ISO Language Codes Database

Complete ISO 639 language codes database. 7,867 languages with ISO 639-3, 639-2, and 639-1 codes, language type, and scope.

What is this?

This repository provides a ready-to-use database of iso language codes database with 7,867 records. Available as SQLite database and SQL dumps — ideal for developers, data analysts, and fintech applications.

Downloads

Format	Description	Link
SQLite	Single database file, ready to query	Releases
SQL	SQL dump, import into MySQL/PostgreSQL/etc.	Releases
Excel / CSV / PDF	Formatted spreadsheets	listbase.org

Database Schema

CREATE TABLE languages (
  name TEXT NOT NULL,
  iso6393 TEXT NOT NULL,
  iso6392B TEXT,
  iso6392T TEXT,
  iso6391 TEXT,
  type TEXT,
  scope TEXT
);
CREATE INDEX idx_languages_iso6393 ON languages (iso6393);
CREATE INDEX idx_languages_iso6391 ON languages (iso6391);
CREATE INDEX idx_languages_name ON languages (name);

Stats

• 7,867 records
• 1 datasets
• Updated: 2026-08-01

Preview

name	iso6393	iso6392B	iso6392T	iso6391	type	scope
Ghotuo	aaa				living	individual
Alumu-Tesu	aab				living	individual
Ari	aac				living	individual
Amal	aad				living	individual
Arbëreshë Albanian	aae				living	individual
Aranadan	aaf				living	individual
Ambrak	aag				living	individual
Abu' Arapesh	aah				living	individual
Arifama-Miniafia	aai				living	individual
Ankave	aak				living	individual
Afade	aal				living	individual
Anambé	aan				living	individual
Algerian Saharan Arabic	aao				living	individual
Pará Arára	aap				living	individual
Eastern Abnaki	aaq				extinct	individual
...	...	...	...	...	...	...

Showing 15 of 7,867 records

Release Files

File	Records	Description
iso-language-codes.db	7,867	SQLite database (all data)
iso-language-codes.sql	1-7,867	SQL dump

Usage

SQLite

sqlite3 iso-language-codes.db "SELECT name, iso6393, iso6391, type FROM languages WHERE iso6391 = 'th';"

Import SQL (MySQL)

mysql -u root -p your_database < iso-language-codes.sql

Import SQL (PostgreSQL)

psql -U postgres -d your_database -f iso-language-codes.sql

Use Cases

• Internationalization (i18n) — Map language codes to language names in multilingual apps
• Content management — Tag and categorize content by language
• NLP & text processing — Identify and classify languages in text data
• Translation workflows — Build language selection dropdowns with standard codes
• Linguistic research — Analyze language diversity, types, and classifications

FAQ

What is ISO 639?

ISO 639 is a set of international standards for language codes. ISO 639-1 uses 2-letter codes (e.g., en, th), ISO 639-2 uses 3-letter codes (e.g., eng, tha), and ISO 639-3 extends this to cover all 7,800+ known languages.

What is the difference between ISO 639-1, 639-2, and 639-3?

ISO 639-1 covers ~184 major languages (2-letter codes). ISO 639-2 covers ~487 languages (3-letter codes). ISO 639-3 is the most comprehensive with 7,800+ languages including extinct, ancient, and constructed languages.

What do the type and scope fields mean?

Type: living (currently spoken), historical (extinct), ancient, constructed (e.g., Esperanto), extinct, special. Scope: individual (single language), macrolanguage (group of closely related languages), special.

How often is this data updated?

The database is updated monthly. Check the Releases page for the latest version.

How do I look up a language by code?

SELECT * FROM languages WHERE iso6393 = 'tha';

How do I find all living languages?

SELECT name, iso6393 FROM languages WHERE type = 'living' ORDER BY name;

Browse by Language Type (6)

Language Type	Records	Details
living	7,027	View
extinct	607	View
ancient	124	View
historical	83	View
constructed	22	View
special	4	View

Browse by Scope (3)

Scope	Records	Details
individual	7,801	View
macrolanguage	62	View
special	4	View

Browse Online

Explore and download individual datasets at listbase.org.

License

MIT — Free to use for any purpose.

Source

ISO 639-3 Registration Authority (SIL International)

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Made with data from ListBase.org — Free Reference Tables & Lists