What is Country-code Top Level Domain (ccTLD)? ccTLD List for Countries

County-code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) is a custom domain extension for a specific country, region, or language. ccTLDs are a type of Top-level Domain. Country-code Top Level Domains are sold to the end-user by different Network Information Center (NIC) for specific countries, languages, and regions through the relevant domain registrar organizations.

ccTLD or Country-code Top-Level Domain indicates the relationship of a domain name to a particular country, region, or language. For the purchase of a Country Code Top Level Domain, residence permit, official institution documents or citizenship may be required for the relevant country, region, or language. ICANN or the Internet Corporation for Assigned Numbers and Names is the organization that operates, manages, and regulates the ccTLDs. The Network Information Center is the responsible institution for the specific Country Code Top Level Domain. In the world, there are more than 200 Country Code Top Level Domain. Internet Corporation for Assigned Numbers and Names also operates the “theme-based” Top Level Domains or Generic Top Level Domains (gTLD) such as “.com”, “.org”, or “.digital”.

Before proceeding more, you may want to read the related articles to Country Code Top Level Domains.

• What is a domain name?
• What is DNS Lookup?
• What is an IP Address?
• How to Perform DNS Reverse Lookup with Python?
• What is a Content Delivery Network (CDN)?

What are the Features of the Country-code Top-Level Domains?

The key features of the Country Code Top Level Domains (ccTLD) are listed below.

• ccTLD is unique for a region, language, or country.
• ccTLD is being operated by the ICANN.
• The specific ccTLD is managed by the related Network Information Center.
• ccTLD can be purchased if certain conditions for the related country, language, region are being met.
• All of the ccTLDs consist of two Latin Alphabet that represents the region, country, or the language.
• There are Internationalized Country Code Top Level Domains (IDN-ccTLD) as exceptions that have more than two letters. For instance, in Sri Lanka, there are “.lk” extension as ccTLD, but also “.ලංකා/.இலங்கை” IDN-ccTLD are being used for Sinhala and Tamil Languages.
• Generic Top Level Domains have specific variations for certain web sites such as “.io” for “software” and “.org” for “organizations”. Country Code Top Level Domains do not have a specific purpose, their main characteristic is being determined by the region, language, and country differences.

Country Code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) List for Countries

In the country-specific ccTLD list below, you can see which ccTLDs are available for which country. You can also see which ccTLDs are accessible via Domain Name Security Extensions (DNSSEC). DNSSEC is an important term for web site security, it is a part of the Domain Name Security System which protects the web site from phishing attacks and more. In the list, you will also see whether the ccTLD is being accessed via an Internationalized Domain Name or not. Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) can be used Latin Alphabet along with localized letters. An Internationalized Domain Name also can be used with only Latin Letters in case that the language is being used in the Latin Alphabet. For instance, the German Language is being written in Latin Alphabet, thus, “.de” ccTLD can be used with the Latin Alphabet based letters that are specific to Germany such as “à, á, â, ã”. It doesn’t mean that every IDN can be used with only the non-Latin Alphabet letters like in the Sri Lanka example.

ccTLD	Country / 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 (Inactive)	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 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 for the United Kingdom)	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

What are the Changes in the Country Code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs) in Time?

Since Country Code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) is specific to countries, languages, and regions, it is subject to changes due to political problems or government decisions. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Numbers and Names (ICANN) is mostly busy organizing new ones while cleaning up deleted or no longer active ccTLDs. These changes that ICANN has to make are difficult and time-consuming. For example, the Soviet Union (USSR) was destroyed in 1991. However, the extension “.su”, which belongs to the Soviet Union, is still alive today and it is possible to register a domain.

Below, you will see some of the ccTLD changes that happened in history.

The political state structure named Netherlands Antilles (Dutch Antilles) collapsed in 2010. Netherlands Antilles was made up of many islands in the Caribbean. People living on the islands could register domain names with the “.an” extension. After the dissolution in 2010, ICANN started using the “.bq” extension for “Caribbean Netherlands”. “.cw” was used for Curaçao, and “.sx” was used for Six Maarten. All these new extensions replaced “.an”.

Below you will see some of the ccTLD changes that happened over the course of history.

• The political state structure named Netherlands Antilles (Dutch Antilles) collapsed in 2010. Netherlands Antilles consisted of many islands in the Caribbean. People living on the islands could register domain names with the “.an” extension. After the dissolution in 2010, ICANN started using the “.bq” extension for “Caribbean Netherlands”. “.cw” was used for Curaçao, and “.sx” was used for Six Maarten. All these new extensions replaced “.an”.
• “.dd” ccTLD was being used for German Democratic Republic (GDR), this ccTLD has been used only for communication between two German Universities between East and West Germany.
• “.um” was being used for the islands without a high population in the Pacific Oceans. These islands were being governed by the Southern California University. After the University’s wish to relieve itself from the burden of the ccTLD, the ICANN removed the “.um” ccTLD.
• “.yu” was the ccTLD of the former Yugoslav Republic. After the dissolvation of the Yugoslav Republic, Serbia has started to use “.rs”, while Montenegro has started to use “.me” instead of the “.yu”.
• “.zr” was being used in the West Africa Country, Republic of Zaire. After they have changed the name of the country as the Democratic Republic of Congo, in 1997, the “.zr” has been replaced with the “.cd”. After four years, in 2001, the “.zr” has been deleted by the ICANN.
• “.eh” means the “Sáhara Español” that represents the Western Side of the Sahara. Morocco and Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic had a political conflict. Both of the political sides try to use the “.eh” as their default ccTLD after the conflict. At first, Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) assigned the “.eh” ccTLD extension to the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. After one year, in 2007 ICANN decided to remove the “.eh” from the usage. Since there is no agreement between two political sides, still, “.eh” stays as inactive.

Last Thoughts on Country Code Top Level Domains and Holistic SEO

Country Code Top Level Domains are important for regional, national and language-based segmentation in internet usage. Thanks to ccTLD, a user can easily understand the original state of a company or website, in which country it is serving or which country it is based in. In Google Search Console, if a domain name has a ccTLD, the country, language or region corresponding to that ccTLD will be automatically selected in the Regional Targeting section.

This shows that the domain name with the ccTLD in question can receive views, especially in that region, and users who search in that region can appear in that language. The use of ccTLDs can get a small boost from Search Engine Algorithms, in a regional sense, to varying degrees depending on the industry and content structure.

In addition, using a domain name with ccTLD can create a sense of reliability or “concreteness” to a certain extent, which may vary from industry to industry, as it requires the preparation of official documents. Any domain name opened with ccTLDs may sometimes be visible in queries in different regions if the content is useful or the IP Address is located in another country. This is the results of Search Engine’s internet browsing, profiling, segmentation, and interpretation stages based on “user benefit” or “technological infrastructure”.

Knowing about ccTLDs is important for many digital marketers and software developers, especially in the context of International SEO and Holistic SEO. Depending on the ccTLDs, a different Search Engine Results Page may occur in different countries, each country’s search habits, thinking styles, and Search Engine’s algorithms work somewhat differently. In this context, the ccTLD information is a guide for marketers and developers.

Our Country Code Top Level Domain guideline will be developed and maintained over time.

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Koray Tuğberk GÜBÜR

Owner and Founder at Holistic SEO & Digital

Koray Tuğberk GÜBÜR is the CEO and Founder of Holistic SEO & Digital where he provides SEO Consultancy, Web Development, Data Science, Web Design, and Search Engine Optimization services with strategic leadership for the agency’s SEO Client Projects. Koray Tuğberk GÜBÜR performs SEO A/B Tests regularly to understand the Google, Microsoft Bing, and Yandex like search engines’ algorithms, and internal agenda. Koray uses Data Science to understand the custom click curves and baby search engine algorithms’ decision trees. Tuğberk used many websites for writing different SEO Case Studies. He published more than 10 SEO Case Studies with 20+ websites to explain the search engines. Koray Tuğberk started his SEO Career in 2015 in the casino industry and moved into the white-hat SEO industry. Koray worked with more than 700 companies for their SEO Projects since 2015. Koray used SEO to improve the user experience, and conversion rate along with brand awareness of the online businesses from different verticals such as retail, e-commerce, affiliate, and b2b, or b2c websites. He enjoys examining websites, algorithms, and search engines.

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