My main concern is, will one country ever adopt a numeric code that has been used for another in the past, such as can happen with alphanumeric 3166-1 codes? If not, then it seems like a perfect identifier for a primary key in a database…
[GIS] Should I use ISO 3166-1 Numeric codes as Primary Keys for Countries in a database table
database-design
Best Answer
Coming from a pure database perspective. No you should not. For the following reasons: