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Country calling code lookup

Search by code or by country. You get the dialing code, the exit prefix used there, the trunk digit to drop, the local time zone, and a worked example.

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Reviewed by Sujan ThapaliyaLast updated

How do country calling codes work?

A country calling code is the prefix that identifies a country in the international numbering plan defined by ITU-T E.164. It is written with a leading plus: +44 for the United Kingdom, +81 for Japan, and dialed after your own country’s exit code, or directly after a + on any mobile. Codes are one to three digits and are read unambiguously from the left.
How a country calling code sits inside a full international number under ITU-T E.164: the code comes first, directly after the plus sign, followed by the national destination code and the subscriber number. The diagram also shows why the national way of writing a number, with a trunk zero and spacing, is not the form to store.
Every tool here reads and writes the same structure: country code, national destination code, subscriber number.

Step by step

How to use the country code lookup

  1. 1

    Search by code or by country

    Type a calling code without the plus (44, 91, 234) or a country name. Partial matches work, so "United" narrows to the United Kingdom, the United States, and the UAE.
  2. 2

    Read the exit code and trunk digit

    The result gives you three things the code alone does not: the exit code used when calling out of that country, the trunk digit to drop from the national number, and the local time zone so you do not call at 3am.
  3. 3

    Compose the full number

    Put it together as your exit code, then the country code, then the national number with its trunk digit removed. On a mobile, type + instead of the exit code and it works from anywhere.

How it works

Reading a country code correctly

Country codes are a prefix-free code, which is a precise mathematical property: no valid code is the beginning of another valid code. That is why +1, +44, and +234 can all coexist without ambiguity: nothing else starts with 1, and nothing that starts with 44 is a different country.

The first digit encodes a rough world zone. 1 is North America, 2 is Africa, 3 and 4 are Europe, 5 is South America, 6 is Oceania and South-East Asia, 7 is Russia and Kazakhstan, 8 is East Asia, and 9 is South and West Asia.

Two codes cover more than one country: +1 spans the United States, Canada, and about twenty Caribbean territories, and +7 covers Russia and Kazakhstan. In both cases the digits immediately after the code identify the specific country.

Frequently asked questions

How do I find out which country a phone number is from?
Read the digits after the plus sign. Country codes are one to three digits, and they are unambiguous when read from the left: +1 is North America, +44 the UK, +234 Nigeria. Search the code above to confirm, and note that +1 and +7 each cover more than one country.
Why do the United States and Canada share +1?
They are both inside the North American Numbering Plan, along with about twenty Caribbean territories. Within +1 the area code identifies the country: 416 is Toronto, 876 is Jamaica, 787 is Puerto Rico. That is why a +1 call can be domestic or international depending on the three digits after the 1.
What is the difference between a country code and an exit code?
The country code identifies where the call is going and never changes. The exit code is what you dial to leave your own country and depends on where you are: 011 from the US, 00 across most of Europe and Asia, 0011 from Australia. On a mobile, + replaces the exit code entirely.
Do I dial the country code for a call inside the same country?
Not normally; you dial the national format instead. The exception is +1, where domestic long distance is dialed as 1 + area code, which happens to be the country code doing double duty.

Sources

  1. ITU-T Recommendation E.164 — The international public telecommunication numbering plan — International Telecommunication UnionThe international number format, the 15-digit maximum, and how country codes and national numbers compose.
  2. ITU-T International Numbering Resources — International Telecommunication UnionThe assignment of country calling codes and the published national numbering plans they belong to.

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