Country name for GPS coordinates

Question

Is there an easy way to get the name of the country on whose territory a given point is located?

I don\'t care too much about accuracy nor about ambiguities given by

Answer 1

Here's some JavaScript code to get the name of the country from latitude and longitude coordinates:

---

1. Using Google's geocoding services [jsfiddle]:

   var lookupCountryWithGoogle = function(lat, lng) { var latlng = new google.maps.LatLng(lat, lng);

   var geoCoder = new google.maps.Geocoder();
   
   geoCoder.geocode({
       location: latlng
   }, function(results, statusCode) {
       var lastResult = results.slice(-1)[0];
   
       if (statusCode == 'OK' && lastResult && 'address_components' in lastResult) {
           alert('coordinates: ' + lat + ', ' + lng + '\n' + 'country: ' + lastResult.address_components.slice(-1)[0].long_name);
       } else {
           alert('coordinates: ' + lat + ', ' + lng + '\n' + 'failed: ' + statusCode);
       }
   });
   

   };

   lookupCountryWithGoogle(43.7534932, 28.5743187); // will succeed lookupCountryWithGoogle(142, 124); // will fail

(You'll need to load Google's JavaScript support for this from a URL such as maps.google.com/maps/api/js?sensor=false&fake=.js)

---

1. Using ws.geonames.org [jsfiddle]:

   var lookupCountryWithGeonames = function(lat, lng) {

   $.getJSON('http://ws.geonames.org/countryCode', {
       lat: lat,
       lng: lng,
       type: 'JSON'
   }, function(results) {
       if (results.countryCode) {
           alert('coordinates: ' + lat + ', ' + lng + '\n' + 'country: ' + results.countryName);
       } else {
           alert('coordinates: ' + lat + ', ' + lng + '\n' + 'failed: ' + results.status.value + ' ' + results.status.message);
       }
   });
   

   };

   lookupCountryWithGeonames(43.7534932, 28.5743187); // will succeed

   lookupCountryWithGeonames(142, 124); // will fail ​