worldref

Every country in Arabic, English, or both: names, nationalities, capitals, currencies, languages, time zones, dial codes, phone validation, address formats and subdivisions. One dataset, ready for JSON, CSV, SQL, TypeScript, Python, Swift, Kotlin, Dart, PHP, Go and C#, and for AI agents (MCP).

العربية · Website and search demo · Best practices · Field reference · Data sources

import { countries, search, parsePhone, byIso2 } from "worldref";

byIso2("SA").name_ar;                       // "السعودية"
byIso2("SA").nationality.nationality_ar_f;  // "سعودية"
search(countries, "الامارات", "ar")[0].iso2; // "AE"  (ignores «ال», hamza and tashkeel)
parsePhone("٠٥٠١٢٣٤٥٦٧", byIso2("SA"));     // { e164: "+966501234567", valid: true, mobile: true, ... }

Why worldref

• Arabic done natively. Short common names (السعودية, not a transliteration), nationality in masculine and feminine (سعودي / سعودية), search that ignores «ال», tashkeel, tatweel and hamza forms, Arabic-Indic and Persian digits accepted everywhere, and sort keys that give correct Arabic alphabetical order on every platform.
• Works for one language or two. Every file comes in three builds: bilingual (name_ar, name_en), Arabic-only (name) and English-only (name).
• Phone fields that work. Dial codes, valid lengths, mobile prefixes and exact validation patterns for every country, shared calling codes resolved (+1, +7, +44...), and international (E.164) output.
• Everything a form or app needs in one place: official names, capitals, currencies with symbols (including the new Saudi riyal sign), official languages, week start and weekend, preferred calendars (including Umm al-Qura), postal code rules, address templates, emergency numbers, plug types and voltage, FIFA and IOC codes, and ISO 3166-2 subdivisions.
• Sourced, not guessed. Official sources first (Unicode CLDR, Google libphonenumber, World Bank, IANA, ITU and government sources). Every column names its source in data/sources.json. A missing value is null, never a guess or a machine translation.

Install

Published on npm, PyPI, pub.dev, Packagist, NuGet, Maven Central and the MCP Registry. Swift and Go install straight from this repository.

Stack	Install
JavaScript, TypeScript (web, Node 20.10+, React Native, Bun, Deno)	npm i worldref
CDN (no build step)	https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/worldref@1.2.1/data/worldref.json
Swift (iOS, macOS)	Swift Package Manager: https://github.com/arj-89/worldref, from 1.2.1, product WorldRef
Kotlin, Android	implementation("io.github.arj-89:worldref:1.2.1") (Maven Central; JitPack still works: com.github.arj-89:worldref:v1.2.1)
Python	pip install worldref
Dart, Flutter	dart pub add worldref (Flutter: flutter pub add worldref)
PHP, Laravel	composer require arj-89/worldref
Go	go get github.com/arj-89/worldref/go@v1.2.1
C#, .NET	dotnet add package WorldRef
Any language	JSON, CSV and SQL (Postgres, MySQL, SQLite) in data/ and on the releases page
AI agents	MCP server: npx -y worldref mcp (listed in the MCP Registry as io.github.arj-89/worldref)
No install	One country: https://arj-89.github.io/worldref/api/v1/sa.json

Each language folder has its own README with a usage example: python, Swift, kotlin, dart, php, go, csharp.

Use only what you need

• The data is split into modules that share the key iso2: core, nationality, phone, currency, geo, locale, address, travel, sports, plus subdivisions. Find them in data/modules/.
• Each module comes in 3 builds: .json (Arabic and English), .ar.json (Arabic only), .en.json (English only).
• JS/TS: import only the module you use, and your bundler ships only that file:

  import phone from "worldref/data/modules/phone.json" with { type: "json" };
  import { parsePhone } from "worldref/helpers";

• Other languages: load only the module files you need. data/worldref.json has everything.
• One country, no install: https://arj-89.github.io/worldref/api/v1/{iso2}.json.
• A missing value is null (or an empty list). Treat it as unknown; never fill it in.
• Within a major version, fields are never renamed or removed.

Recipes

Country picker (user's country first, then alphabetical in the UI language):

import { countries, sortCountries, search } from "worldref";
const list = sortCountries(countries, "ar", "SA");          // السعودية first, then Arabic order
const hits = search(countries, userQuery, "ar");            // names, aliases, ISO codes, +966 / 00966 / 966, small typos

Show: flag, name in the UI language, then the dial code. In Arabic, isolate the dial code left-to-right (<bdi dir="ltr">+966</bdi>).

Phone field (store the international form plus the country the user picked):

const p = parsePhone(input, byIso2(pickedIso2), countries);
if (p?.valid && p.mobile) save({ phone: p.e164, phone_country: p.iso2 });

Nationality field (only rows that have one: countries, plus Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau):

const options = countries.filter((c) => c.nationality.nationality_en);
const label = (c, female) => (female ? c.nationality.nationality_ar_f : c.nationality.nationality_ar_m);

Address form (the country's own fields, order, labels and required marks):

import { byIso2, addressForm } from "worldref";
for (const line of addressForm(byIso2("SA"), "ar"))         // one row of inputs per line
  for (const f of line) renderInput(f.field, f.label, f.required);   // street: «العنوان», city: «المدينة»...

Database seed: run data/sql/postgres.sql (or mysql.sql, sqlite.sql). It creates countries and subdivisions.

Best practices

Every rule below is built into the helpers of all eight packages and locked by the shared tests in tests/vectors.json. Use the helpers; if you write your own, follow these rules exactly.

Search (normalize(), search())

• Normalise both sides, the query and the names, the same way.
• Arabic: drop «ال» at the start of every word (not only the first); remove tashkeel (fatha, damma, kasra, sukun, shadda, tanween) and tatweel (ـ); treat أ إ آ ٱ as ا, ة as ه, ى as ي, ؤ as و, ئ as ي. So «الإمارات», «امارات» and «الأمارات» all find the UAE.
• Latin: ignore case and accents, and treat punctuation as a space, so «cote d'ivoire» finds Côte d’Ivoire. Also compare with the spaces removed, so «cote divoire» finds it too.
• Typos: only when nothing matches, accept a name within 1 edit for queries of 4 to 7 letters and 2 edits from 8 letters (a swap of two neighbours counts as one), so «Kuwiat» finds Kuwait. Never add typo matches to a result list that already has hits.
• Digits: convert Arabic-Indic (٠١٢٣٤٥٦٧٨٩) and Persian (۰۱۲۳۴۵۶۷۸۹) digits to Western before anything else.
• Match names and aliases in both languages, ISO codes (SA, SAU), and dial codes with or without «+» or «00» (+966, 00966, 966).

Sorting (sortCountries())

• Put the user's country first: from their profile, else the device region, else pin nothing.
• Then sort by sort_ar or sort_en with plain string comparison. Do not use locale collation (Intl.Collator("ar"), localizedStandardCompare): neither ignores «ال», so every «ال» name bunches under ا.

Display

• Show the flag, then the name in the UI language, then the dial code.
• In Arabic, isolate the dial code and any Latin text left-to-right in the UI (<bdi dir="ltr">+966</bdi>, or U+2066 ... U+2069). The data never contains bidi marks.
• Show Western numerals (0-9) in the UI, in both languages.
• Use flag_svg on the web: Windows does not draw flag emoji.
• Currency: show symbol (the Saudi riyal sign is U+20C1) and fall back to symbol_fallback (ر.س) where the font lacks the new sign.

Phone fields (parsePhone(), formatNational())

• Accept whatever the user types: Arabic or Western digits, spaces, dashes, a leading 0, «+» or «00».
• Store the international form (e164) together with the iso2 the user picked. Shared calling codes (+1, +7, +44, +599...) cannot be read back to one country from the number alone.
• Validate a mobile with mobile_pattern. Where mobile_distinguishable is false (US, Canada), do not reject a number for not looking like a mobile.
• Format for display with formatNational() (5X XXX XXXX style).

Nationality fields

• List only rows where nationality.nationality_en is not null (countries, plus Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau).
• In Arabic, use the form that matches the person: nationality_ar_m (سعودي) or nationality_ar_f (سعودية).

Time zones (guidance; the packages have no time helper)

• Store times in UTC, plus the IANA zone name (geo.timezones, e.g. Asia/Riyadh) wherever local time matters.
• Convert to local time only for display, with the platform's time-zone support (Intl.DateTimeFormat with timeZone, Python zoneinfo, java.time.ZoneId, Swift TimeZone). It follows daylight saving time and rule changes.
• Never store or hard-code a UTC offset (+03:00): daylight saving time shifts it twice a year in many countries, and governments change the rules (Morocco moved to permanent UTC+00:00 in 09/2026).
• geo.timezone_offsets gives each zone's standard and daylight-saving offset under the rules in force on the date in data/meta.json. Use it to describe a zone ("UTC+03:00"), not to compute times: standard is not always the offset in use today (Cuba keeps daylight saving time through 2027), and in Ireland dst is lower than standard because its law defines winter time as the shift.
• A country can span several zones (geo.timezones lists them all; the US has many). Take the zone from the user or the device, not from the country alone.

Data

• null (or an empty list) means unknown. Show it as unknown; never fill it from elsewhere.
• Load only the modules you need; they join on iso2.
• Pin a version (#v1.2.1, @1.2.1) so names and rules do not change under you.

Data policy

• Israel is not in this dataset, in any file, under any name or code. A test enforces this on every output.
• Palestine is «فلسطين» / "Palestine", a country, with its capital «القدس» / "Jerusalem". Numbers with +970 and +972 (including Jerusalem and the 1948 lines) are Palestinian numbers here. Its currencies are the Jordanian dinar and the shekel (shown as «شيكل» / "Shekel").
• Disputed places follow the official positions of Saudi Arabia: Western Sahara is part of Morocco (no separate row), Kosovo is included, Northern Cyprus is not, and Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau are territories that still have a nationality (they issue their own passports).
• Requests to change this policy are closed without discussion. Corrections to data are welcome with a source link (see CONTRIBUTING).

Fields

Single-language builds drop the _ar / _en suffix (name_ar becomes name in .ar.json).

Field	Module	Example (SA)	Meaning
iso2	all	SA	ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 code (XK for Kosovo). The key that joins every module.
iso3	core	SAU	ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code (XKK for Kosovo, as in CLDR).
iso_numeric	core	682	ISO 3166-1 numeric code, as text to keep leading zeros.
kind	core	country	country (sovereign state, including Palestine, Vatican and Kosovo) or territory.
name_ar	core	السعودية	Short common name in Arabic.
name_en	core	Saudi Arabia	Short common name in English.
official_name_ar	core	المملكة العربية السعودية	Official long name in Arabic, when a source states one.
official_name_en	core	Kingdom of Saudi Arabia	Official long name in English, when a source states one.
aliases_ar	core	["المملكة العربية السعودية","المملكة"...	Other Arabic names people search with. For search only, not display.
aliases_en	core	["KSA","Kingdom of Saudi Arabia","Sau...	Other English names people search with. For search only, not display.
flag	core	🇸🇦	Flag emoji (regional indicator pair). Windows does not draw these; use flag_svg on the web.
flag_svg	core	flags/sa.svg	Path of the 4:3 SVG flag in this package.
continent	core	asia	africa, americas, asia, europe or oceania (UN M49 via CLDR).
groups	core	["gcc","arab_league"]	Memberships: gcc, arab_league.
un_member	core	true	true for the 193 UN member states.
tld	core	.sa	Country-code top-level domain, when one is delegated.
sort_ar	core	سعوديه	Arabic sort key: compare these with plain string comparison for correct Arabic order (ignores «ال», hamza forms, tashkeel).
sort_en	core	saudi arabia	English sort key: compare with plain string comparison.
nationality	nationality		Nationality names. Filled for countries and for TW, HK, MO; null for other territories.
nationality.nationality_ar_m	nationality	سعودي	Arabic nationality, masculine (سعودي).
nationality.nationality_ar_f	nationality	سعودية	Arabic nationality, feminine (سعودية).
nationality.nationality_en	nationality	Saudi	English nationality adjective (Saudi).
nationality.icao_code	nationality	SAU	ICAO Doc 9303 code used on passports (mostly iso3; D for Germany, RKS for Kosovo).
phone	phone	[{"calling_code":"+966","leading_digi...	Numbering plans for this row. Most rows have one; some have several (Palestine: +970 and +972).
phone[].calling_code	phone	+966	International calling code with +.
phone[].leading_digits	phone	null	Regex the national number must start with when the calling code is shared (e.g. +1 809|829|849 for DO). null when the code is not shared this way.
phone[].primary	phone	true	true when this row is the default country for the calling code.
phone[].trunk_prefix	phone	0	Digit(s) dropped from local numbers before the calling code (0 in 0501234567).
phone[].pattern	phone	(?:[15]\d|800|92)\d{7}	Regex for any valid national number (all types). Match against the full national number.
phone[].lengths	phone	[9,10]	Valid national number lengths, all types.
phone[].mobile_pattern	phone	579[0-8]\d{5}|5(?:[013-689]\d|7[0-8])...	Regex for a valid mobile national number. Match against the full national number.
phone[].mobile_lengths	phone	[9]	Valid mobile national number lengths.
phone[].mobile_prefixes	phone	["50","51","53","54","55","56","57","...	Leading digits of mobile numbers (up to 3 digits). Quick check; use mobile_pattern for exact validation.
phone[].mobile_distinguishable	phone	true	false when mobile and landline numbers look the same (US, CA).
phone[].mobile_example	phone	512345678	Example mobile national number, good as an input placeholder.
phone[].mobile_format	phone	## ### ####	Display grouping for a mobile national number, # = digit.
currencies	currency	[{"code":"SAR","name_ar":"ريال سعودي"...	Currencies in use.
currencies[].code	currency	SAR	ISO 4217 code.
currencies[].name_ar	currency	ريال سعودي	Currency name in Arabic.
currencies[].name_en	currency	Saudi Riyal	Currency name in English.
currencies[].symbol	currency	⃁	Symbol (the new Unicode sign where one exists, e.g. the riyal sign).
currencies[].symbol_ar	currency	ر.س.	Symbol as written in Arabic (ر.س).
currencies[].symbol_fallback	currency	ر.س	Text to show when the font lacks the new sign.
geo	geo		Geography.
geo.capital_ar	geo	الرياض	Capital in Arabic.
geo.capital_en	geo	Riyadh	Capital in English.
geo.lat	geo	23.7167	Latitude of the country's centre point.
geo.lng	geo	44.1167	Longitude of the country's centre point.
geo.area_km2	geo	2149690	Area in square kilometres.
geo.population	geo	36973555	Population.
geo.population_year	geo	2025	Year of the population figure.
geo.timezones	geo	["Asia/Riyadh"]	IANA time zone names.
geo.timezone_offsets	geo	[{"zone":"Asia/Riyadh","standard":"+0...	For each zone in timezones: the standard UTC offset and the daylight-saving offset (null when the zone does not switch), under the rules in force on the date in data/meta.json. Reference only: compute the current offset with the platform's time-zone support, never store it.
geo.timezone_offsets[].zone	geo	Asia/Riyadh	IANA time zone name.
geo.timezone_offsets[].standard	geo	+03:00	Standard UTC offset, e.g. +03:00. Not always the offset in use today (Cuba keeps daylight saving time through 2027).
geo.timezone_offsets[].dst	geo	null	Daylight-saving UTC offset, or null when the zone does not switch. Lower than standard where the law defines winter as the shift (Ireland).
geo.driving_side	geo	right	left or right.
locale	locale		Locale conventions.
locale.languages	locale	[{"code":"ar","name_ar":"العربية","na...	Official languages, most spoken first.
locale.languages[].code	locale	ar	BCP 47 language code.
locale.languages[].name_ar	locale	العربية	Language name in Arabic.
locale.languages[].name_en	locale	Arabic	Language name in English.
locale.week_start	locale	sun	First day of the week (sun, mon, sat...).
locale.weekend	locale	["fri","sat"]	Weekend days.
locale.calendars	locale	["gregorian","islamic-umalqura","isla...	Calendars in use, most preferred first (gregorian, islamic-umalqura...).
locale.measurement	locale	metric	metric, us or uk.
address	address		Postal address conventions.
address.postal_code_format	address	#####	Postal code shape: # = digit, @ = letter.
address.postal_code_regex	address	^(?:\d{5})$	Regex for a valid postal code.
address.postal_code_example	address	11564	Example postal code.
address.address_format	address	%N%n%O%n%A%n%C %Z	Address template: %N name, %O organisation, %A street, %D district, %C city, %S region, %Z postal code, %X sorting code, %n new line.
address.region_label_ar	address	null	What the top-level region is called, in Arabic. Where Google gives no type, the country's own subdivision type when all its top-level subdivisions share one.
address.region_label_en	address	null	What the top-level region is called (state, province, emirate...). Where Google gives no type, the country's own subdivision type when all its top-level subdivisions share one.
address.locality_label_ar	address	المدينة	Label of the city field in Arabic (المدينة...), or null when the address has no city line.
address.locality_label_en	address	City	Label of the city field (City, Post town, District, Suburb), or null when the address has no city line.
address.sublocality_label_ar	address	null	Label of the area-within-city field in Arabic (الحي...), or null when the address has none.
address.sublocality_label_en	address	null	Label of the area-within-city field (Neighborhood, District, Suburb...), or null when the address has none.
address.postal_code_label_ar	address	الرمز البريدي	Label of the postal code field in Arabic, or null when the address has no postal code.
address.postal_code_label_en	address	Postal code	Label of the postal code field (Postal code, ZIP code, PIN code, Eircode), or null when the address has none.
address.required_fields	address	["street","city"]	Address fields the postal service requires: name, organization, street, sublocality, city, region, postal_code, sorting_code.
travel	travel		Travel facts.
travel.emergency	travel		Emergency numbers confirmed from an official source. A null service means: call general.
travel.emergency.police	travel	999	Police.
travel.emergency.ambulance	travel	997	Ambulance.
travel.emergency.fire	travel	998	Fire and civil defence.
travel.emergency.general	travel	911	All-services number (112, 911, 999...).
travel.plug_types	travel	["G"]	IEC plug letters (A to N).
travel.voltage	travel	[220,230]	Residential mains voltages.
travel.frequency_hz	travel	[60]	Mains frequency in hertz.
sports	sports		Sports codes.
sports.fifa	sports	KSA	FIFA country code.
sports.ioc	sports	KSA	IOC country code.
subdivisions.iso2	subdivisions	SA	Country code.
subdivisions.code	subdivisions	SA-01	ISO 3166-2 code (SA-01).
subdivisions.name_ar	subdivisions	منطقة الرياض	Name in Arabic.
subdivisions.name_en	subdivisions	Riyadh	Name in English.
subdivisions.parent	subdivisions	null	ISO 3166-2 code of the parent subdivision, for nested ones.
subdivisions.type_ar	subdivisions	منطقة	What the subdivision is, in Arabic (منطقة، محافظة، إمارة، ولاية...). Arab countries use their own official term.
subdivisions.type_en	subdivisions	region	What the subdivision is (region, province, emirate, state...), from Wikidata. Null when no source names it.

FAQ

How do I get a list of countries in Arabic? Use data/worldref.ar.json (or data/modules/core.ar.json for names only). Each row has name in Arabic. For a ready-made picker order, sort by sort (it ignores «ال» and hamza forms).

Where is a list of nationalities in Arabic, masculine and feminine? data/modules/nationality.json: nationality_ar_m (سعودي) and nationality_ar_f (سعودية), plus nationality_en (Saudi).

How do I validate a Saudi mobile number? parsePhone(input, byIso2("SA")) and check valid && mobile. The rule is in phone[0].mobile_pattern: 9 digits starting with 50, 51, 53 to 59 after dropping the leading 0. Arabic digits are accepted.

Why is travel.emergency.police null for some countries? Only numbers confirmed by an official source are published. If a service is null, call general.

Can I use this commercially? Yes. Code is MIT; data licences (Unicode, Apache-2.0, CC-BY-4.0, CC0, public domain) all allow commercial use with attribution where required. See LICENSE.

How current is it? An automated job checks the upstream sources monthly (population quarterly) and releases a patch when they change and every test passes. Versions are in data/meta.json.

For AI agents

Start at llms.txt and AGENTS.md. Schemas are in schema/. The MCP server (npx -y worldref mcp) offers get_country, search_countries, validate_phone and list_subdivisions. Answer from the data only and treat null as unknown.

Roadmap

Shipped in 1.2.0: time-zone offsets, subdivision types, forgiving search, the address-form helper, a changelog that lists what each automatic data release changed, and Kotlin on Maven Central.

Planned for 1.3.0 (new, non-breaking):

1. Official Arabic names: 222 rows are empty today, the largest gap in the data.
2. Cities: a new cities module with Arabic and English names, linked to each country and subdivision: capitals, subdivision capitals, and every city of 100,000 people or more.

Planned for 1.4.0: retail fuel, the fuel types sold in each country and their official retail prices, each with its source and date. A price stays until its source publishes a new one; sources are checked at least every two weeks.

Planned for 1.5.0: a full human review of every Arabic name.

Planned for 1.6.0: VAT and sales tax rates (standard and reduced), public holidays (including the Hijri-based ones), residential electricity tariffs, minimum wage, speed limits (urban, rural, motorway), vehicle number plate formats, IBAN format and length, number, date and currency formats with paper size (A4 or Letter), retirement age, mobile network codes (MCC and MNC per operator), national card and payment schemes, the school year's start month, and economy and population indicators (GDP, GDP per head, life expectancy, urban population, birth rate and more), climate (average monthly temperature and rainfall) and the official prayer-time calculation method.

Sources and licences

Code: MIT. Data: Unicode CLDR 49 (Unicode-3.0), Google libphonenumber v9.0.42 and address metadata (Apache-2.0, modified), World Bank (CC-BY-4.0), Wikidata (CC0), CIA World Factbook final edition and IANA (public domain), flag-icons (MIT), and official government sources for emergency numbers. Full texts: LICENSES/. Per-column sources and every editorial decision: data/sources.json.

Cite as: see CITATION.cff.