Arabic Number, Date and Currency Formats by Country

Arab countries do not all write numbers and dates the same way. According to Unicode CLDR, 5 of the 22 Arab League countries default to Western digits (0123456789) and 17 default to Arabic-Indic digits (٠١٢٣٤٥٦٧٨٩). The decimal mark, the month names, the first day of the week and the number of decimals in the currency differ too. The tables below give each country's default.

What the data shows

• Digits: Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia and United Arab Emirates default to Western digits (0123456789). The other 17 default to Arabic-Indic digits (٠١٢٣٤٥٦٧٨٩).
• Decimal mark: Algeria, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia use a decimal comma and a dot for thousands (1.234.567,89).
• Date order: all 22 write the day, then the month, then the year.
• Month names: there are 5 different sets of Arabic names for the Gregorian months.
• First day of the week: Saturday in 12, Monday in 8, Sunday in 2.
• Weekend: Friday and Saturday in 13, Saturday and Sunday in 9.
• Currency: 6 currencies are written with three decimals (BHD, JOD, KWD, LYD, OMR, TND) and 7 with none (KMF, DJF, IQD, LBP, SOS, SYP, YER).

Numbers

The number 1234567.89 and the percentage 15%, as each country writes them by default.

Dates and the week

12 November 2026 at 15:30 as written by default, with the first day of the week and the weekend.

Gregorian month names

Arabic has 5 sets of names for the Gregorian months. In a deck, use the names your audience uses.

Currency

The amount 1234.5 in each country's own currency. The number of decimals is part of the format: the Kuwaiti dinar takes three, the Iraqi dinar none.

Try a number and a date

Type a number and pick a date to see both in every country's format. This runs on your browser's own data, so it can differ slightly from the tables if your browser carries a different data version.

What this means for a deck or a report

• Choose digits for the audience, not for your computer's settings. A deck for Morocco or the UAE takes Western digits. Do not mix the two kinds on one slide.
• For a deck that will be seen in several countries, write the month as a word and use the name the audience knows: نوفمبر in the Gulf and Egypt, تشرين الثاني in the Levant and Iraq, نونبر in Morocco.
• Watch the decimal mark when copying figures from a spreadsheet. 1.234 is one thousand two hundred and thirty-four in Tunisia and a little over one in Saudi Arabia.
• Write Kuwaiti, Bahraini, Jordanian and Omani dinar and rial amounts with three decimals.

Check any row yourself

Every cell comes from JavaScript's standard Intl API. This line reproduces the Saudi row in any current browser or in Node:

new Intl.NumberFormat("ar-SA").format(1234567.89);   // "١٬٢٣٤٬٥٦٧٫٨٩"
new Intl.DateTimeFormat("ar-SA", { dateStyle: "long" }).format(new Date("2026-11-12"));

Limits of this data

• CLDR records one default per country. Practice is wider: many organisations in countries listed with Arabic-Indic digits publish their reports in Western digits, and the reverse.
• The data is from CLDR 48.0 and can change in later releases.
• The page covers the Gregorian calendar only.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

All formats are from the Unicode CLDR project, version 48.0 (ICU 78.3), extracted on 2026-11-12. Currency codes follow ISO 4217.

• Unicode CLDR project
• CLDR number specification (UTS #35)
• Intl.NumberFormat on MDN

Using this page

You are welcome to link to this page or quote its tables with attribution to Sharayeh.

Related

• Arabic presentation maker
• Slide sizes in inches, centimetres and pixels
• Translate a PowerPoint deck