UN/LOCODE Decoder

Formula, assumptions, limits

UN/LOCODE, the United Nations Code for Trade and Transport Locations, is a five-character identifier maintained by UNECE under Recommendation 16. First published in 1981, it now covers more than 116,000 locations across 271 countries and territories.

Code structure

SGSIN = SG (ISO 3166-1 country) + SIN (location).
Each entry carries:



Function code: eight-position string describing what facilities exist at the location: position 1 = port, 2 = rail terminal, 3 = road terminal, 4 = airport, 5 = postal exchange, 6 = ICD/multimodal, 7 = fixed transport (oil rig, pipeline terminal), 8 = border crossing
Status: approval level (AA approved by national authority, AC by customs, AI adopted by international organisation, RL recognised location, RR rejected request)
Date: last status change in YYMM format
Coordinates: latitude/longitude in degrees and minutes
IATA: equivalent airport code where applicable
Subdivision: ISO 3166-2 region code within the country

Update cadence

UNECE issues two releases per year (typically June and December). This decoder syncs against UN/LOCODE
{{ databaseVersion }} and refreshes monthly via an automated workflow.

Maritime subset note

This decoder ships with the maritime subset of UN/LOCODE: entries flagged as port, ICD/multimodal, or
fixed transport. The full directory (every airport, road junction, postal exchange) is available at
unlocode.unece.org/directory.