Quick Summary

Learn how to create and import a comprehensive country term set for SharePoint's Managed Metadata service, including 206 nations with proper synonyms and merge capabilities.

When creating a Country column in SharePoint, it is best to use a Term Set to store Country names. Managed Metadata is perfect for Countries.

Why Use Managed Metadata for Countries?

  1. 206 nations, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, are too many to fit in a drop down list.
  2. If a country changes name you can update once in your Managed Metadata. The new name will then populate throughout your site.
  3. If one Country is annexed by another, you can use the Merge Terms function to join the two countries together. Once you merge the Terms you can then add a Synonym, for when users type in the previous name.
  4. Synonyms can also be set up for Countries that have changed name in the past (Rhodesia can be set as a Synonym for Zimbabwe, USA, US, United States, United States of America should be set for the U.S.A.) or for Acronyms (i.e. NZ, USA, Aus, NED).

Country Term Set

I sourced the list of Countries from the United States of America State Department, and added them to Import Term Set csv provided by Microsoft.

Download the Term Set

Ready-to-import CSV file containing all 206 countries formatted for SharePoint's Term Store Management.

Country-ImportTermSet.csv

How to Import the Country Term Set

Step 1: Access Term Store Management

Go to the Managed Metadata service for your site.

Navigate to: Site Settings > Term Store Management

Step 2: Import Term Set

Click the little arrow to the right of your category name and then click Import Term Set

Step 3: Select File

Click Browse

Select the term set you just downloaded (it is probably in your downloads folder).

Click OK

Step 4: Import Process

SharePoint will import your Countries.

Step 5: Complete

Countries are now available in your term set.

Next Steps

You can now create a Managed Metadata Column, choosing your newly imported Country Term Set as your source. This will provide users with a searchable, standardized list of countries across your SharePoint environment.

Need Help with SharePoint Managed Metadata?

Our SharePoint experts can help you set up and optimize your Managed Metadata service, including custom term sets and governance strategies.