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Emoji Flags for Dependent Regions

Unicode emoji flags rely on ISO 3166. Contemporary sovereign countries (and some other geographical entities) are encoded in ISO 3166-1 and, for some of them, their administrative subdivisions in ISO 3166-2. Unicode Emoji (UTS#51) describes two separate methods to encode flags Emoji Flag Sequences and Flag Emoji Tag Sequences: The first uses Regional Indicator Symbol Letters A through Z (U+1F1E6..1F1FF) for code elements from Part 1 of ISO 3166, the second so far uses Tag Latin Small Letters A through Z (U+E0061..E007A) and U+E007F with the Waving Black Flag U+1F3F4 as a common base. Only the former are of interest here.

For each region code in ISO 3166-1, a parameter named independent is specified. Either CLDR or UTS#51 should explicitly make support optional for those listed as independent=no, just like is already done for "deprecated" codes. This is especially relevant for emoji input methods that are used to select a single flag out of hundreds. I am proposing to keep the independent states as idStatus="regular" and split off the rest as territories with the new status "dependent".

Currently, UTS#51 just warns that some region sequences for territories may not have an official flag of their own. It might be wise to add territories and subdivisions in sub-menus like skin colors or genders in some implementations, but this UX detail is probably out of scope of this specification.

Current text in UTS#51 Annex B: Flags

  • The valid region sequences are specified by Unicode region subtags as defined in [CLDR], with idStatus="regular", "deprecated", or the "macroregion". However, for macroregions, only UN and EU are valid.
  • Deprecated region sequences should not be generated, but may be supported for backward compatibility.
  • Macroregion region sequences generally do not have official flags, with the exception of the UN and EU.

Some region sequences represent countries (as recognized by the United Nations, for example); others represent territories that are associated with a country. Such territories may have flags of their own, or may use the flag of the country with which they are associated. Depictions of images for flags may be subject to constraints by the administration of that region.

Caveats:

  • Although a pair of REGIONAL INDICATOR symbols is referred to as an emoji_flag_sequence, it really represents a specific region, not a specific flag for that region. The actual flag displayed for the pair may be different on different platforms, for example for territories which do not have an official flag. The displayed flag may change over time as regions change their flags and platforms update their software.
  • For some territories (especially those without separate official flags), the displayed flag may be the same as the flag for the country with which they are associated. For more about cases where characters have the same appearance, see UTR #36: Unicode Security Considerations [UTR36].

For additional information see the sub-section on Regional Indicator Symbols in Section 22.10 Enclosed and Square of [Unicode].

Current region.xml in CLDR

<supplementalData>
  <version number="$Revision$"/>
  <idValidity>
    <id type="region" idStatus="regular">
      <!--  256 items  -->
      AC~G AI AL~M AO AQ~U AW~X AZ BA~B BD~J BL~O BQ~T BV~W BY~Z CA CC~D CF~I CK~P CR CU~Z DE DG DJ~K DM DO DZ EA EC EE EG~H ER~T FI~K FM FO FR GA~B GD~I GL~N GP~U GW GY HK HM~N HR HT~U IC~E IL~O IQ~T JE JM JO~P KE KG~I KM~N KP KR KW KY~Z LA~C LI LK LR~V LY MA MC~H MK~Z NA NC NE~G NI NL NO~P NR NU NZ OM PA PE~H PK~N PR~T PW PY QA RE RO RS RU RW SA~E SG~O SR~T SV SX~Z TA TC~D TF~H TJ~O TR TT TV~W TZ UA UG UM US UY~Z VA VC VE VG VI VN VU WF WS XK YE YT ZA ZM ZW
    </id>
    <id type="region" idStatus="macroregion">
      <!--  34 items  -->
      001~3 005 009 011 013~5 017~9 021 029 030 034~5 039 053~4 057 061 142~3 145 150~1 154~5 419 EU EZ QO UN
    </id>
    <id type="region" idStatus="deprecated">
      <!--  12 items  -->
      AN BU CS DD FX NT QU SU TP YD YU ZR
    </id>
    <id type="region" idStatus="private_use">
      <!--  38 items  -->
      AA QM~N QP~T QV~Z XA~J XL~Z
    </id>
    <id type="region" idStatus="unknown">
      <!--  1 item  -->
      ZZ
    </id>
  </idValidity>
</supplementalData>

Dependent regions in ISO 3166-1

  • Full list (as Markdown or as tab-separated values)

    English Alpha-2 Alpha-3 Numeric
    Anguilla AI AIA 660
    Antarctica AQ ATA 010
    American Samoa AS ASM 016
    Aruba AW ABW 533
    Åland Islands AX ALA 248
    Saint Barthélemy BL BLM 652
    Bermuda BM BMU 060
    Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba BQ BES 535
    Bouvet Island BV BVT 074
    Cocos (Keeling) Islands CC CCK 166
    Cook Islands CK COK 184
    Curaçao CW CUW 531
    Christmas Island CX CXR 162
    Western Sahara EH ESH 732
    Falkland Islands (Malvinas) FK FLK 238
    Faroe Islands FO FRO 234
    French Guiana GF GUF 254
    Guernsey GG GGY 831
    Greenland GL GRL 304
    Guadeloupe GP GLP 312
    South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands GS SGS 239
    Guam GU GUM 316
    Hong Kong HK HKG 344
    Heard Island and McDonald Islands HM HMD 334
    Isle of Man IM IMN 833
    British Indian Ocean Territory IO IOT 086
    Jersey JE JEY 832
    Saint Martin MF MAF 663
    Macao MO MAC 446
    Northern Mariana Islands MP MNP 580
    Martinique MQ MTQ 474
    Montserrat MS MSR 500
    New Caledonia NC NCL 540
    Norfolk Island NF NFK 574
    Niue NU NIU 570
    French Polynesia PF PYF 258
    Saint Pierre and Miquelon PM SPM 666
    Pitcairn PN PCN 612
    Puerto Rico PR PRI 630
    Palestine PS PSE 275
    Réunion RE REU 638
    Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha SH SHN 654
    Svalbard and Jan Mayen SJ SJM 744
    Sint Maarten SX SXM 534
    Turks and Caicos Islands TC TCA 796
    French Southern Territories TF ATF 260
    Tokelau TK TKL 772
    Taiwan TW TWN 158
    United States Minor Outlying Islands UM UMI 581
    British Virgin Islands VG VGB 092
    US Virgin Islands VI VIR 850
    Wallis and Futuna WF WLF 876
    Mayotte YT MYT 175

Differences between ISO and CLDR

CLDR currently has 256 regular codes, but ISO has only 249 “officially assigned codes”. That’s because Unicode adds 6 codes that are exceptionally reserved by ISO 3166/MA and 1 private-use code (XK). The former group can safely be considered dependent as well.

English Alpha-2 Alpha-3 Numeric
Ascension Island AC — —
Clipperton Island CP — —
Diego Garcia DG — —
Ceuta, Melilla EA — —
Canary Islands IC — —
Tristan da Cunha TA — —
Kosovo XK — —

Proposed changes to region.xml

Replace <id type="region" idStatus="regular">...</id> by an equivalent of the following XML code:

<id type="region" idStatus="dependent">
  <!--  53 items  -->
  <!-- (AC) AI AQ AS AW AX BL BM BQ BV CC CK (CP) CW CX (DG) (EA) EH FK FO GF GG GL GP GS GU HK HM (IC) IM IO JE MF MO MP MQ MS NC NF NU PF PM PN PR PS RE SH SJ SX (TA) TC TF TK TW UM VG VI WF (XK) YT -->
  AC AI AQ AS AW AX BL~M BQ BV CC CK CP CW CX DG EA EH FK FO GF~G GL GP GS GU HK HM IC IM IO JE MF MO~Q MS NC NF NU PF PM~N PR~S RE SH SJ SX TA TC TF TK TW UM VG VI WF XK YT
</id>
<id type="region" idStatus="regular">
  <!-- 196 items  -->
  <!-- AD AE AF AG AL AM AO AR AT AU AZ BA BB BD BE BF BG BH BI BJ BN BO BR BS BT BW BY BZ CA CD CF CG CH CI CL CM CN CO CR CU CV CY CZ DE DJ DK DM DO DZ EC EE EG ER ES ET FI FJ FM FR GA GB GD GE GH GI GM GN GQ GR GT GW GY HN HR HT HU ID IE IL IN IQ IR IS IT JM JO JP KE KG KH KI KM KN KP KR KW KY KZ LA LB LC LI LK LR LS LT LU LV LY MA MC MD ME MG MH MK ML MM MN MR MT MU MV MW MX MY MZ NA NE NG NI NL NO NP NR NZ OM PA PE PG PH PK PL PT PW PY QA RO RS RU RW SA SB SC SD SE SG SI SK SL SM SN SO SR SS ST SV SY SZ TD TG TH TJ TL TM TN TO TR TT TV TZ UA UG US UY UZ VA VC VE VN VU WS YE ZA ZM ZW -->
  AD~G AL~M AO AR AT~U AZ BA~B BD~J BN~O BR~T BW BY~Z CA CD CF~I CL~O CR CU~V CY~Z DE DJ~K DM DO DZ EC EE EG ER~T FI FJ FM FR GA~B GD~E GH~I GM~N GQ~R GT GW GY HN HR HT~U ID IE IL IN IQ~T JM JO JP KE KG~I KM~N KP KR KW KY~Z LA~C LI LK LR~V LY MA MC~E MG~H MK~N MR MT~Z NA NE NG NI NL NO~P NR NZ OM PA PE PG~H PK~L PT PW PY QA RO RS RU RW SA~E SG SI SK~O SR~T SV SY~Z TD TG~H TJ TL~O TR TT TV TZ UA UG US UY~Z VA VC VE VN VU WS YE ZA ZM ZW
</id>

Proposed text for UTS#51 Annex B: Flags

  • The valid regionemoji flag sequences are specified by Unicode region subtags as defined in [CLDR], with idStatus="regular", "deprecated", "dependent", "unknown", or "macroregion". However, for macroregions, only UN and EU are valid.
  • Deprecated regionand dependent emoji flag sequences should not be generated, but may be supported for backward compatibility.
  • Macroregion regionemoji flag sequences generally do not have official flags, with the exception of the UN and EU.
  • The unknown emoji flag sequence should not be displayed with the same glyph as an invalid or unsupported emoji flag sequence or flag emoji tag sequence.

Some regionMost regular emoji flag sequences represent countries (as recognized by the United Nations, for example); othersmost dependent emoji flag sequences represent territories that are associated with a country. Such territories may have flags of their own, or may use the flag of the country with which they are associated. (…)

References