Country domains: a comprehensive ccTLD list

Every internet address, or domain, has a domain ending, also known as a top-level domain. Country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) are used to indicate the site’s relation to a specific country or region (i.e. .uk for the United Kingdom or .eu for the European Union) and are therefore referred to as country code TLDs.

ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) is the company that regulates the allocation of all ccTLDs. Meanwhile an NIC (Network Information Centre, also known as the Domain Name Registry) is the body responsible for the management and registration of all regional domain extensions in a country. In total there are now more than 200 ccTLDs, all of which can be found in the top-level domain list below.

Characteristics of ccTLDs

Country-specific domain extensions generally indicate the region or language that the website’s content is relevant for. Furthermore, ccTLDs always include two letters of the Latin alphabet. The only exceptions to this rule are the countries with IDN-ccTLDs (internationalised country code top-level domains). In addition to the standard ccTLD, these countries have one or more variants of the same ccTLD in a language that doesn’t use the Latin alphabet. An example of a country with several variations of the same ccTLD is Sri Lanka; as well as the country code, .lk, Sri Lanka also uses the TLDs, .ලංකා and .இலங்கை, which refer to the country in Sinhalese and Tamil, respectively.

Alternative uses for ccTLDs

Generic top-level domains provide the counterpart to ccTLDs. These don’t have a regional domain extension, but rather refer to a specific theme (such as .com for commercial/business enterprise or .org for an organisation) and can include more than two letters. However, some ccTLDs are repurposed and, like gTLDs, can be used to indicate particular types of websites or the genre of content or products. Wordplay with certain country codes is also quite common. Examples of this include:

FORA.tv: this video hosting platform and live streaming channel uses the Tuvaluan ccTLD to offer users all kinds of video uploading, editing, and streaming services. The .tv domain extension is particularly popular in the area of television, film, and video streaming sites (further examples include ustream.tv and green.tv).

Last.fm: this is the web address of a UK-based music streaming service, which uses the county code of the Federated States of Micronesia, .fm. As the abbreviation also stands for ‘frequency modulation’, it shares a connection with FM radio, and therefore enjoys popularity among websites that are connected to radio shows, music, and podcasts (further examples include the internet radio platform di.fm and the music website, libre.fm).

CanIStream.It: CanIStream.It is an online platform that provides links to on demand video services. By using the Italian ccTLD, the domain spells out exactly what service the website provides.

Meet.me: this is the most expensive Montenegrin domain ever sold (for $450,000). MeetMe is the name of a US-based social network that was able to express its brand name fully in the domain name with the help of Montenegro’s ccTLD.

The .tk domain ending is a special case when it comes to country domains. Over 30 million websites use this ccTLD, even though the island state of Tokelau, which officially presides over this domain extension, has less than 2 million inhabitants. The mass registration of .tk websites can be put down to the fact that in the past, it was completely free of charge to secure an internet address with this ccTLD. Even now, website owners with a .tk TLD can run their sites without paying a penny for the first 12 months after registering.

Country code top-level domain list

The following domain extensions list includes every country domain in existence. With this table, you can not only discover which country or area the domain extensions belong to, but also whether the respective ccTLD is available with DNSSEC. Websites can use DNSSEC internet standards in order to protect the domain name system from manipulation, which includes, for example, phishing websites, which can request sensitive data using fake webpages.

The column on the right indicates whether a web address registered under the respective ccTLD can also be allocated an internationalised domain name (IDN). As mentioned above, these internationalized domain names can use characters from the Latin alphabet, including those with accents, in addition to characters from other alphabets. These characters are located in the second-level domain (i.e. the name of the website before the country code top-level domain). One example of this is the Canadian weather website, métro.ca, which includes an accented letter.

Top-level domains that have an IDN can be accessed using both Latin characters as well as characters from their respective alphabet. However, this doesn’t mean that the corresponding top-level domain is also offered as an IDN ccTLD at the same time – as is the case with the aforementioned example of Sri Lanka. A good example of this is Germany’s .de domain extension; although there is no alternative for the .de country code, German website owners can use many special characters, including three vowels with umlauts (ä, ö, ü), the ‘ß’ character, as well as further characters that contain accents (à, á, â, ã etc.). Since the German language is based on the Latin alphabet and can be optimally expressed with a ccTLD (unlike Sri Lanka), it’s also not necessary.

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