If you want to identify the country an international phone number belongs to, you can easily do so using our country finder tool. What you need is a complete number, country code included.
Country calling codes are 1 to 3 digit codes assigned to each country or to groups of countries. In order to dial or text to any country from outside its borders one must use its country code.
Above are 4 ways to display the exact same fictitious London landline. The last example does not include UK's country calling code (44). In this case it's next to impossible to identify the country, because phone numbers elsewhere could and often do look the same.
The 1st and 2nd examples show you how international calls can be dialed: either by using + followed by Country code and Subscriber number or by replacing the plus sign with the International prefix of the origination country (00 for most countries, 011 for the USA and Canada). Here's a comprehensive international prefix list.
In order to decide whether a phone number includes the country code or not you should also take into consideration its length: with country code included most phone numbers across the world comprise between 10 to 12 digits, with some smaller island nations using fewer.
Country codes were carefully assigned to avoid confusion and technical issues. There are 2 one digit country codes (1 and 7), therefore no other country code's initial digit can be 1 or 7.
The same applies for 2 digit codes: for example Egypt uses country code 20, therefore no 3 digit country code starts with these two digits.