatu	No	No
.wf	Wallis and Futuna (also .fr)	Yes	Yes
.ws	Samoa	No	Yes
.ye	Yemen	Yes	No
.yt	Mayotte (French region – also .fr)	Yes	Yes
.yu	Yugoslavia (now deleted – after the dissolution of the former Yugoslavia the TLD was used by Serbia and Montenegro until 2010)	No	No
.za	South Africa	No	No
.zm	Zambia	No	No
.zr	Zaire (now deleted – since the country was renamed in 1997, the ccTLD .cd has been used)	No	No
.zw	Zimbabwe	No	No

Interesting Facts About ccTLDs

1. The First ccTLD: The first ccTLD ever registered was .us for the United States in 1985.
2. Most Popular ccTLD: As of 2024, the ccTLD with the highest number of domain name registrations is .cn (China), followed by .de (Germany) and .uk (United Kingdom).
3. Repurposed ccTLDs: Some ccTLDs have gained popularity for uses unrelated to their original country:

• .io (British Indian Ocean Territory) is popular among tech companies
• .tv (Tuvalu) is often used for television and video-related websites
• .me (Montenegro) is used for personal websites and branding

1. Unusual ccTLDs: Some ccTLDs represent surprising entities:

• .va (Vatican City)
• .sj (Svalbard and Jan Mayen – unused)
• .eu (European Union – a special case approved by ICANN)

1. Discontinued ccTLDs: Some ccTLDs have been phased out due to political changes:

• .yu (Yugoslavia)
• .zr (Zaire, now Democratic Republic of the Congo)
• .an (Netherlands Antilles)

The Future of ccTLDs

As the internet continues to evolve, ccTLDs face both challenges and opportunities:

1. Competition from gTLDs: The introduction of new gTLDs has increased competition for domain registrations.
2. Cybersecurity Concerns: ccTLDs must implement robust security measures to protect against cyber threats.
3. Internationalization: Continued support for IDN ccTLDs will be crucial for global internet accessibility.
4. Policy Changes: Evolving internet governance may impact ccTLD management and regulations.
5. Technological Advancements: New technologies like blockchain could potentially influence domain name systems, including ccTLDs.

Conclusion

Country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) play a vital role in the structure and organization of the internet. They provide valuable geographic identifiers, offer branding opportunities, and support the global nature of the web. As the online landscape continues to change, ccTLDs will undoubtedly adapt and evolve, maintaining their importance in the domain name system.

Whether you’re a business owner looking to expand into new markets, a web developer choosing the perfect domain name, or simply an internet user curious about web addresses, understanding ccTLDs is crucial in today’s interconnected world.

Thanks to the power of country code top-level domains, we can create a more localized, accessible, and diverse internet for users around the globe.

FAQs

Q: What are country code top-level domains (ccTLDs)?

A: Country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) are two-letter domain extensions assigned to each particular country based on the ISO 3166-1 country codes.

Q: How do ccTLDs differ from generic top-level domains (gTLDs)?

A: Unlike generic top-level domains (gTLDs) which are more generic and not specific to any particular country, ccTLDs are specific to a certain country or geographic location.

Q: Can you provide examples of ccTLDs?

A: Examples of ccTLDs include “.us” for the United States, “.uk” for the United Kingdom, “.jp” for Japan, and “.de” for Germany.

Q: How can I register a domain with a ccTLD?

A: To register a domain with a ccTLD, you need to find a domain registrar that is authorized to register domain names under the specific country code top-level domain you are interested in.

Q: What is the significance of the ISO 3166-1 standard in relation to ccTLDs?

A: The ISO 3166-1 standard assigns two-letter country codes to every country, which are used as the basis for assigning country code top-level domains (ccTLDs).

Q: Where can I find the current list of ccTLDs designated by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA)?

A: You can find the current list of ccTLDs designated by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) on their official website.

Q: Are there internationalized country code top-level domains (IDN ccTLDs) available?

A: Yes, there are internationalized country code top-level domains (IDN ccTLDs) that support non-ASCII characters and allow for domain names in local languages.

Q: What is the relationship between ccTLDs and the name of the country they represent?

A: The two-letter ccTLDs are typically derived from the name of the country they represent, making them easily identifiable with the respective country.

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