According to Wikipedia the following countries use a period/full stop:
- Australia
- Botswana
- British West Indies
- Brunei
- China, People’s Republic of
- Dominican Republic
- Egypt
- Ghana
- Guatemala
- Honduras
- Hong Kong
- India
- Ireland
- Israel
- Japan
- Kenya
- Korea (both North and South)
- Lebanon
- Malaysia
- Malta
- Mexico
- Mongolia
- Nepal
- New Zealand
- Nicaragua
- Nigeria
- Pakistan
- Panama
- Philippines
- Singapore
- Sri Lanka
- Taiwan
- Tanzania
- Thailand
- Uganda
- United Kingdom
- United States (including insular areas)
- Zimbabwe
The following countries use commas:
- Albania
- Andorra
- Angola
- Argentina
- Armenia
- Austria
- Azerbaijan
- Belarus
- Belgium
- Bolivia
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Brazil
- Bulgaria
- Cameroon
- Chile
- Colombia
- Costa Rica
- Cuba
- Cyprus
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- East Timor
- Ecuador
- Estonia
- Faroes
- Finland
- France
- Germany
- Georgia
- Greece
- Greenland
- Iceland
- Indonesia
- Italy
- Kazakhstan
- Kosovo
- Kyrgyzstan
- Latvia
- Lebanon
- Lithuania
- Macedonia
- Moldova
- Mongolia
- Morocco
- Mozambique
- Namibia
- The Netherlands
- Norway
- Paraguay
- Peru
- Poland
- Portugal
- Romania
- Russia
- Serbia
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- South Africa
- Spain
- Sweden
- Tunisia
- Turkey
- Ukraine
- Uruguay
- Uzbekistan
- Venezuela
- Vietnam
And the following use both:
- Canada (period when using English, comma when using French)
- Croatia (comma used officially, but both forms are in use)
- Hungary (comma is official but both are used)
- Luxembourg (uses both marks officially)
- Macau (full stop in Chinese and English text and comma in Portuguese text)
- Switzerland
Finally those using Eastern Arabic numerals or momayyez include:
- Afghanistan
- Bahrain
- Iran
- Iraq
- Jordan
- Kuwait
- Oman
- Qatar
- Saudi Arabia
- Syria
- United Arab Emirates
Here’s a breakdown by region in terms of the numbers of people using each system:
Main takeaways:-
- Overall the period is used more than the comma, 66% and 28% respectively.
- Great Britain, North America and Oceania mainly uses the period as expected.
- Majority of Asia also uses the period only leaving Central Asia and the Middle East.
- The Middle East uses neither the period nor the comma, it uses the Arabic Decimal Separator.
- Europe and South America are the main regions where commas are used as their decimal separator.
- Africa is surprisingly divided between the period (52%) and the comma (38%).
And here’s a map just for Europe:
Which system do you prefer? Leave your comments below:
LOUNIS KHENICHE says
You forgot to mention Algeria on the list of countries using comma as decimal separator
Sam Nguyn says
Switzerland does not use both, it uses “comma”. In Switzerland, the apostrophe is used to group 1’000s.
net says
Comma isn’t used in computing in Switzerland. Switzerland uses a dot (.) for computer and, for handwriting comma (,) is used.
Dave says
Another wonderful example of globalization ruining the planet
Larry Rosenthal says
Only the US has insular areas? Really? Not the UK? Not Russia? Not Israel? Feh.
Hayley says
You forgot to include Montenegro where a comma is used, in line with most other countries in the Former Yugoslavia region.
Babila Tachu says
Cameroon (majority French, minority English) uses both; just like Canada (majority English, minority French) uses both.
Carlo says
Namibia and South Africa both use (only) periods and not commas. Your list is wrong.
Jan Hofmeyr says
Really? I use the comma. My firm uses the comma. All my engineering colleagues use the comma.
Point says
Russia uses and has always used point/period/full stop.
Quebec uses point/period/full stop as well. And that is most of French Canada. I assume the rest does as well. You should be able to Google it.
Please correct your list! Do not spread misinformation!
Rhialto says
Does the situation in Africa more or less match whether they used to be a French or an English colony?