M.49 is the United Nations Standard Country or Area Codes for Statistical Use. It assigns a 3-digit numeric code to the world, each region, sub-region, and individual country for consistent statistical reporting.

How does M.49 relate to ISO 3166?

For individual countries, the M.49 code is identical to the ISO 3166-1 numeric code, so the United States is 840 in both. M.49 adds extra codes for groupings like regions and sub-regions that ISO 3166 does not cover.

Why are the codes three digits with leading zeros?

M.49 codes are always written as three digits, padding with leading zeros where needed, for example 050 for Bangladesh and 001 for World. Keeping the fixed width avoids sorting and parsing errors in datasets.

What is the difference between a region and a sub-region?

Regions are the top level such as Africa (002) or Europe (150). Sub-regions divide them, such as Northern Europe (154). Some areas also have an intermediate region layer, like Western Africa (011) under Sub-Saharan Africa.

It underpins UN statistical databases, the SDG indicators framework, and many international datasets. Developers use it to aggregate country data into consistent regional groupings without ambiguity.

UN M.49 Region Code Lookup

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UN M.49 region code lookup

The UN M.49 standard assigns a 3-digit numeric code to every country plus a tree of regions and sub-regions used to aggregate global statistics. Where ISO 3166 stops at the country level, M.49 adds codes for groupings like Europe (150), Sub-Saharan Africa (202), and the whole World (001). This tool lets you search the codes and see how they nest.

How it works

M.49 organises the planet into a hierarchy. At the top sits World (001). Below it are continental regions — Africa (002), Americas (019), Asia (142), Europe (150), and Oceania (009). Each region splits into sub-regions such as Western Europe (155), and some carry an intermediate region layer like Western Africa (011).

Individual country codes reuse the ISO 3166-1 numeric values exactly, so the United Kingdom is 826 and Japan is 392 in both systems. Every code is written as three digits with leading zeros (050, not 50) so that fixed-width parsing and alphabetical sorting behave predictably.

Tips and notes

Always preserve the leading zeros when storing M.49 codes as strings; treating them as integers drops the zero and breaks joins.
The grouping codes (regions, sub-regions) have no ISO 3166 equivalent — they exist only in M.49, which is precisely why it is useful for aggregation.
The hierarchy is a strict tree: every country rolls up through exactly one sub-region or intermediate region to a region and finally to World.