pycountry
ISO country, subdivision, language, currency and script definitions and their translations
Decision gist · record as of 2026-08-14
Yes. pycountry is a stable, actively maintained reference library with zero runtime dependencies, no known vulnerabilities, and a clear single purpose: providing read-only access to ISO standard data. Install it when you need to work with country codes, subdivisions, currencies, or languages in a standards-compliant way. The LGPL-2.1 copyleft license is a consideration only if you plan to modify and redistribute the package itself.AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying
Before you install
- Requires Python 3.10 or later.
- Installs with no runtime dependencies and maintains active development; last commit was recent and repository is not archived.
License · maintenance · safety
LGPL-2.1-only (copyleft) — Licensed under LGPL-2.1-only (copyleft), which requires derivative works and modifications to be distributed under the same license if distributed at all.
last release 2026-02-17 (178 days) · last repo commit 2026-08-10 · 967 stars
0 known vulnerabilities (OSV.dev, 2026-08-14) · 40,171,416 downloads/mo, #685 on PyPI
Alternatives
Verify before relying
import pycountry
# Look up a country by alpha-2 code
germany = pycountry.countries.get(alpha_2='DE')
print(germany.name) # 'Germany'
# Search for countries by fuzzy matching
results = pycountry.countries.search_fuzzy('England')
print(results[0].name) # 'United Kingdom'
# Access subdivisions
de_subdivisions = pycountry.subdivisions.get(country_code='DE')
print(len(de_subdivisions)) # 16
# Look up currencies
usd = pycountry.currencies.get(alpha_3='USD')
print(usd.name)- Whether the included pkg-isocodes data is kept current with upstream Debian releases and how frequently updates occur.
- Performance characteristics when iterating over all subdivisions (5046 entries) or performing fuzzy searches on large datasets.
- Whether translation files are complete for all supported languages and which languages are included.
What it is and what it does
pycountry is a wrapper around the ISO standards databases maintained by Debian's pkg-isocodes project. It exposes ISO 639-3 (languages), ISO 3166-1 (countries), ISO 3166-2 (subdivisions), ISO 3166-3 (historic countries), ISO 4217 (currencies), and ISO 15924 (scripts) as queryable Python objects with no external runtime dependencies.
The package is designed as a read-only reference layer: it does not accept data modifications and explicitly defers all requests for political or standard changes to the ISO organization or Debian maintainers. You can look up countries by alpha-2, alpha-3, or numeric codes; search subdivisions by code or country; and perform fuzzy searches with unicode normalization to handle misspellings and accent variations. Subdivision objects include parent-child relationships and type information.
Use it for
- Validate and normalize country codes in web forms or APIs before storing or processing geographic data.
- Build dropdown menus or autocomplete fields that map user input to ISO country or currency codes.
- Retrieve official country names, flags, and subdivision hierarchies for display in multi-language applications.
- Translate between different country code formats (alpha-2, alpha-3, numeric) in data pipelines.
- Implement geographic filtering or routing logic that requires looking up subdivisions by country code.
- Populate reference data for financial or logistics systems that require ISO 4217 currency or ISO 3166 country definitions.
Worth the install?
AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page. Verify before relying on it.
Yes.
pycountry is a stable, actively maintained reference library with zero runtime dependencies, no known vulnerabilities, and a clear single purpose: providing read-only access to ISO standard data. Install it when you need to work with country codes, subdivisions, currencies, or languages in a standards-compliant way. The LGPL-2.1 copyleft license is a consideration only if you plan to modify and redistribute the package itself.
Install
pycountry on PyPI
Before you install
Installs with no runtime dependencies and maintains active development; last commit was recent and repository is not archived.
Requires Python 3.10 or later.
License in practice
Licensed under LGPL-2.1-only (copyleft), which requires derivative works and modifications to be distributed under the same license if distributed at all.
Quickstart
import pycountry
# Look up a country by alpha-2 code
germany = pycountry.countries.get(alpha_2='DE')
print(germany.name) # 'Germany'
# Search for countries by fuzzy matching
results = pycountry.countries.search_fuzzy('England')
print(results[0].name) # 'United Kingdom'
# Access subdivisions
de_subdivisions = pycountry.subdivisions.get(country_code='DE')
print(len(de_subdivisions)) # 16
# Look up currencies
usd = pycountry.currencies.get(alpha_3='USD')
print(usd.name)Verify before relying
- Whether the included pkg-isocodes data is kept current with upstream Debian releases and how frequently updates occur.
- Performance characteristics when iterating over all subdivisions (5046 entries) or performing fuzzy searches on large datasets.
- Whether translation files are complete for all supported languages and which languages are included.
Package facts
| License | LGPL-2.1-only copyleft |
| Python support | Supports the current Python release >=3.10 |
| Install friction | Low. Pure-Python wheel |
| Runtime dependencies | None |
| Maintenance | Actively maintained 178 days since the last release |
| Last repo commit | |
| First released | |
| Downloads | 40,171,416 / month, #685 on PyPI 30-day window, as of 2026-08-14 |
| Known vulnerabilities | None known OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-14 |
| Classifiers | Development Status :: 5 - Production/StableIntended Audience :: DevelopersIntended Audience :: Information TechnologyLicense :: OSI Approved :: GNU Lesser General Public License v2 (LGPLv2)Operating System :: OS IndependentProgramming Language :: PythonProgramming Language :: Python :: 3Programming Language :: Python :: 3.10Programming Language :: Python :: 3.11Programming Language :: Python :: 3.12Programming Language :: Python :: 3.13Programming Language :: Python :: 3.14Topic :: Software Development :: InternationalizationTopic :: Software Development :: Localization |
Evidence: pycountry-26.2.16-py3-none-any.whl
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See also ccy · country-converter · country_list · countryinfo · isocodes · pycountry-convert · hdx-python-country · iso3166 · babelfish · geonamescache