Why do country calling codes go into the 300s when there are only 190-something countries?

Question

For example, the country I live in is Ireland and the calling code is +353, why is it so high?

In: 1

Answer 1

COUNTRY dialling codes were agreed in the early 1960s by the International Telecoms Union (a club of each country’s network providers). In the days of mechanical telephone exchanges, it was convenient to split the world into broad areas: 1 for USA, 2 for Africa, 3 and 4 for Europe, etc.