CLDR 48 Release Note

No.	Date	Rel. Note	Data	Charts	Spec	Delta	GitHub Tag	Delta DTD	CLDR JSON
48	2025-10-XX	v48	CLDR48	Charts48	LDML48	Δ48	release-48	ΔDtd48	48.0.0

Overview

Unicode CLDR provides key building blocks for software supporting the world’s languages. CLDR data is used by all major software systems (including all mobile phones) for their software internationalization and localization, adapting software to the conventions of different languages.

CLDR 48 was an open submission cycle allowing contributors to supply data for their languages via the CLDR Survey Tool — data that is widely used to support much of the world’s software. This data is also a factor in determining which languages are supported on mobile phones and computer operating systems.

Changes

The most significant changes in this release are:

• TBD

For more details, see below.

Locale Coverage Status

The following shows the coverage levels per language in this version of CLDR.

• The With Script column indicates which of the Count locales are language-script variants.
  • For example, zh_Hant and zh(_Hans) add two to the Count, and one to With Script.
• The Regional Variants column indicates the number of other regional locales: none are in Count.
  • For example, there are 46 locales for French, such as fr, fr_CA, fr_BE, etc., so that adds 46 to the RV column for Modern.

Current Levels

Count	With Script	Regional Variants	Level	Usage	Examples
104	5	305	Modern	Suitable for full UI internationalization	Afrikaans, shqip, አማርኛ, ‫العربية‬, հայերեն, অসমীয়া, azərbaycan
13	0	1	Moderate	Suitable for “document content” internationalization, eg. in spreadsheet	Akan, Cebuano, Māori, тоҷикӣ
57	10	22	Basic	Suitable for locale selection, eg. choice of language on mobile phone	भोजपुरी, बर’, डोगरी, eʋegbe, Gã, हरियाणवी

Changes

±	New Level	Locales
📈	Modern	Quechua, Akan, Romansh, Chuvash, Kazakh (Arabic), Shan, Bashkir
📈	Moderate	Esperanto, Anii
📈	Basic	Sicilian, Tuvinian, Buriat, Piedmontese
📉	Basic*	Baluchi (Latin), Kurdish

* Note: Two locales dropped in coverage (📉), from Moderate to Basic. Each release, the number of items needed for Modern and Moderate increases. So locales without active contributors may drop down in coverage level.

For a full listing, see Coverage Levels

Specification Changes

The following are the most significant changes to the specification (LDML).

• TBD

There are many more changes that are important to implementations, such as changes to certain identifier syntax and various algorithms. See the Modifications section of the specification for details.

Data Changes

DTD Changes

[TBD: Update from https://unicode.org/cldr/charts/48/supplemental/dtd_deltas.html, adding the meaning/impact of each]. Also consult the InfoHub vetter information.

ldml

• exemplarCharacters added more type values:
  • numbers-auxiliary — for number characters that are not ‘core’ to the language, but sometimes used (like regular auxiliary)
  • punctuation-auxiliary — for punctual characters that are not ‘core’ to the language, but sometimes used (like regular auxiliary)
  • punctuation-person — for the limited set of punctuation characters used in person name fields: eg, “Jean-Luc”, “MD, Ph.D.”
• dateTimeFormat added more type values:
  • relative — TBD
• gmtUnknownFormat element was added — Indicating that the timezone is unknown (as opposed to absent from the format)
• language added more menu values:
  • core — TBD
  • extension — TBD
• type added more scope values:
  • core — TBD
• numbers added rationalFormats sub-element:
  • TBD Add from sites page
• rbnf​/rulesetGrouping added rbnfRules sub-element — TBD

  supplementalData

• era — the range of code values nows allows two letters before the first hyphen.
• languageData the territories attribute supplementalData.xml was deprecated and data using it removed. The definition was unclear, and prone to mis-understanding — the more detailed data is in territoryInfo. (CLDR-5708)
• usesMetazone adds two new attributes stdOffset and dstOffset so that implementations can use either “vanguard” or “rearguard” TZDB data sources.
• numberingSystem — Unicode 17 data was added.

  ldmlBCP47

• type adds a new attibute region
• keyboard3@conformsTo is updated to allow “48”

For a full listing, see Delta DTDs.

BCP47 Data Changes

• nu-tols Numbering system for Tolong Siki digits
• One additional zone: America/Coyhaique = tz-clcxq
• Seven region attributes for determining regions for timezones
• Three additional aliases

For a full listing, see BCP47 Delta.

TBD, change these links to put the URLs at the bottom

Supplemental Data Changes

Identifiers

• Added aliases/deprecations for languages (dek, mnk, nte)
• Updated to the latest language subtag registry, with various additions and deprecations
• Updated to the ISO currency data, with various additions and deprecations
• Added unit IDs part, part-per-1e6, part-per-1e9, cup-imperial, fluid-ounce-metric, with conversions
  • deprecated unit IDs permillion, portion, portion-per-1e9, 100-kilometer

Language Data

• language_script.tsv updated to include only one “Primary” writing system for languages that used to have multiple options (CLDR-18114). Notable changes are:
  • Panjabi pa has the primary to Gurumukhi Guru because widespread usage is in the Gurumukhi script – while most speakers are in Pakistan PK, written usage remains Gurumukhi.
  • Azerbaijani az and Northern Kurdish ku primarily are used in Latin Latn.
  • Chinese languages zh, hak, and nan are matched to Simplified Han writing Hans – except Cantonese yue, which is known for a preference in Traditional Han writing Hant.
  • Hassiniyya mey was missing significant data, it should be associated with the Arabic Arab writing system by default, not Latin Latn.
• 5 new language distance values are added (for fallback to zh)
• Substantial updates to Language Info: additional languages in countries; revised population values, writing percentages, literacy percentages, and official status values.

Likely Subtags

• Many additions: see Likely Subtags
• Errors in likely subtags addressed
  • The default language for Belarus BY is now Russian ru, reflecting modern usage. (CLDR-14479)
  • Literary Chinese lzh was written in Traditional Han writing Hant. (CLDR-16715)
• Likely subtags updated because of prior mentioned primary script matches.
  • Northern Kurdish ku now matched to Cyrillic writing in the CIS countries. (CLDR-18114)
  • Hassiniyya mey updated to default to mey_Arab_DZ instead of mey_Latn_SN (CLDR-18114)

Calendars, Timezones, Dayperiods

• Many updates and corrections for Metazone data
• Many updates to calendars, including the removal of eras and adjustment to era start dates
• Day periods for kok, scn, hi_Latn,

Plural Rules

• additions for cv, ie, kok, sgs

Currencies

• Updates to the latest ISO currencies

Weekdata

• IS changed to firstDay=sun
• ku_SY adding H and hB

For a full listing, see Supplemental Delta.

Transforms

• Fixed problem in Gujarati → Latin with ૰
• Updated to latest Unicode 17 data for Han → Latin, with very many changes.

For a full listing, see Transforms Delta.

Locale Changes

• Kurdish (Kurmanji) ku split from 1 locale ku_TR into 5 locales across 2 scripts and 4 countries. (CLDR-18311)
  • ku_Latn_TR: Kurdish (Kurmanji, Latin alphabet, Turkey) default for Kurdish (Kurmanji) ku and ku_Latn
  • ku_Latn_SY: Kurdish (Kurmanji, Latin alphabet, Syria)
  • ku_Latn_IQ: Kurdish (Kurmanji, Latin alphabet, Iraq)
  • ku_Arab_IQ: Kurdish (Kurmanji, Arabic writing, Iraq), default for Kurdish (Kurmanji, Arabic writing) ku_Arab
  • ku_Arab_IR: Kurdish (Kurmanji, Arabic writing, Iran)
• Languages that reached Basic in the last release have their names translated in this release
• Compound language names now have “core” and “extension” variants for use in menus (TBD, flesh this out)
• Many features selectable with locale options now have “core” names, for better presentation in menus (TBD, flesh this out)
  • Calendar names, collation names, emoji options, currency formats, hour-cycle options, and so on.
• To match ISO, translations for Sark (CQ) were added.
• Recent or upcoming currency names are added (XCG, ZWG)
• There are now combination formats for relative times (TBD, flesh this out)
• Some additional flexible (aka available) date formats were added (TBD, flesh this out)
• Many locales had seldom-used short timezone abbreviations (such as EST) removed, or moved to sublocales that use them.
• The currency-number formats for alphaNextToNumber, noCurrency, and compact currency formats are now generated from other data for consistency. (TBD, flesh this out)
• The tooling made it easier to see when a space was a non-breaking character or not, or thin versions of those. The usage is now more consisent in many locales.
• New emoji for Unicode 17, have added names and search keywords.
• Additional guidance on translations was added, leading to refined translations or transcreations.

For a full listing, see Delta Data.

Message Format Specification

• TBD

Collation Data Changes

• TBD

Number Spellout Data Changes

• TBD

Segmentation Data Changes

• TBD

Transform Data Changes

• TBD

JSON Data Changes

• TBD

File Changes

• TBD

Tooling Changes

• TBD

Keyboard Changes

• TBD

Migration

• Number patterns that did not have a specific numberSystem (such as latn or arab) had be deprecated for many releases, and were finally removed.
• TBD — add many items!

V48 advance warnings

The following changes are planned for CLDR 48. Please plan accordingly to avoid disruption.

• Any locales that are missing Core data by the end of the CLDR 48 cycle will be removed CLDR-16004
• The default week numbering will change to ISO instead being based on the calendar week starting in CLDR 48 CLDR-18275. The calendar week data will be more clearly targeted at matching usage in displayed month calendars.
• The likely language for Belarus is slated to change to Russian CLDR-14479
• The major components in supplementalData.xml and supplementalMetadata.xml files are slated to be organized more logically and moved into separate files.
  • This will make it easier for implementations to filter out data that they don’t need, and make internal maintenance easier. This will not affect the data: just which file it is located in. Please plan to update XML and JSON parsers accordingly.
• Additionally, language and territory data in languageData and territoryInfo data will receive significant updates to improve accuracy and maintainability CLDR-18087

V49 advance warnings

• There is too much uncertainty in the exact values for pre-Meiji Japanese eras, and there is feedback that the general practice for exact dates is to use Gregorian for pre-Meiji dates. These are slated for removal in a future release. Please add a comment to CLDR-11400 if you use this data and explain your use case if possible.

Known Issues

• CLDR-18219 common/subdivisions data files contained additional values that should not be present. These will be removed in the future, but note that they may be present in the new JSON data:
  • Non-subdivisions such as AW: Use the region code AW instead for translation.
  • Overlong subdivisions such as fi01: Use the region code AX instead for translation.

Acknowledgments

Many people have made significant contributions to CLDR and LDML; see the Acknowledgments page for a full listing.

The Unicode Terms of Use apply to CLDR data; in particular, see Exhibit 1.

For web pages with different views of CLDR data, see http://cldr.unicode.org/index/charts.