An international nongovernmental organization founded in 1947 and headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. It works in 168 countries (as of 2023). Official languages are English, French and Russian. Membership is open to only national standards institutes or similar organizations that represent standardization in their country (one member per country). Individuals or businesses cannot join ISO.
Comprised of various national standards bodies, ISO develops and publishes proprietary, industrial, and commercial standards. The ISO standards are internationally agreed upon by experts in the relevant fields, and describe the best way of doing something. Examples of ISO Standards:
In addition to producing standards, ISO also publishes technical reports, frameworks, guidelines, and various types of specifications. It has published more than 24,500 international standards covering almost all aspects of technology and manufacturing. It has more than 800 Technical committees and subcommittees working on standards development.
The ISO helps to facilitate international trade by providing common standards among different countries.
ISO is not an acronym; it derives from the ancient Greek word ísos, meaning equal or equivalent. Because the organization would have different acronyms in different languages, the founders of the organization decided to call it by the short form ISO.
A related organization is European Committee for Standardization (CEN/CENELEC), which publishes some standards in parallel with ISO. Standards with the designation EN are mandatory for CEN members. An agreement is in place (Vienna Agreement) between ISO and CEN to share information, attend each other's meetings, and collaborate on standards at international and European levels.
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