Check if a country entered is one of the countries of the world

Question

Is there an automated way to check if a country name entered is one of the countries of the world in python (i.e., is there an automated way to get a list of all the countries of the world?)

Answer 1

You can use pycountry to get a list of all the countries:

pip install pycountry 

Or you can use this dictionary:

Country = [
    ('US', 'United States'),
    ('AF', 'Afghanistan'),
    ('AL', 'Albania'),
    ('DZ', 'Algeria'),
    ('AS', 'American Samoa'),
    ('AD', 'Andorra'),
    ('AO', 'Angola'),
    ('AI', 'Anguilla'),
    ('AQ', 'Antarctica'),
    ('AG', 'Antigua And Barbuda'),
    ('AR', 'Argentina'),
    ('AM', 'Armenia'),
    ('AW', 'Aruba'),
    ('AU', 'Australia'),
    ('AT', 'Austria'),
    ('AZ', 'Azerbaijan'),
    ('BS', 'Bahamas'),
    ('BH', 'Bahrain'),
    ('BD', 'Bangladesh'),
    ('BB', 'Barbados'),
    ('BY', 'Belarus'),
    ('BE', 'Belgium'),
    ('BZ', 'Belize'),
    ('BJ', 'Benin'),
    ('BM', 'Bermuda'),
    ('BT', 'Bhutan'),
    ('BO', 'Bolivia'),
    ('BA', 'Bosnia And Herzegowina'),
    ('BW', 'Botswana'),
    ('BV', 'Bouvet Island'),
    ('BR', 'Brazil'),
    ('BN', 'Brunei Darussalam'),
    ('BG', 'Bulgaria'),
    ('BF', 'Burkina Faso'),
    ('BI', 'Burundi'),
    ('KH', 'Cambodia'),
    ('CM', 'Cameroon'),
    ('CA', 'Canada'),
    ('CV', 'Cape Verde'),
    ('KY', 'Cayman Islands'),
    ('CF', 'Central African Rep'),
    ('TD', 'Chad'),
    ('CL', 'Chile'),
    ('CN', 'China'),
    ('CX', 'Christmas Island'),
    ('CC', 'Cocos Islands'),
    ('CO', 'Colombia'),
    ('KM', 'Comoros'),
    ('CG', 'Congo'),
    ('CK', 'Cook Islands'),
    ('CR', 'Costa Rica'),
    ('CI', 'Cote D`ivoire'),
    ('HR', 'Croatia'),
    ('CU', 'Cuba'),
    ('CY', 'Cyprus'),
    ('CZ', 'Czech Republic'),
    ('DK', 'Denmark'),
    ('DJ', 'Djibouti'),
    ('DM', 'Dominica'),
    ('DO', 'Dominican Republic'),
    ('TP', 'East Timor'),
    ('EC', 'Ecuador'),
    ('EG', 'Egypt'),
    ('SV', 'El Salvador'),
    ('GQ', 'Equatorial Guinea'),
    ('ER', 'Eritrea'),
    ('EE', 'Estonia'),
    ('ET', 'Ethiopia'),
    ('FK', 'Falkland Islands (Malvinas)'),
    ('FO', 'Faroe Islands'),
    ('FJ', 'Fiji'),
    ('FI', 'Finland'),
    ('FR', 'France'),
    ('GF', 'French Guiana'),
    ('PF', 'French Polynesia'),
    ('TF', 'French S. Territories'),
    ('GA', 'Gabon'),
    ('GM', 'Gambia'),
    ('GE', 'Georgia'),
    ('DE', 'Germany'),
    ('GH', 'Ghana'),
    ('GI', 'Gibraltar'),
    ('GR', 'Greece'),
    ('GL', 'Greenland'),
    ('GD', 'Grenada'),
    ('GP', 'Guadeloupe'),
    ('GU', 'Guam'),
    ('GT', 'Guatemala'),
    ('GN', 'Guinea'),
    ('GW', 'Guinea-bissau'),
    ('GY', 'Guyana'),
    ('HT', 'Haiti'),
    ('HN', 'Honduras'),
    ('HK', 'Hong Kong'),
    ('HU', 'Hungary'),
    ('IS', 'Iceland'),
    ('IN', 'India'),
    ('ID', 'Indonesia'),
    ('IR', 'Iran'),
    ('IQ', 'Iraq'),
    ('IE', 'Ireland'),
    ('IL', 'Israel'),
    ('IT', 'Italy'),
    ('JM', 'Jamaica'),
    ('JP', 'Japan'),
    ('JO', 'Jordan'),
    ('KZ', 'Kazakhstan'),
    ('KE', 'Kenya'),
    ('KI', 'Kiribati'),
    ('KP', 'Korea (North)'),
    ('KR', 'Korea (South)'),
    ('KW', 'Kuwait'),
    ('KG', 'Kyrgyzstan'),
    ('LA', 'Laos'),
    ('LV', 'Latvia'),
    ('LB', 'Lebanon'),
    ('LS', 'Lesotho'),
    ('LR', 'Liberia'),
    ('LY', 'Libya'),
    ('LI', 'Liechtenstein'),
    ('LT', 'Lithuania'),
    ('LU', 'Luxembourg'),
    ('MO', 'Macau'),
    ('MK', 'Macedonia'),
    ('MG', 'Madagascar'),
    ('MW', 'Malawi'),
    ('MY', 'Malaysia'),
    ('MV', 'Maldives'),
    ('ML', 'Mali'),
    ('MT', 'Malta'),
    ('MH', 'Marshall Islands'),
    ('MQ', 'Martinique'),
    ('MR', 'Mauritania'),
    ('MU', 'Mauritius'),
    ('YT', 'Mayotte'),
    ('MX', 'Mexico'),
    ('FM', 'Micronesia'),
    ('MD', 'Moldova'),
    ('MC', 'Monaco'),
    ('MN', 'Mongolia'),
    ('MS', 'Montserrat'),
    ('MA', 'Morocco'),
    ('MZ', 'Mozambique'),
    ('MM', 'Myanmar'),
    ('NA', 'Namibia'),
    ('NR', 'Nauru'),
    ('NP', 'Nepal'),
    ('NL', 'Netherlands'),
    ('AN', 'Netherlands Antilles'),
    ('NC', 'New Caledonia'),
    ('NZ', 'New Zealand'),
    ('NI', 'Nicaragua'),
    ('NE', 'Niger'),
    ('NG', 'Nigeria'),
    ('NU', 'Niue'),
    ('NF', 'Norfolk Island'),
    ('MP', 'Northern Mariana Islands'),
    ('NO', 'Norway'),
    ('OM', 'Oman'),
    ('PK', 'Pakistan'),
    ('PW', 'Palau'),
    ('PA', 'Panama'),
    ('PG', 'Papua New Guinea'),
    ('PY', 'Paraguay'),
    ('PE', 'Peru'),
    ('PH', 'Philippines'),
    ('PN', 'Pitcairn'),
    ('PL', 'Poland'),
    ('PT', 'Portugal'),
    ('PR', 'Puerto Rico'),
    ('QA', 'Qatar'),
    ('RE', 'Reunion'),
    ('RO', 'Romania'),
    ('RU', 'Russian Federation'),
    ('RW', 'Rwanda'),
    ('KN', 'Saint Kitts And Nevis'),
    ('LC', 'Saint Lucia'),
    ('VC', 'St Vincent/Grenadines'),
    ('WS', 'Samoa'),
    ('SM', 'San Marino'),
    ('ST', 'Sao Tome'),
    ('SA', 'Saudi Arabia'),
    ('SN', 'Senegal'),
    ('SC', 'Seychelles'),
    ('SL', 'Sierra Leone'),
    ('SG', 'Singapore'),
    ('SK', 'Slovakia'),
    ('SI', 'Slovenia'),
    ('SB', 'Solomon Islands'),
    ('SO', 'Somalia'),
    ('ZA', 'South Africa'),
    ('ES', 'Spain'),
    ('LK', 'Sri Lanka'),
    ('SH', 'St. Helena'),
    ('PM', 'St.Pierre'),
    ('SD', 'Sudan'),
    ('SR', 'Suriname'),
    ('SZ', 'Swaziland'),
    ('SE', 'Sweden'),
    ('CH', 'Switzerland'),
    ('SY', 'Syrian Arab Republic'),
    ('TW', 'Taiwan'),
    ('TJ', 'Tajikistan'),
    ('TZ', 'Tanzania'),
    ('TH', 'Thailand'),
    ('TG', 'Togo'),
    ('TK', 'Tokelau'),
    ('TO', 'Tonga'),
    ('TT', 'Trinidad And Tobago'),
    ('TN', 'Tunisia'),
    ('TR', 'Turkey'),
    ('TM', 'Turkmenistan'),
    ('TV', 'Tuvalu'),
    ('UG', 'Uganda'),
    ('UA', 'Ukraine'),
    ('AE', 'United Arab Emirates'),
    ('UK', 'United Kingdom'),
    ('UY', 'Uruguay'),
    ('UZ', 'Uzbekistan'),
    ('VU', 'Vanuatu'),
    ('VA', 'Vatican City State'),
    ('VE', 'Venezuela'),
    ('VN', 'Viet Nam'),
    ('VG', 'Virgin Islands (British)'),
    ('VI', 'Virgin Islands (U.S.)'),
    ('EH', 'Western Sahara'),
    ('YE', 'Yemen'),
    ('YU', 'Yugoslavia'),
    ('ZR', 'Zaire'),
    ('ZM', 'Zambia'),
    ('ZW', 'Zimbabwe')
]

Update 2021: The module has been updated including shortcomings mentioned by @JurajBezručka

Answer 2

I know this has been asked 8 months ago, but here is a pretty good solution in case you are coming from Google (just like me).

You can use the ISO standard library located here: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/iso3166/

This piece of code is taken from that link in case you get a 404 Error some time in the future:

Installation:

pip install iso3166

Country Details:

>>> from iso3166 import countries
>>> countries.get('us')
Country(name=u'United States', alpha2='US', alpha3='USA', numeric='840')
>>> countries.get('ala')
Country(name=u'\xc5land Islands', alpha2='AX', alpha3='ALA', numeric='248')
>>> countries.get(8)
Country(name=u'Albania', alpha2='AL', alpha3='ALB', numeric='008')

Countries List:

>>> from iso3166 import countries
>>> for c in countries:
>>>       print(c)
Country(name=u'Afghanistan', alpha2='AF', alpha3='AFG', numeric='004')
Country(name=u'\xc5land Islands', alpha2='AX', alpha3='ALA', numeric='248')
Country(name=u'Albania', alpha2='AL', alpha3='ALB', numeric='008')
Country(name=u'Algeria', alpha2='DZ', alpha3='DZA', numeric='012')
...

This package is compliant in case you want to follow the standardization proposed by ISO. According to Wikipedia:

ISO 3166 is a standard published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) that defines codes for the names of countries, dependent territories, special areas of geographical interest, and their principal subdivisions (e.g., provinces or states). The official name of the standard is Codes for the representation of names of countries and their subdivisions.

Hence, I strongly recommend using this library in all your apps in case you are working with Countries.

Hope this piece of data is useful for the community!