As regards wild expressions, this reclassifies the four territories from "state-like" to "country-like" areas. The geo code substitutions are (old » new):

• AS » IASM = American Samoa, Territory of
• GU » IGUM = Guam, Territory of
• MP » IMNP = Northern Mariana Islands, Commonwealth of (CNMI)
• VI » IVIR = United States Virgin Islands

Similarly, pairs of geo codes exist for the remaining territories and former territories:

• PR / IPRI = Puerto Rico, Commonwealth of
• MH / IMHL = Marshall Islands, Republic of (independent since 1986)
• FM / IFSM = Micronesia, Federated States of (1986)
• PW / IPLW = Palau, Republic of (1994)

Current usage across Data Buffet:

• For the territories, the impact (as of February 2016) is upon the detailed estimates of gross domestic product published by the BEA (and funded by the Office of Insular Affairs (OIA) of the U.S. Department of the Interior), and to trade data for Guam.
• For all eight insular territories, the U.S. historical catalog contains active datasets where they are classified as subnational areas of the U.S. Themes and sources include banking (FDIC), education (NCES), and postal delivery (USPS). For the time being, these datasets continue to use "^^"-style geo codes.
• For cross-country datasets from national and supranational sources (e.g., the U.S. Census Bureau's International Databank, the World Bank's World Development Indicators) our policy has always been to use "I^^^"-style geo codes.

Since both styles of geo codes are in use, to retrieve all series for a given area will require a pair of basket wild expressions. This is also a useful technique during transitional periods. For example:

• ?.AS
• ?.IASM

Impacted datasets

• Data Change: Guam - GDP(E) - Comprehensive revision (Dec. 2015)
• Data Change: American Samoa - GDP(E) - Comprehensive revision (Jan. 2016)
• Data Change: U.S. Virgin Islands - GDP(E) - Comprehensive revision (Jan. 2016)
• Data Change: Northern Mariana Islands - GDP(E) - Comprehensive revision (Mar. 2016)
• Mnemonic Change: Puerto Rico - National accounts (Jun. 2016)
• Data Change: Puerto Rico - National accounts - Overhaul (Jul. 2016)
• Mnemonic Change: Guam - CPI (Sep. 2016)
• New Data: Puerto Rico - National accounts - Addendum (Oct. 2016)
• Data Change: Guam - Exports - Overhaul (Feb. 2017)
• New Data: Pueurto Rico - Res sales (Apr. 2017)

See also

• Mnemonic Advisory: U.S. - Geo code "IUSA" to replace "US"
• Using Data Buffet: Basket wild card expressions
• Using Data Buffet: Geo wild cards

Updates

• May 3, 2016 - Add Northern Mariana Islands.
• June 23, 2017 - Add links to 10 articles.