isocodes
This project provides lists of various ISO standards (e.g. country, language, language scripts, and currency names) in one place
Decision gist · record as of 2026-08-14
Yes. Zero dependencies, permissive license, active maintenance, no known vulnerabilities, and a clear use case for any application needing canonical ISO reference data. Install if you need to work with country codes, language codes, or related ISO standards; skip only if you maintain your own reference data or have very specific non-standard requirements.AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying
Before you install
- No runtime dependencies and low install friction.
- Active maintenance with recent release (2025-08-25) and a commit history through 2026-06-22.
License · maintenance · safety
permissive license (permissive) — Licensed under LGPL 2.1 (permissive). You may use and modify the library freely; if you distribute modified versions, you must provide source code and license notice, but you can link it into proprietary applications.
last release 2025-08-25 (354 days) · last repo commit 2026-06-22 · 17 stars
0 known vulnerabilities (OSV.dev, 2026-08-14) · 96,448 downloads/mo, #13,212 on PyPI
Alternatives
Verify before relying
pip install isocodes
from isocodes import countries
usa = countries.find(alpha_2="US")
print(usa.name) # 'United States'
print(usa.flag) # '🇺🇸'- Whether the data is updated regularly to reflect ISO standard changes and country name/code updates
- Performance characteristics of search() method on large result sets
- Completeness of coverage for all ISO 639-3 and ISO 639-5 language codes
What it is and what it does
isocodes is a reference-data library that bundles ISO standard lists (countries, languages, currencies, scripts, subdivisions, and former countries) into a single Python package with modern access patterns. Instead of maintaining your own CSV or JSON files of country codes and names, you import isocodes and query structured data via dot notation (usa.name, usa.flag) or dictionary access, with fast lookup methods like find() for O(1) exact matches and search() for flexible filtering. The data originates from the Debian iso-codes project.
The library is zero-dependency and includes both a Python API and a command-line interface for quick lookups. It supports Python 3.9 through 3.13 and is actively maintained. Common use cases include populating country/language dropdowns, validating ISO codes in user input, and building geographic or linguistic metadata into applications.
Use it for
- Populate country or language selection dropdowns in web forms with canonical names and codes
- Validate user-supplied ISO codes (alpha-2, alpha-3, numeric) against authoritative reference data
- Build geographic metadata (flags, official names, subdivisions) into location-aware applications
- Generate reports or exports in CSV/JSON with standardized currency or language codes
- Look up historical country names (e.g., 'Burma' → Myanmar) for data reconciliation
- CLI tool for quick ad-hoc ISO code lookups without writing Python code
Worth the install?
AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page. Verify before relying on it.
Yes.
Zero dependencies, permissive license, active maintenance, no known vulnerabilities, and a clear use case for any application needing canonical ISO reference data. Install if you need to work with country codes, language codes, or related ISO standards; skip only if you maintain your own reference data or have very specific non-standard requirements.
Install
isocodes on PyPI
Before you install
No runtime dependencies and low install friction. Active maintenance with recent release (2025-08-25) and a commit history through 2026-06-22.
License in practice
Licensed under LGPL 2.1 (permissive). You may use and modify the library freely; if you distribute modified versions, you must provide source code and license notice, but you can link it into proprietary applications.
Quickstart
pip install isocodes
from isocodes import countries
usa = countries.find(alpha_2="US")
print(usa.name) # 'United States'
print(usa.flag) # '🇺🇸'Verify before relying
- Whether the data is updated regularly to reflect ISO standard changes and country name/code updates
- Performance characteristics of search() method on large result sets
- Completeness of coverage for all ISO 639-3 and ISO 639-5 language codes
Package facts
| License | permissive license permissive |
| Python support | Supports the current Python release >=3.9 |
| Install friction | Low. Pure-Python wheel |
| Runtime dependencies | None |
| Maintenance | Actively maintained 354 days since the last release |
| Last repo commit | |
| First released | |
| Downloads | 96,448 / month, #13,212 on PyPI 30-day window, as of 2026-08-14 |
| Known vulnerabilities | None known OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-14 |
| Classifiers | License :: OSI Approved :: MIT LicenseProgramming Language :: Python :: 3 :: OnlyProgramming Language :: Python :: 3.10Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11Programming Language :: Python :: 3.12Programming Language :: Python :: 3.13Programming Language :: Python :: 3.9 |
Evidence: isocodes-2025.8.25-py3-none-any.whl
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See also babelfish · pycountry · countryinfo · iso3166 · country-converter · geonamescache · iso639-lang · country_list · iso-639 · python-iso639