countrycode() doesn't recognize Kosovo?

Question

I think I found a bug or rather a missing update in the package countrycode:

library(countrycode)
testData <- data.frame(country=c(rep("Germany",3),rep("Kosovo",3)))
testData$iso3 <- countrycode(testData$country, "country.name", "iso3c")

which is problematic not only for political reasons but also because international organizations such as the IMF or the BIS do include Kosovo in their datasets. Countrycode will produce NA's here.

What do I do with this information? The iso3c should be KSV I think.

EDIT: I contacted the package maintainer who replied that until Kosovo is recognized officially, he'd rather keep it this way.

Kosovo is not a universally recognised country and consequently is not part of the standards: http://unstats.un.org/unsd/tradekb/Knowledgebase/Country-Code and https://www.iso.org/obp/ui/#search — James, Apr 25 '16 at 10:40
but it shows up in universally recognized datasets which people are working with — Jakob, Apr 25 '16 at 13:14
@rbm No, you suggested contacting the package maintainer … I thought your implication was that the package had a bug. — Konrad Rudolph, May 12 '16 at 14:42
The original post ended with "What do I do with this information?" so I suggested he contacted the owner to discuss with Vincent. OP later edited the post (after he'd contacted the owner). — rbm, May 12 '16 at 14:45
I'll still keep it undeleted for google. Others might have the same problem and now we have an answer — Jakob, May 12 '16 at 14:47
I am the maintainer. Previous comment is correct. The ISO standard does not include a code for Kosovo. Therefore, it would be incorrect to include one in countrycode. I know that certain organizations create ad hoc codes, but those must be treated on an ad hoc basis by the analyst. A pain, I know... — Vincent, Jan 25 '17 at 00:51
Issues can be discussed on github: https://github.com/vincentarelbundock/countrycode — Vincent, Jan 25 '17 at 00:52

Konrad Rudolph · Accepted Answer · 2016-05-12T14:52:37.470

6

You requested ISO country codes, and ISO simply has no code assigned for Kosovo. FIPS has, though:

> countrycode('Kosovo', 'country.name', 'fips104')
[1] "KV"

If you want “KSV” as the result, you could use the World Bank code instead:

> countrycode('Kosovo', 'country.name', 'wb')
[1] "KSV"

edited May 12 '16 at 14:52

answered May 12 '16 at 14:39

Konrad Rudolph

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nice! thanks! I usually work in ISO codes thats why the problem arose. – Jakob May 12 '16 at 14:45

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 26 '18 at 04:12

If you want to convert to iso3c, but also convert Kosovo to KSV at the same time, you can use the countrycode parameter custom_match...

library(countrycode)

testData <- data.frame(country=c(rep("Germany",3),rep("Kosovo",3)))

countrycode(testData$country, "country.name", "iso3c", 
            custom_match = c(Kosovo = "KSV"))
#[1] "DEU" "DEU" "DEU" "KSV" "KSV" "KSV"

countrycode() doesn't recognize Kosovo?

2 Answers2