---
id: l18n
version: "2021.3"
license: unclear
license_treatment: permissive
maintenance: dormant
---

# l18n — Internationalization for pytz timezones and territories

License: permissive · Maintenance: dormant · Downloads: 323.7K/mo

## What it is and what it does

l18n provides lazy-evaluated, language-aware translations for timezone and territory names used in localization. It wraps pytz timezones and CLDR country codes, exposing three main read-only dictionary-like objects: tz_cities (maps timezone IDs to translated city names), tz_fullnames (maps timezone IDs to full translated timezone paths), and territories (maps country codes to localized country names). Translations are evaluated on-the-fly in the currently selected language, so the same lazy string can produce different outputs if you switch languages between evaluations.

The package is designed for multi-lingual applications where users need to select their timezone or location in their own language—a common requirement when timezone names differ significantly from English (e.g., 'Île de Pâques' vs 'Easter Island'). It supports five languages out of the box and includes utility functions to map timezones to country codes and retrieve timezone lists for a given country. The main dependencies are pytz (for timezone data) and six (for Python 2/3 compatibility, though Python 2 is no longer relevant).

Use it for:

- Display timezone selectors in a user's native language on a multi-lingual web application.
- Translate country/territory names in dropdown menus or location pickers for international users.
- Generate sorted lists of timezones or territories in the user's current language without re-sorting on each language change.
- Build a timezone lookup utility that returns both the timezone ID and its human-friendly translated name for API responses.

## Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts above — verify before relying.

Provides lazy translations for timezone and territory names in multiple languages, mapping pytz timezones and CLDR country codes to localized strings.

Yes, if you need multilingual timezone or territory names and can accept dormant maintenance. The package is stable (Production/Stable classifier), has no known vulnerabilities, and low install friction. However, do not use it if you require active maintenance, Python 3.12+ support verification, or ongoing translation updates—the last release was 2021 and the repository shows no recent activity. For new projects, consider whether a more actively maintained i18n solution might be safer long-term.

## Install

pip install l18n
uv add l18n
poetry add l18n

## Installing l18n

Before you install: Low install friction with only two lightweight runtime dependencies (pytz and six). Maintenance is dormant—last release was 2021-11-12 and no commits since 2023-11-13—so expect no active bug fixes or updates for new Python versions.

License in practice: MIT license (permissive) means you can use, modify, and distribute freely with minimal restrictions, making it safe for commercial and open-source projects.

Quickstart:

pip install l18n

import l18n
l18n.set_language('en')
print(l18n.tz_cities['Pacific/Easter'])
print(l18n.territories['CZ'])

Verify before relying:

- Whether the package works reliably with modern Python versions beyond those tested at release (2021).
- Current state of translation completeness for the five supported languages (English, French, German, Czech, Chinese).
- Whether CLDR data bundled in the package remains accurate relative to current pytz versions.

## Package facts

- License: not declared (permissive)
- Python support: unspecified
- Install friction: low
- Maintenance: dormant
- Downloads: 323.7K/month (top 15,000 on PyPI)
- Known vulnerabilities: none known

## Tags

timezone translation, locale timezone names, pytz localization, country code translation, multilingual timezone display, i18n timezone support, territory localization, timezone-translation, i18n-localization, dormant-but-stable

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