An Up-To-Date List of Hreflang Language and Country Codes

Are you looking for a list of hreflang language codes, or country codes, or both?

Here you can find a comprehensive list and how to implement them avoiding common mistakes and achieving precise targeting and better user experience.

These powerful HTML attributes can vastly improve the way search engines understand and serve your multilingual web content.

But what is a Hreflang Tag?

The hreflang tag is an HTML attribute that specifies the language and geographic targeting of a webpage.

They are pivotal in guiding search engines to comprehend a webpage’s language and regional targeting, because the HTML annotation directs search engine bots and users to display the correct language or regional URL in search results.

This ensures convenient access to the desired content for users worldwide who speak different languages. To achieve this, it is essential to include the rel alternate hreflang attribute:

However, sometimes, a webpage might not be tailored to any specific region or language. For such situations, the hreflang=”x-default” attribute can be used to indicate a default page that should be served to users when no other language or regional variant is applicable.

These tags are composed of :

• the html tag: link rel=”alternate”
• reference to the target site href=”http://miweb.com”
• the hreflang tag and its attribute : hreflang=” “

These tags are composed of one of these three:

• a language code
• a country code
• both

When combined, it provides search engines with the necessary information to serve the most relevant content to users based on their language and location preferences.

For example, if you have a multilingual website with content primarily in Spanish targetting Spain, then content in Spanish targeting users in Mexico and also targeting users in the United States in English, you would use hreflang tags to specify the different language-country combinations.

Note that if the main and dominant language is Spanish, the hreflang implementation should be like this :

Those annotations ensure that search engines display the correct version of the homepage to users respectively in each country, greatly enhancing the user experience and improving SEO performance.

Comprehensive List of Hreflang Language Codes

Knowing the correct language codes based on the ISO 639-1 standard is key for effective use of hreflang tags. This standard provides a two-letter code system used to represent languages, which is integral to the hreflang attribute and its ability to target specific languages and regions.

For a complete list of hreflang language codes, refer to section 2.

ISO 639-1 Language Codes

ISO 639-1 language codes are two-letter codes employed to denote languages in hreflang tags, such as ‘lo’ to target Lao speakers in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, or ‘da’ to target Danish speakers.

These codes are essential for specifying the language of a webpage, allowing search engines to better understand and serve your content to the right audience.

When applying hreflang tags, using lowercase for language codes is crucial, conforming to the ISO 3166 convention. This ensures that your implementation adheres to global standards and improves your website’s compatibility with various search engines and platforms.

Language	Hreflang Code
Afar	aa
Abkhaz	ab
Avestan	ae
Afrikaans	af
Akan	ak
Amharic	am
Aragonese	an
Arabic	ar
Assamese	as
Avaric	av
Aymara	ay
Azerbaijani	az
Bashkir	ba
Belarusian	be
Bulgarian	bg
Bihari	bh
Bislama	bi
Bambara	bm
Bengali, Bangla	bn
Tibetan Standard, Tibetan, Central	bo
Breton	br
Bosnian	bs
Catalan, Valencian	ca
Chechen	ce
Chamorro	ch
Corsican	co
Cree	cr
Czech	cs
Old Church Slavonic, Church Slavonic, Old Bulgarian	cu
Chuvash	cv
Welsh	cy
Danish	da
German	de
Divehi, Dhivehi, Maldivian	dv
Dzongkha	dz
Ewe	ee
Greek (modern)	el
English	en
Esperanto	eo
Spanish, Castilian	es
Estonian	et
Basque	eu
Persian (Farsi)	fa
Fula, Fulah, Pulaar, Pular	ff
Finnish	fi
Fijian	fj
Faroese	fo
French	fr
Western Frisian	fy
Irish	ga
Scottish Gaelic, Gaelic	gd
Galician	gl
Guaraní	gn
Gujarati	gu
Manx	gv
Hausa	ha
Hebrew (modern)	he
Hindi	hi
Hiri Motu	ho
Croatian	hr
Haitian, Haitian Creole	ht
Hungarian	hu
Armenian	hy
Herero	hz
Interlingua	ia
Indonesian	id
Interlingue	ie
Igbo	ig
Nuosu	ii
Inupiaq	ik
Ido	io
Icelandic	is
Italian	it
Inuktitut	iu
Japanese	ja
Javanese	jv
Georgian	ka
Kongo	kg
Kikuyu, Gikuyu	ki
Kwanyama, Kuanyama	kj
Kazakh	kk
Kalaallisut, Greenlandic	kl
Khmer	km
Kannada	kn
Korean	ko
Kanuri	kr
Kashmiri	ks
Kurdish	ku
Komi	kv
Cornish	kw
Kyrgyz	ky
Latin	la
Luxembourgish, Letzeburgesch	lb
Ganda	lg
Limburgish, Limburgan, Limburger	li
Lingala	ln
Lao	lo
Lithuanian	lt
Luba-Katanga	lu
Latvian	lv
Malagasy	mg
Marshallese	mh
Māori	mi
Macedonian	mk
Malayalam	ml
Mongolian	mn
Marathi (Marāṭhī)	mr
Malay	ms
Maltese	mt
Burmese	my
Nauru	na
Norwegian Bokmål	nb
Northern Ndebele	nd
Nepali	ne
Ndonga	ng
Dutch	nl
Norwegian Nynorsk	nn
Norwegian	no
Southern Ndebele	nr
Navajo, Navaho	nv
Chichewa, Chewa, Nyanja	ny
Occitan	oc
Ojibwe, Ojibwa	oj
Oromo	om
Oriya	or
Ossetian, Ossetic	os
Panjabi, Punjabi	pa
Pāli	pi
Polish	pl
Pashto, Pushto	ps
Portuguese	pt
Quechua	qu
Romansh	rm
Kirundi	rn
Romanian	ro
Russian	ru
Kinyarwanda	rw
Sanskrit (Saṁskṛta)	sa
Sardinian	sc
Sindhi	sd
Northern Sami	se
Sango	sg
Sinhala, Sinhalese	si
Slovak	sk
Slovene	sl
Samoan	sm
Shona	sn
Somali	so
Albanian	sq
Serbian	sr
Swati	ss
Southern Sotho	st
Sundanese	su
Swedish	sv
Swahili	sw
Tamil	ta
Telugu	te
Tajik	tg
Thai	th
Tigrinya	ti
Turkmen	tk
Tagalog	tl
Tswana	tn
Tonga (Tonga Islands)	to
Turkish	tr
Tsonga	ts
Tatar	tt
Twi	tw
Tahitian	ty
Uyghur, Uighur	ug
Ukrainian	uk
Urdu	ur
Uzbek	uz
Venda	ve
Vietnamese	vi
Volapük	vo
Walloon	wa
Wolof	wo
Xhosa	xh
Yiddish	yi
Yoruba	yo
Zhuang, Chuang	za
Chinese	zh
Zulu	zu

Comprehensive List of Hreflang Country Codes

Knowing the correct country codes based on the ISO 3166-1 standard is as crucial as understanding language codes. This standard provides a set of two-letter codes used to represent countries, dependent territories, and special areas of geographical interest.

For instance, the British VG Virgin Islands have their own unique country code, as do the Caicos Islands, the island and McDonald Islands, Malta MT Marshall Islands, and minor outlying islands.

ISO 3166-1 Country Codes

ISO 3166-1 country codes are two-letter codes utilized to denote countries in hreflang tags, allowing for more precise targeting of specific regions and audiences. These codes are crucial for accurately specifying the country that a webpage is targeting, ensuring that your content is served to the right location.

When implementing hreflang tags, it’s essential to use the ISO 3166-1 Alpha 2 code format for country codes (in capital letters). This ensures that your implementation adheres to global standards, improving your website’s compatibility with various search engines and platforms.

Country	3166-1 Codes
Afghanistan	AF
Åland Islands	AX
Albania	AL
Algeria	DZ
American Samoa	AS
Andorra	AD
Angola	AO
Anguilla	AI
Antarctica	AQ
Antigua and Barbuda	AG
Argentina	AR
Armenia	AM
Aruba	AW
Australia	AU
Austria	AT
Azerbaijan	AZ
Bahamas	BS
Bahrain	BH
Bangladesh	BD
Barbados	BB
Belarus	BY
Belgium	BE
Belize	BZ
Benin	BJ
Bermuda	BM
Bhutan	BT
Bolivia, Plurinational State of	BO
Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba	BQ
Bosnia and Herzegovina	BA
Botswana	BW
Bouvet Island	BV
Brazil	BR
British Indian Ocean Territory	IO
Brunei Darussalam	BN
Bulgaria	BG
Burkina Faso	BF
Burundi	BI
Cambodia	KH
Cameroon	CM
Canada	CA
Cabo Verde	CV
Cayman Islands	KY
Central African Republic	CF
Chad	TD
Chile	CL
China	CN
Christmas Island	CX
Cocos (Keeling) Islands	CC
Colombia	CO
Comoros	KM
Congo	CG
Congo, the Democratic Republic of the	CD
Cook Islands	CK
Costa Rica	CR
Côte d’Ivoire	CI
Croatia	HR
Cuba	CU
Curaçao	CW
Cyprus	CY
Czech Republic	CZ
Denmark	DK
Djibouti	DJ
Dominica	DM
Dominican Republic	DO
Ecuador	EC
Egypt	EG
El Salvador	SV
Equatorial Guinea	GQ
Eritrea	ER
Estonia	EE
Ethiopia	ET
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)	FK
Faroe Islands	FO
Fiji	FJ
Finland	FI
France	FR
French Guiana	GF
French Polynesia	PF
French Southern Territories	TF
Gabon	GA
Gambia	GM
Georgia	GE
Germany	DE
Ghana	GH
Gibraltar	GI
Greece	GR
Greenland	GL
Grenada	GD
Guadeloupe	GP
Guam	GU
Guatemala	GT
Guernsey	GG
Guinea	GN
Guinea-Bissau	GW
Guyana	GY
Haiti	HT
Heard Island and McDonald Islands	HM
Holy See (Vatican City State)	VA
Honduras	HN
Hong Kong	HK
Hungary	HU
Iceland	IS
India	IN
Indonesia	ID
Iran, Islamic Republic of	IR
Iraq	IQ
Ireland	IE
Isle of Man	IM
Israel	IL
Italy	IT
Jamaica	JM
Japan	JP
Jersey	JE
Jordan	JO
Kazakhstan	KZ
Kenya	KE
Kiribati	KI
Korea, Democratic People’s Republic of	KP
Korea, Republic of	KR
Kuwait	KW
Kyrgyzstan	KG
Lao People’s Democratic Republic	LA
Latvia	LV
Lebanon	LB
Lesotho	LS
Liberia	LR
Libya	LY
Liechtenstein	LI
Lithuania	LT
Luxembourg	LU
Macao	MO
Macedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of	MK
Madagascar	MG
Malawi	MW
Malaysia	MY
Maldives	MV
Mali	ML
Malta	MT
Marshall Islands	MH
Martinique	MQ
Mauritania	MR
Mauritius	MU
Mayotte	YT
Mexico	MX
Micronesia, Federated States of	FM
Moldova, Republic of	MD
Monaco	MC
Mongolia	MN
Montenegro	ME
Montserrat	MS
Morocco	MA
Mozambique	MZ
Myanmar	MM
Namibia	NA
Nauru	NR
Nepal	NP
Netherlands	NL
New Caledonia	NC
New Zealand	NZ
Nicaragua	NI
Niger	NE
Nigeria	NG
Niue	NU
Norfolk Island	NF
Northern Mariana Islands	MP
Norway	NO
Oman	OM
Pakistan	PK
Palau	PW
Palestine, State of	PS
Panama	PA
Papua New Guinea	PG
Paraguay	PY
Peru	PE
Philippines	PH
Pitcairn	PN
Poland	PL
Portugal	PT
Puerto Rico	PR
Qatar	QA
Réunion	RE
Romania	RO
Russian Federation	RU
Rwanda	RW
Saint Barthélemy	BL
Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha	SH
Saint Kitts and Nevis	KN
Saint Lucia	LC
Saint Martin (French part)	MF
Saint Pierre and Miquelon	PM
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	VC
Samoa	WS
San Marino	SM
Sao Tome and Principe	ST
Saudi Arabia	SA
Senegal	SN
Serbia	RS
Seychelles	SC
Sierra Leone	SL
Singapore	SG
Sint Maarten (Dutch part)	SX
Slovakia	SK
Slovenia	SI
Solomon Islands	SB
Somalia	SO
South Africa	ZA
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands	GS
South Sudan	SS
Spain	ES
Sri Lanka	LK
Sudan	SD
Suriname	SR
Svalbard and Jan Mayen	SJ
Swaziland	SZ
Sweden	SE
Switzerland	CH
Syrian Arab Republic	SY
Taiwan, Province of China	TW
Tajikistan	TJ
Tanzania, United Republic of	TZ
Thailand	TH
Timor-Leste	TL
Togo	TG
Tokelau	TK
Tonga	TO
Trinidad and Tobago	TT
Tunisia	TN
Turkey	TR
Turkmenistan	TM
Turks and Caicos Islands	TC
Tuvalu	TV
Uganda	UG
Ukraine	UA
United Arab Emirates	AE
United Kingdom	GB
United States	US
United States Minor Outlying Islands	UM
Uruguay	UY
Uzbekistan	UZ
Vanuatu	VU
Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of	VE
Viet Nam	VN
Virgin Islands, British	VG
Virgin Islands, U.S.	VI
Wallis and Futuna	WF
Western Sahara	EH
Yemen	YE
Zambia	ZM
Zimbabwe	ZW

Combining both Language and Country Codes

When targeting specific countries and languages using hreflang tags, it’s crucial to use the appropriate language and country codes in combination, as per the ISO standards. For example, if you want to target Spanish speakers in Spain, you would use the combiner hreflang attribute “es-ES”.

Accurate combination of language and country codes is necessary to achieve precise targeting with hreflang tags. By doing so, you can better specify the language variant used in a particular country or region, allowing for more precise language targeting and localization within numerous applications and systems.

Here’s detailed guidance to combine language and country codes:

Language Culture Name	Display Name
af-ZA	Afrikaans – South Africa
sq-AL	Albanian – Albania
ar-DZ	Arabic – Algeria
ar-BH	Arabic – Bahrain
ar-EG	Arabic – Egypt
ar-IQ	Arabic – Iraq
ar-JO	Arabic – Jordan
ar-KW	Arabic – Kuwait
ar-LB	Arabic – Lebanon
ar-LY	Arabic – Libya
ar-MA	Arabic – Morocco
ar-OM	Arabic – Oman
ar-QA	Arabic – Qatar
ar-SA	Arabic – Saudi Arabia
ar-SY	Arabic – Syria
ar-TN	Arabic – Tunisia
ar-AE	Arabic – United Arab Emirates
ar-YE	Arabic – Yemen
hy-AM	Armenian – Armenia
Cy-az-AZ	Azeri (Cyrillic) – Azerbaijan
Lt-az-AZ	Azeri (Latin) – Azerbaijan
eu-ES	Basque – Spain
be-BY	Belarusian – Belarus
bg-BG	Bulgarian – Bulgaria
ca-ES	Catalan – Spain
zh-CN	Chinese – China
zh-HK	Chinese – Hong Kong SAR
zh-MO	Chinese – Macau SAR
zh-SG	Chinese – Singapore
zh-TW	Chinese – Taiwan
zh-CHS	Chinese (Simplified)
zh-CHT	Chinese (Traditional)
hr-HR	Croatian – Croatia
cs-CZ	Czech – Czech Republic
da-DK	Danish – Denmark
div-MV	Dhivehi – Maldives
nl-BE	Dutch – Belgium
nl-NL	Dutch – The Netherlands
en-AU	English – Australia
en-BZ	English – Belize
en-CA	English – Canada
en-CB	English – Caribbean
en-IE	English – Ireland
en-JM	English – Jamaica
en-NZ	English – New Zealand
en-PH	English – Philippines
en-ZA	English – South Africa
en-TT	English – Trinidad and Tobago
en-GB	English – United Kingdom
en-US	English – United States
en-ZW	English – Zimbabwe
et-EE	Estonian – Estonia
fo-FO	Faroese – Faroe Islands
fa-IR	Farsi – Iran
fi-FI	Finnish – Finland
fr-BE	French – Belgium
fr-CA	French – Canada
fr-FR	French – France
fr-LU	French – Luxembourg
fr-MC	French – Monaco
fr-CH	French – Switzerland
gl-ES	Galician – Galician
ka-GE	Georgian – Georgia
de-AT	German – Austria
de-DE	German – Germany
de-LI	German – Liechtenstein
de-LU	German – Luxembourg
de-CH	German – Switzerland
el-GR	Greek – Greece
gu-IN	Gujarati – India
he-IL	Hebrew – Israel
hi-IN	Hindi – India
hu-HU	Hungarian – Hungary
is-IS	Icelandic – Iceland
id-ID	Indonesian – Indonesia
it-IT	Italian – Italy
it-CH	Italian – Switzerland
ja-JP	Japanese – Japan
kn-IN	Kannada – India
kk-KZ	Kazakh – Kazakhstan
kok-IN	Konkani – India
ko-KR	Korean – Korea
ky-KZ	Kyrgyz – Kazakhstan
lv-LV	Latvian – Latvia
lt-LT	Lithuanian – Lithuania
mk-MK	Macedonian (FYROM)
ms-BN	Malay – Brunei
ms-MY	Malay – Malaysia
mr-IN	Marathi – India
mn-MN	Mongolian – Mongolia
nb-NO	Norwegian (Bokmål) – Norway
nn-NO	Norwegian (Nynorsk) – Norway
pl-PL	Polish – Poland
pt-BR	Portuguese – Brazil
pt-PT	Portuguese – Portugal
pa-IN	Punjabi – India
ro-RO	Romanian – Romania
ru-RU	Russian – Russia
sa-IN	Sanskrit – India
Cy-sr-SP	Serbian (Cyrillic) – Serbia
Lt-sr-SP	Serbian (Latin) – Serbia
sk-SK	Slovak – Slovakia
sl-SI	Slovenian – Slovenia
es-AR	Spanish – Argentina
es-BO	Spanish – Bolivia
es-CL	Spanish – Chile
es-CO	Spanish – Colombia
es-CR	Spanish – Costa Rica
es-DO	Spanish – Dominican Republic
es-EC	Spanish – Ecuador
es-SV	Spanish – El Salvador
es-GT	Spanish – Guatemala
es-HN	Spanish – Honduras
es-MX	Spanish – Mexico
es-NI	Spanish – Nicaragua
es-PA	Spanish – Panama
es-PY	Spanish – Paraguay
es-PE	Spanish – Peru
es-PR	Spanish – Puerto Rico
es-ES	Spanish – Spain
es-UY	Spanish – Uruguay
es-VE	Spanish – Venezuela
sw-KE	Swahili – Kenya
sv-FI	Swedish – Finland
sv-SE	Swedish – Sweden
syr-SY	Syriac – Syria
ta-IN	Tamil – India
tt-RU	Tatar – Russia
te-IN	Telugu – India
th-TH	Thai – Thailand
tr-TR	Turkish – Turkey
uk-UA	Ukrainian – Ukraine
ur-PK	Urdu – Pakistan
Cy-uz-UZ	Uzbek (Cyrillic) – Uzbekistan
Lt-uz-UZ	Uzbek (Latin) – Uzbekistan
vi-VN	Vietnamese – Vietnam

By specifying both language and country codes correctly, you ensure that search engines serve the most relevant content to your users, based on their same language and location preferences.

To avoid common mistakes when combining language and country codes, always double-check the codes you’re using and ensure that they adhere to the ISO standards.

The above table is not comprehensive and can get more sophisticated than that, eg:

ca-ES-valencia for Catalan (Valencian)

Hreflang Implementation

There are three main methods for implementing hreflang tags :

• via HTML (using the HTML link element)
• HTTP headers
• XML sitemap,

HTTP Headers Implementation

Using HTTP headers to implement hreflang tags is ideal for non-HTML files, such as PDFs or images, that still need to be targeted based on language and region.

To implement hreflang tags using HTTP headers, you’ll need to include the hreflang attribute in the HTTP header of your website, specifying the language and country codes in the ‘hreflang’ header field.

Though this method is more technical than implementing hreflang tags within your HTML code, it offers the advantage of targeting non-HTML files with language and country-specific content.

XML Sitemap Implementation

Adding hreflang tags to your XML sitemap is a great way to organize and manage your hreflang implementation on websites with large number of pages or multiple language-country combinations.

To add hreflang tags to your XML sitemap, you’ll need to include a xhtml:link> element for each language and country combination, with the hreflang attribute specifying the language and country code for the page.

Implementing hreflang tags in your XML sitemap offers the advantage of better organization and management, allowing you to easily update or modify your hreflang implementation as needed.

Hreflang Testing and Validation

It’s essential to test and validate your implementation using various hreflang testing tools and techniques to ensure that your tags are accurately set up and correctly targeting the desired regions and audiences:

• Google Search Console (not available any more)
• Hreflang Tags Generator
• Hreflang Validators

These tools analyze your website’s code for hreflang tags and verify if the tags are accurately implemented and performing as expected. They can detect any mistakes or problems with your hreflang tags, such as missing or incorrect language or country codes.

By using hreflang testing tools, you can:

• Ensure that your implementation is accurate and compliant with global standards
• Improve your website’s compatibility with various search engines and platforms
• Detect and fix any common errors or issues with your hreflang tags
• Ensure that your content is served to the right audience in the right locations.

Common Validation Issues and Solutions

When combining language and country codes in hreflang tags, it’s common to make errors, such as using incorrect codes, not taking into account different language lengths, or mixing language and country codes incorrectly.

Example: UK instead of GB for the United Kingdom

To prevent these issues, it’s essential to utilize the appropriate ISO codes and ensure that your implementation is accurate and compliant with global standards.

Common validation issues with hreflang tags include incorrect language codes, incorrect country codes, and incorrect URLs. To fix these issues, double-check the language and country codes you’re using, and ensure that they adhere to the ISO standards.

Additionally, verify that the URLs in your hreflang tags are correct and functioning as intended.

Here’s some of the common mistakes:

1. Putting Country code before Language code – should be other way round
2. Using a dash (–) instead of a hyphen (-)
3. Using wrong quotation marks (“ ”) instead of (” “)
4. Using a relative URL e.g. /usa/ instead of showing a full URL
5. Using country code only: language code is mandatory, country code is optional
6. Missing self-referencing Hreflang: there should be only one Hreflang tag pointing to the page you’re on
7. Multiple Hreflang tags for a single page
8. Hreflang and Canonical tags in conflict: Hreflang and Canonicals are not supposed to be combined

By addressing common validation issues and troubleshooting your hreflang implementation to ensure it is accurate and compliant you will, no doubt, boost your website’s SEO for international exposure.

Furthermore, this will ensure that your content is served to the right audience in the right locations, ultimately enhancing the user experience and boosting your site’s SEO performance.

Conclusion

In conclusion, hreflang tags play a crucial role in improving the user experience and search engine optimization of your multilingual website.

By combining language and country codes accurately, implementing hreflang tags using the appropriate method, and testing and validating your implementation, you can ensure that your website’s content is served to the right users in the right locations.

Don’t underestimate how easy it is to set up hreflang incorrectly, by mistake. You need a proper implementation and validation method in place to ensure 100% compliance. If you would like your hreflang implementation to be audited, feel free to contact me for a quote.

In a nutshell:

• Hreflang tags are essential for search engines to identify language and region, leading to improved SEO & user experience.
• Combining language & country codes is essential for accurate targeting with hreflang tags, following ISO 639-1 and 3166 standards.
• To ensure accuracy in targeting desired regions & audiences, use appropriate ISO codes and test/validate the implementation of hreflang tags on your website.

Frequently Asked Questions