Do barcodes have a country code? How to find country of origin from barcode?

How to find country of origin from barcode?

When you bought a product, did you sometimes want to understand which country the product was manufactured in? Such information is often contained in the form of text on the product packaging or label. But it happens that the text is written so small or placed on such a background that it is not always readable. If you have access to the Internet, you can check the information about the owner of the barcode using GS1 organization website https://www.gs1.org/services/verified-by-gs1. Here you can check who owns the barcode or "check barcode country of origin". So, you do not need to scan a barcode to see where it came from.

What is a country barcode? Do country barcodes exist?

With some reservations, it can be said that a country barcode does exist. The local representative office of the international organization GS1 has the right to "issue" barcodes with a country prefix, the first three digits. But, sometimes a large corporation's headquarters is registered in a certain country and its products can also have the prefix of this country, although they can be produced in another country.

How to check product origin country by barcode?

Usually, the barcode of a product is depicted in the form of black and white stripes of different widths, but in addition, the information is duplicated at the bottom or top of barcode in the form of numbers. International organization GS1 controls the issuance of product barcodes. It is believed that the prefix or the first three digits of the barcode indicate the country of origin of the product. So, it is believed that the first digits of the linear one-dimensional barcode of the product (usually EAN-13 or EAN-8 in Europe, and UPC in the USA) can be used to find information about the country of origin, the so-called "country barcodes". But large corporations can be registered in one country, but have production in different countries.

How to check country from barcode? /country of production of the goods by the barcode?

GS1 product barcodes are intended for international use, there are no restrictions on the sale of goods by country of origin. It is believed that the "prefix" or the first three digits of the barcode indicate the country of origin of the product. However, the barcode does not always indicate the exact country of origin of the product. At the same time, the country of origin of the barcode number itself is accurately indicated in the first digits. How it can be? Large corporations can be registered in one country, but have production in different countries. Therefore, manufacturers in most cases write on the packaging where the product was manufactured. 

What barcode is used in Europe?

EAN barcodes are an international standard used in Europe, Asia and other regions for the sale of goods at retail outlets and online stores (in the US, the UPC standard barcode is used more often). There are several types of EAN barcodes and the most commonly used EAN standard is the thirteen-digit EAN-13, where the first three digits indicate the prefix of the country that issued the number https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_GS1_country_codes

Is each barcode unique?

No, there are quite a lot of online barcode generators on the Internet and any user can generate a barcode. But, to sell goods in a retail network or via the Internet, a unique barcode is required, and it is “issued” by the international organization GS1. The correct way to get a barcode for your product is to become a member of the GS1 organization, which monitors the distribution of unique barcodes in the world. This means membership, paying entry fees to GS1 and annual membership fees.

Of course, any barcode can be copied, but a retail network will not accept a non-unique code for sale. But for internal limited use, any barcode can be used. QR codes have become very popular lately. Regular linear and most two-dimensional barcodes can be read using a barcode scanneror data capture terminal. QR codes are easy to read even with a mobile phone camera. Using an online QR code generator, you can create a link to your Internet page, a link to an electronic menu, etc.

Table of country barcodes for a product 

Below you will find a table, barcode country codes list. You can find in the table the country barcode prefix, but there may be exceptions here, since this is not the code of the country of manufacture, but the code of the country that "issued" the barcode. https://www.gs1.org/standards/id-keys/company-prefix Double-check the information about the country of manufacture on the packaging.

 Table of country barcodes, 2025
List of GS1 country codes, 2025

You can download here Table of country barcodes pdf 2025. 

Sources: 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_GS1_country_codes
https://www.gs1.org/standards/id-keys/company-prefix