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There are only four countries with a single-digit country code. The rest of the countries have two- or three-digit country codes.
For instance, India’s country code is +91. But what do these codes mean, and how are they decided? Let’s take a look.
In the 1960s, the world was divided into phone regions, and every region had its own number, like 1 for North America, 3 and 4 for Europe.
Single-digit codes in regions were assigned to the important countries for top-priority communication by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
For other countries in the region, the code started from the regional code, and then they were assigned unique numbers. Like +33 is the code for France.
This method was used to ensure that no number was longer than 11 digits to minimise confusion. Also, the ‘+’ is a global standard used to call out of your country.
Heavily populated countries and countries with high influence were assigned shorter and simpler codes to reduce dialing time.
As 9 was assigned to many parts of Asia and the Middle East, India’s code began with 9 and was then assigned 1 as its unique number, making India’s code +91.
The US and Canada share the code +1, while Russia and Kazakhstan (temporarily) have the code +7.
Some codes are reserved for special uses, like +800 is for international toll-free numbers. Additionally, +888 was previously reserved for disaster relief services.
Since the 1960s, many codes have been changed as and when needed to accommodate new countries or dissolutions, and even technological advancements.
Thanks for reading!
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