Why simplify country names?

The IMF World Economic Outlook uses formal country names like "Andorra, Principality of" or "Congo, Democratic Republic of the". While precise, these names add visual clutter that makes charts harder to read.

We use short, commonly recognized names to improve readability. This generally aligns with ISO 3166-1 short name conventions, with a few documented exceptions.

Standardization rules

  • Remove suffixes: "Republic of", "Kingdom of", "Islamic Republic of", etc.
  • Remove prefixes: "The" when placed after the name
  • Use common names: "South Korea" instead of "Korea, Republic of"
  • Simplify special regions: "Hong Kong" instead of full administrative designation
  • Normalize characters: Remove diacritics for consistency

Deviations from ISO 3166-1

In a few cases, we deviate from ISO 3166-1 short names for clarity or common usage:

Our name ISO 3166-1 Reason
South Korea Korea (the Republic of) More commonly used in English
Taiwan Taiwan (Province of China) Simplified, neutral designation
Cote d'Ivoire Côte d'Ivoire ASCII compatibility (no diacritics)
Congo-Brazzaville Congo (the) Distinguishes from the other Congo
Democratic Republic of Congo Congo (the Democratic Republic of the) Simplified, commonly used
Turkey Türkiye ASCII compatibility, historical usage

Complete list of changes

66 country names were modified from the original IMF data:

Original (IMF) Simplified
Afghanistan, Islamic Republic of→Afghanistan
Andorra, Principality of→Andorra
Armenia, Republic of→Armenia
Aruba, Kingdom of the Netherlands→Aruba
Azerbaijan, Republic of→Azerbaijan
Bahamas, The→Bahamas
Bahrain, Kingdom of→Bahrain
Belarus, Republic of→Belarus
Brunei Darussalam→Brunei
China, People's Republic of→China
Comoros, Union of the→Comoros
Congo, Democratic Republic of the→Democratic Republic of Congo
Congo, Republic of→Congo-Brazzaville
Côte d'Ivoire→Cote d'Ivoire
Croatia, Republic of→Croatia
Czech Republic→Czechia
Egypt, Arab Republic of→Egypt
Equatorial Guinea, Republic of→Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea, The State of→Eritrea
Estonia, Republic of→Estonia
Eswatini, Kingdom of→Eswatini
Ethiopia, The Federal Democratic Republic of→Ethiopia
Fiji, Republic of→Fiji
Gambia, The→Gambia
Hong Kong SAR, People's Republic of China→Hong Kong
Iran, Islamic Republic of→Iran
Kazakhstan, Republic of→Kazakhstan
Korea, Republic of→South Korea
Kosovo, Republic of→Kosovo
Kyrgyz Republic→Kyrgyzstan
Lao P.D.R.→Laos
Latvia, Republic of→Latvia
Lesotho, Kingdom of→Lesotho
Liechtenstein, Principality of→Liechtenstein
Lithuania, Republic of→Lithuania
Macao SAR, People's Republic of China→Macao
Madagascar, Republic of→Madagascar
Marshall Islands, Republic of the→Marshall Islands
Mauritania, Islamic Republic of→Mauritania
Micronesia, Federated States of→Micronesia
Moldova, Republic of→Moldova
Mozambique, Republic of→Mozambique
Nauru, Republic of→Nauru
Netherlands, The→Netherlands
North Macedonia, Republic of→North Macedonia
Palau, Republic of→Palau
Poland, Republic of→Poland
Russian Federation→Russia
San Marino, Republic of→San Marino
São Tomé and Príncipe, Democratic Republic of→Sao Tome and Principe
Serbia, Republic of→Serbia
Slovak Republic→Slovakia
Slovenia, Republic of→Slovenia
South Sudan, Republic of→South Sudan
St. Kitts and Nevis→Saint Kitts and Nevis
St. Lucia→Saint Lucia
St. Vincent and the Grenadines→Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Syrian Arab Republic→Syria
Taiwan Province of China→Taiwan
Tajikistan, Republic of→Tajikistan
Tanzania, United Republic of→Tanzania
Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of→Timor-Leste
Türkiye, Republic of→Turkey
Uzbekistan, Republic of→Uzbekistan
Venezuela, República Bolivariana de→Venezuela
Yemen, Republic of→Yemen

Data integrity

Only country names are changed. The underlying data (GDP values, country codes) remains exactly as provided by the IMF. The JSON export from the main page uses simplified names.

For reference, you can find the original IMF dataset and the normalization script on GitHub.