A country code top-level domain (ccTLD) is an internet top-level domain generally used or reserved for a country, sovereign state, or dependent territory identified with a country code. All ASCII ccTLD identifiers are two letters long, and all two-letter top-level domains are ccTLDs.
Country code extension applications began in 1985. The registered country code extensions in that year included .il (Israel), .uk (United Kingdom) and .us (United States). The registered country code extensions in 1986 included .au (Australia), .de (Germany), .fi (Finland), .fr (France), .is (Iceland), .jp (Japan), .kr (South Korea), .nl (Netherlands) and .se (Sweden). The registered country code extensions in 1987 included .ar (Argentina), .ca (Canada), .ch (Switzerland), .cl (Chile), .dk (Denmark), .my (Malaysia), .nz (New Zealand) and .no (Norway). The registered country code extensions in 1988 included .at (Austria), .be (Belgium), .es (Spain), .ie (Ireland), .it (Italy), .pt (Portugal), .sg (Singapore) and .th (Thailand). The registered country code extensions in 1989 included .br (Brazil), .in (India), .mx (Mexico) and .tw (Taiwan). In the 1990s, .ae (United Arab Emirates), .cn (People's Republic of China), .cz (Czech Republic), .hk (Hong Kong), .pl (Poland), .ru (Russian Federation), .tr (Turkey) and .za (South Africa) were first registered.
In 2018, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) began implementing internationalized country code top-level domains, consisting of language-native characters when displayed in an end-user application. Creation and delegation of ccTLDs is described in RFC 1591, corresponding to ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country codes. While gTLDs have to obey international regulations, ccTLDs are subjected to requirements that are determined by each country's domain name regulation corporation. With over 150 million domain name registrations in 2020, ccTLDs make up about 40% of the total domain name industry.
By the late 2010s, ccTLDs were widely used across the web, including on sites built with hosted website builders and domain services such as Wix, IONOS and Bluehost, which support registering or connecting a range of domain extensions, including country-code domains.
There are over 300 delegated ccTLDs. The .cn, .tk, .de, .uk, .nl and .ru ccTLDs contain the highest number of domains. The top ten ccTLDs account for more than five-eighths of registered ccTLD domains. There were about 153 million ccTLD domains registered at the end of March 2022.
Delegation and management IANA is responsible for determining an appropriate trustee for each ccTLD. Administration and control are then delegated to that trustee, which is responsible for the policies and operation of the domain. The current delegation can be determined from IANA's list of ccTLDs. Individual ccTLDs may have varying requirements and fees for registering subdomains. There may be a local-presence requirement (for instance, citizenship or other connection to the ccTLD), as, for example, the United States (us), Japanese (jp), Canadian (ca), French (fr) and German (de) domains, or registration may be open.
Lists
As of 20 May 2017, there were 255 country-code top-level domains, purely in the Latin alphabet, using two-character codes. The number was 316 , with the addition of internationalized domains.
Latin Character ccTLDs
+Overview of Latin-character country-code TLDsscope="col" Entity Explanationscope="col" Notes Registry IDN DNSSEC SLD IPv6 .ac (United Kingdom) Ascension Island Commonly used for academic websites, such as universities. However, is not to be confused with the official academic domains used by several countries such as the United Kingdom (.ac.uk), India (.ac.in) or Indonesia (.ac.id). Also used in the accounting, consulting, and air-conditioning industries. Ascension Island Network Information Centre (run by Internet Computer Bureau) .ad Andorra Local trademark, trade name or citizenship required. TLD commonly used for advertisement based websites. Nic.ad .ae UAE1990+.aeDA .af Afghan .ag Antigua Also unofficially used by German businesses (where AG is an abbreviation of Aktiengesellschaft). .ai (United Kingdom) Anguilla Also unofficially used by tech companies specializing in AI (Artificial Intelligence). .al Albania Citizenship no longer required. .am Armenia Also unofficially used by AM radio stations, podcasts or related business. .an (Kingdom of the Netherlands) Nederlandse Antillen Restricted to registered Dutch companies, organisations and citizens .ao Angola .aq Antarctique Defined by the Antarctic Treaty as everything south of latitude 60°S. AQ domain names are available to government organizations who are signatories to the Antarctic Treaty and to other registrants who have a physical presence in Antarctica. Domain names can be registered and renewed free of charge. .ar Argentina1987 nic.ar .as (United States)American Samoa In some countries, like Norway and Denmark, "AS" or "A/S" is used as an abbreviation for stock-based or limited companies. Such companies will often make use of the domain. Also unofficially used by the Principality of Asturias, Spain. Also used for the short URLs of McDonald's in Australia (e.g. food service feedback form "macc.as/feedback"), after the colloquial name "Maccas" used in the region. .at Austria1988Nic.at .au Australia1986 Restrictions apply. In general, registrants must have an "Australian presence", and can be registered anywhere between 1 and 5 years. Includes Ashmore and Cartier Islands and Coral Sea Islands. Direct second-level domain registration (marketed as ".au Direct") has been made available commencing 24 March 2022. auDA (*From 24 Mar 2022) .aw (Kingdom of the Netherlands) Aruba, West Indies Restricted to registered Aruban companies, organisations and citizens .ax (Finland) and already allocated .az Azərbaycan Only for Residents. Has no WHOIS-Server. .ba Bosnia and Herzegovina University of Sarajevo - University tele-informatic Centre .bb Barbados .bd Bangladesh For individuals, registrant must have a valid NID. For companies, registrant must have company or trademark registered in Bangladesh. .be Belgium1988 Used for YouTube-related domains. Also unofficially used in the Canton of Bern, Switzerland. DNS Belgium .bf Burkina Faso .bg Bulgaria See also .бг ( in Cyrillic) for IDN ccTLD .bh Bahrain .bi Burundi .bj , , and already allocated .bl (France) St. Barthélemy .bm (United Kingdom) Bermuda Local corporate registration required .bn Brunei .bo Bolivia .bq (, , and ) and already allocated Brasil1989 Restricted. Registration is done under several categories (i.e.: for higher education institutions, for government agencies, etc.). .bs Bahamas .bt Bhutan Must have local presence in Bhutan, and valid trade license .bu Burma .bv Bouvet1987 Norid .bw Botswana May also be used for the Province of Walloon Brabant, Wallonia, Belgium .by Byelorussia Also unofficially used to denote Bayern (Bavaria), Germany .bz Belize Also unofficially used in the province of Bozen (or South Tyrol, see .st) .ca Canada1987 Subject to Canadian Presence Requirements. Also unofficially used by some websites in the U.S. state of California. CIRA .cc Cocos Islands Australian territory: not to be confused with Cocos Island in Guam. Currently marketed as global domain, registration allowed worldwide, local presence not required; the domain is currently operated by eNIC, a VeriSign company. .cd Congo, Democratic Republic Also unofficially used for Compact disc-related domains. .cf Central Africa Also used as a free domain service to the public. Freenom (for free domains) .cg Congo .ch Confoederatio Helvetica1987 SWITCH .ci Côte d'Ivoire .ck Cook Islands .cl Chile1987 NIC Chile .cm Cameroon A local entity / company in Cameroon is required to register a domain name. .cn China1990+ A local company in China is required to register a domain name, or for personal registrations a valid Resident Identity Card. See ICP license for more information regarding registrations. Hong Kong and Macau also maintain TLDs.