UN/LOCODE
UN/LOCODE, the United Nations Code for Trade and Transport Locations, is a geographic coding scheme developed and maintained by United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), a unit of the United Nations. UN/LOCODE assigns codes to locations used in trade and transport with functions such as seaports, rail and road terminals, airports, post offices and border crossing points. The first issue in 1981 contained codes for 8,000 locations. The version from 2008 contained codes for about 60,000 locations.[1]
Anglicized names
Beside the abbreviation, UN/LOCODE also defines a spelling for each location that can be written using only letters of the English alphabet. This was achieved by stripping off the diacritics from the romanized local name.[2]
Structure
UN/LOCODEs have five characters. The first two characters are letters. They code a country by the table defined in ISO 3166-1 alpha-2. The three remaining characters code a location within that country. Letters are preferred, but if necessary digits 2 through 9 may be used. Excluding "0" and "1" avoids confusion between "O" and "0", and between "I" and "1".
For each country there can be at maximum 34*34*34 = 39 304 entries.
For the US, the 17575 possible combinations of 3-character codes have been almost exhausted. In 2006, the Secretariat added 646 entries to the 2006-2 issue of UN/LOCODE, in which the third position of 3-character codes is a digit from 2 to 9. The 2007 issue of UN/LOCODE contains 689 such US entries.
Loose consistency with existing IATA airport codes
For airports, the three letters following the country code are not always identical to the IATA airport code. According to the Secretariat note for Issue 2006-2, there are 720 locations showing a different IATA code.[2]
Official UN/LOCODE tables
UN/LOCODEs are released as a table. An individual revision is officially referred to as an "issue". A discussion of the table's structure follows.
Examples
| Ch | LOCODE | Name | NameWoDiacritics | SubDiv | Function | Status | Date | IATA | Coordinates | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US NYC | New York | New York | NY | 12345--- | AI | 0401 | 4042N 07400W | |||
| DE BER | Berlin | Berlin | BE | 12345--- | AF | 0207 | 5231N 01323E | |||
| DE TXL | Berlin-Tegel Apt | Berlin-Tegel Apt | BE | ---4---- | AF | 9501 | ||||
| FR PAR | Paris | Paris | 75 | 123-5--- | AF | 9501 | ||||
| GB PAR | Par | Par | CON | 1------- | AF | 9501 | ||||
| SE GOT | Göteborg | Goteborg | O | 1--45--- | AI | 0207 | XWL | |||
| = | SE | Gothenburg = Göteborg | Gothenburg = Goteborg |
- Explanations
- US NYC for New York City in the United States. Subdivision is the U.S. state of New York (see ISO 3166-2:US). Function: port, rail, road, airport, postal. IATA code is NYC. Coordinates: 40°42′N 074°00′W / 40.700°N 74.000°W.
- DE BER for Berlin (city) in Germany. Subdivision is the German state of Berlin (see ISO 3166-2:DE). Function: port, rail, road, airport, postal. IATA code is BER. Coordinates: 52°31′N 013°23′E / 52.517°N 13.383°E.
- DE TXL for Berlin-Tegel Airport in Germany. Function: airport. IATA code is TXL.
- FR PAR for Paris (city) in France. Subdivision is the French department of Paris (see ISO 3166-2:FR). Function: port, rail, road, postal.
- GB PAR for Par in United Kingdom. Subdivision is the English county of Cornwall (see ISO 3166-2:GB). Function: port.
- SE GOT for Göteborg (Goteborg without diacritics) in Sweden. Subdivision is the Swedish county of Västra Götaland (see ISO 3166-2:SE). Function: port, airport, postal. The IATA code of XWL indicated in the table is that of a train station in the city centre of Göteborg (though not the Central Station), while the IATA code for the main airport (Göteborg-Landvetter Airport) is actually GOT. It also has a separate reference entry showing an alternate spelling of Gothenburg.
Data fields
The fields are listed in the official order.
Ch (Changes)
- A change from the previous issue is indicated by one of the following characters in the first column:
- + Additions to the issue
- # Change in location name (usually spelling) Note: Not defined in the manual [1]
- | Change other than location name
- X Entries marked for deletion in the next issue
- = Reference entry
- ! US locations with duplicated IATA code, under review
Locode
- The code is represented with a space between the country code and the 3-letter element.
Name
- The name of the location.
Name Without Diacritics
- The name of the location, but all non-latin-base characters are converted.
- Can contain ' e.g. L'viv
SubDiv (Subdivision)
- The ISO 1 to 3 character alphabetic and/or numeric code for the administrative division (state, province, department, etc.) of the country, as included in ISO 3166-2/1998. Only the latter part of the complete ISO 3166-2 code element (after the hyphen) is shown.
Function
Each defined function gets a classifier; the most important are:
- 1 = port (for any kind of waterborne transport)
- 2 = rail terminal
- 3 = road terminal
- 4 = airport
- 5 = postal exchange office
- 6 = Inland Clearance Depot – ICD or "Dry Port", "Inland Clearance Terminal", etc.
- 7 = fixed transport functions (e.g. oil platform)"; the classifier "7" is reserved for this function. Noting that the description "oil pipeline terminal" would be more relevant, and could be extended to cover also electric power lines and ropeway terminals.
- B = Border crossing function
Status
- Indicates the status of the entry by a 2-character code. The following codes are used at present:
- AA: Approved by competent national government agency
- AC: Approved by Customs Authority
- AF: Approved by national facilitation body
- AI: Code adopted by international organisation (IATA or ECLAC)
- AS: Approved by national standardisation body
- RL: Recognised location - Existence and representation of location name confirmed by check against nominated gazetteer or other reference work
- RN: Request from credible national sources for locations in their own country
- RQ: Request under consideration
- RR: Request rejected
- QQ: Original entry not verified since date indicated
- XX: Entry that will be removed from the next issue of UN/LOCODE
Date
- The date the location was added or updated: 0207 is July 2002, 9501 is January 1995, etc.
Observation: The edition published in 2008 contains for additions the value 0701, while in other cases the exact month is used like 9710, 0212.
IATA
- The IATA code for the location if different from the second part of the UN/LOCODE.
Coordinates
- Some entries have coordinates in the database. They are represented by two numbers: the first followed by either N or S, the second by either E or W.
Remarks
- The remarks column can among other things contain a hint to what specifically was changed (See data field - "Change").
Errors
In 2006-07 IQ IRB for Irbil was added while IQ ABL Arbil with almost the same coordinates existed. In the 2007 edition IQ ABL gets marked for deletion and IQ EBL Erbil International Apt is added to the database, but with a different coordinates, reflecting the distance between airport and city. The error is to delete ABL and to insert IRB.
Occasionally locations are listed twice; this is not necessarily an error. In issue 2006-1, ARSMC San Miguel de Tucuman (functions 2,3) was added while ARTUC Tucuman (function 1) already was in the list. The coordinates are with very little deviation the same. Also in 2006-1, ARSSJ San Salvador de Jujuy was added (function 4) while ARJUJ Jujuy (functions 1,2,3,5) already existed.
2007 added a 2nd code for Bánovce Nad Bebravou.
SK BAN Bánovce Nad Bebravou --3----- RL 0701 4843N 01815E SK BNB Bánovce nad Bebravou -23--6-- RL 0607 4843N 01815E
The 2007 edition contains character encoding errors in the .txt and .csv files. The name for the new code FR ONM Moёlan-sur-Mer does not show the ё correctly. In the .mdb file it is encoded correctly but the column "NameWoDiacritics" contains the name with diacritics .i.e. "Moёlan-sur-Mer". Users who cannot access .mdb files, cannot obtain from the website a correct list for their databases.
Another error from 2007 code list:
DE GXD Gross-Umstadt Gross-Umstadt HE --3----- RL 0201 4952N 00855E + DE UMS Gross-Umstadt Gross-Umstadt HE -23----- RL 0701 4952N 00856E
US TRI + US BOS, same coor and within TRI different coor
US BFS Bristol VA RL -234---- 0212 3636N 08211W cf US JCI, US BSO, US TRI US BSO Bristol Apt TN RL -234---- 0212 3635N 08210W cf US JCI Apt, US BSO Apt, US TRI Apt US TRI Bristol-Johnson City-Kingsport Apt TN RL -234---- 0212 3635N 08210W cf US JCI, US BSO, US TRI US TRI Johnson City-Kingsport-Bristol Apt TN RL -234---- 0212 3635N 08210W cf US JCI, US TRI, US BSO US TRI Kingsport-Bristol-Johnson City Apt TN RL -234---- 0212 3635N 08210W cf US JCI, US TRI, US BSO US TRI Kingsport Apt TN AI ---4---- 0212 3632N 08233W cf US BSO Apt, US JCI Apt
2009-1
The 2009-1 release added for Ukraine several entries where the longitude to big by power of 10. Ranging from 23230E to 38829E, they are outside what would constitutes an eastern longitude. Apart from Nikolayev, now also Ivano Frankovsk and Chuguyev have two entries. For all three the romanized spelling varies.
+ UA IVA Ivano Frankivsk 26 --3----- RL 0901 4855N 24422E UA IFO Ivano-Frankovsk ---4---- AI 0001 + UA CHU Chuguev 63 --3----- RL 0901 4950N 36411E + UA CGV Chuguyev 63 -23----- RL 0901 4950N 03641E UA NLV Nikolaev ---4---- AI 0001 UA NIK Nikolayev 1------- AI 9501
Other entries with wrong coordinates:
+ UA BOH Bohorodchany 26 --3----- RL 0901 4848N 24321E + UA IZI Iziaslav 7 --3----- RL 0901 5606N 26492E + UA KAM Kamianets-Podilskyi 68 --3----- RL 0901 4841N 26345E + UA KHA Khartsyzk 14 --3----- RL 0901 4802N 38829E + UA KHM Khmelnytskyi 68 --3----- RL 0901 4950N 36411E + UA KIR Kirovohrad 35 --3----- RL 0901 4830N 32157E + UA KON Konstantinovka --3----- RL 0901 4722N 32170E + UA MIR Mironovka 14 --3----- RL 0901 4829N 38150E + UA MYR Myronivka 32 --3----- RL 0901 4939N 30590E + UA POL Nikopol 12 --3----- RL 0901 4734N 34240E + UA LAH Nova Vodolaha 63 --3----- RL 0901 4943N 35520E + UA OVI Ovidiopol 51 --3----- RL 0901 4616N 30260E + UA CRY Ripky 74 -----6-- RL 0901 5148N 31600E + UA TAL Talne 71 --3----- RL 0901 4853N 30421E + UA TRU Truskavets 46 --3----- RL 0901 4917N 23300E + UA VOR Vorzel 32 --3----- RL 0901 5033N 30090E + UA YAV Yavoriv 46 --3----- RL 0901 4956N 23230E + UA ZHO Zhovkva --3----- RL 0901 5040N 23580E
For the US more codes with one letter and the number 9 alone were added. For the range H to M they are:
+ US R9 Harpersville VA --3----- RL 0901 4313N 07626W + US T9 Henrietta MO -23----- RL 0901 3914N 09356W + US U9 Hugo MN -----6-- RL 0901 4509N 09259W + US D9 Indian Head MD -----6-- RL 0901 3836N 07709W + US F9 Lindenwood IL -----6-- RL 0901 4203N 08901W + US T9 Mantua OH -----6-- RL 0901 4117N 08113W + US W9 Matthews MO -----6-- RL 0901 3645N 08935W US L9 Maylene AL --3----- RL 0701 3312N 08652W + US N9 Milan NM --3----- RL 0901 3510N 10753W US D9 Minidoka ID -23----- RL 0701 4245N 11330W US C9 Mitchell MS --3----- RL 0701 3443N 08851W + US R9 Morgan PA -----6-- RL 0901 3955N 07939W + US V9 Morrisville NJ --3--6-- RL 0901 3958N 07503W US H9 Mount Hope OH --3--6-- RL 0701 4037N 08147W US F9 Munroe Falls OH -23----- RL 0701 4109N 08126W
Problems
Some entries do not have coordinates, so it is not clear where they actually refer too. If an IATA code changes, then the UN/LOCODE could also be considered to have changed.
MS MNI Montserrat Montserrat AI ---4---- 9601
- Gerald's Airport from 2005, ICAO: TRPG
- W. H. Bramble Airport until 1997, ICAO: formerly TRPM
For Kochi / Cochin the postal function has KOC (1998) and all other functions have COK (2003).
IN KOC Kochi Kochi AI ----5--- 9805 IN COK Cochin Cochin KL AA 1234-6-- 0307 0958N 07614E
Release history
| Issue | Date[4] | Entries | Changes | Notes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | | | + | X | Total | ||||
| 2009-1[5] | 2009-10-?? | 71,665 | 153 | 753 | 13,271 | 8 | 13,279 | |
| 2007[6] | 2008-03-25 | 58,875 | 153 | 753 | 4,327 | 24 | 5,257 | |
| 2006-2[7] | 2007-04-30 | 54,705 | 15 | 79 | 6,400 | 157 | 6,651 | |
| 2006-1[8] | 2006-06-09 | 48,553 | 43 | 42 | 3,110 | 11 | 3,206 | |
| 2005-2[9] | 2005 | 50,000 | 55 | 178 | 929 | 8 | 1,170 | Based on 2006-1, entries should be 45,451 |
| 2005-1[10] | 2005-02-28 | 50,000 | 46 | 196 | 2,291 | 16 | 2,549 | Based on 2006-1, entries should be 44,538 |
| 2004-2[11] | 2004-07-27 | 50,000 | 26 | 87 | 1,707 | 5 | 1,825 | Based on 2006-1, entries should be 42,252 |
| 2004-1[12] | 2004-02-18 | 47,725 | 208 | 694 | 1,958 | 167 | 3,027 | Based on 2006-1, entries should be 40,712 |
| 2003-2[13] | 2003 | 40,000 | 283 | 1,099 | 2,402 | 324 | 4,108 | Based on 2006-1, entries should be 39,078 |
| 2003-1[14] | 2003 | 38,000 | 2,779 | 523 | 707 | 2 | 3,911 | Based on 2006-1, entries should be 36,678 |
| 2002-2[15] | 2002 | 36,005 | 93 | 252 | 1,235 | 6 | 1,586 | Based on 2006-1, entries should be 35,977 |
| 2002-1[16] | 2002 | 35,460 | 100 | 597 | 2,503 | 24 | 3,224 | Based on 2006-1, entries should be 34,766 |
- Notes
- # Change in location (spelling or other)
- | Other changes
- + Additions to the issue
- X Entries marked for deletion in the next issue
See also
References
- ^ UN/LOCODE (United Nations Code for Trade and Transport Locations), Issue 2007 (2008-03-??).
- ^ a b "Secretariat Note to the users of UN/LOCODE 2006-2" (PDF). United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. 2007-04-30.
- ^ UN/LOCODE (United Nations Code for Trade and Transport Locations), Issue 2006-2 (2007-04-30).
- ^ "News Archives (2004-2007)". UN/CEFACT, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe.
- ^ "Secretariat Note to the users of UN/LOCODE 2009" (PDF). United Nations Economic Commission for Europe.
- ^ "Secretariat Note to the users of UN/LOCODE 2007" (PDF). United Nations Economic Commission for Europe.
- ^ "Secretariat Note to the users of UN/LOCODE 2006-2" (PDF). United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. 2007-04-30.
- ^ "Secretariat Note to the users of UN/LOCODE 2006-1" (PDF). United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. 2006-06-09.
- ^ "Secretariat Note to the users of UN/LOCODE 2005-2" (PDF). United Nations Economic Commission for Europe.
- ^ "Secretariat Note to the users of UN/LOCODE 2005-1" (PDF). United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. 2005-02-28.
- ^ "Secretariat Note to the users of UN/LOCODE 2004-2" (PDF). United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. 2004-07-27.
- ^ "Secretariat Note to the users of UN/LOCODE 2004-1" (PDF). United Nations Economic Commission for Europe. 2004-02-18.
- ^ "Secretariat Note to the users of UN/LOCODE 2003-2" (PDF). United Nations Economic Commission for Europe.
- ^ "Secretariat Note to the users of UN/LOCODE 2003-1" (PDF). United Nations Economic Commission for Europe.
- ^ "Secretariat Note to the users of UN/LOCODE 2002-2" (PDF). United Nations Economic Commission for Europe.
- ^ "Secretariat Note to the users of UN/LOCODE 2002-1" (PDF). United Nations Economic Commission for Europe.
External links
- UN/LOCODE , United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNCEC)
- Location Code list *
- Country Codes *
- Subdivision Codes *
- unlocode.hmap.info
- UN/LOCODE Manual - Part 3: Support Codes