Unicode® 17.0.0

2025 September 9 (Announcement)

This page summarizes the important changes for the Unicode Standard, Version 17.0.0. This version supersedes all previous versions of the Unicode Standard.

• A. Summary
• B. Technical Overview
  • Core Specification
  • Code Charts
  • Han Radical-Stroke Indices
  • Unicode Standard Annexes
  • Unicode Character Database
  • Version References
  • Errata
• C. Stability Policy Update
• D. Textual Changes and Character Additions
• E. Conformance Changes
• F. Changes in the Unicode Character Database
• G. Changes in the Unicode Standard Annexes
• H. Changes in Synchronized Unicode Technical Standards
• I. List of Components
• M. Implications for Migration

A. Summary

Unicode 17.0 adds 4803 characters, for a total of 159,801 characters. The new additions include 4 new scripts:

• Sidetic
• Tolong Siki
• Beria Erfe
• Tai Yo

New Data Files for Unicode 17.0

• No new data files have been added to the UCD for Version 17.0.

Synchronization

Several other important Unicode specifications have been updated for Version 17.0. The following four Unicode Technical Standards are versioned in synchrony with the Unicode Standard, because their data files cover the same repertoire. All have been updated to Version 17.0:

Some of the changes in Version 17.0 and associated Unicode Technical Standards may require modifications to implementations. For more information, see the migration and modification sections of UTS #10, UTS #39, UTS #46, and UTS #51.

See Sections D through H below for additional details regarding the changes in this version of the Unicode Standard, its associated annexes, and the other synchronized Unicode specifications.

See the following resource links for general information about Unicode versions and other information about the Unicode Standard and other publications of the Unicode Consortium.

• Archive of Unicode Versions
• About Versions
• Glossary of Unicode Terms
• References for the Unicode Standard
• Unicode Acknowledgements
• Technical Reports
• Unicode Emoji

B. Technical Overview

Version 17.0 of the Unicode Standard consists of:

• The core specification
• The code charts (delta and archival) for this version
• The Unicode Standard Annexes
• The Unicode Character Database (UCD)

The core specification gives the general principles, requirements for conformance, and guidelines for implementers. The code charts show representative glyphs for all the Unicode characters. The Unicode Standard Annexes supply detailed normative information about particular aspects of the standard. The Unicode Character Database supplies normative and informative data for implementers to allow them to implement the Unicode Standard.

Core Specification

The core specification for Version 17.0 is available for browsing online as per-chapter web pages. Because the full table of contents for the core specification is provided, with interactive links, no separate bookmarks page is provided for this release, nor are separate chapter links provided directly in this summary page for the Unicode Standard. Anchors for chapters, sections, tables, and figures in the core specification are shown with the convention of a "#" in the left margin of the heading or caption. Those anchors can be clicked on to provide custom bookmarks to any particular portion of the text, down to the level of subsections. Numbering of sections extends down to the subsection level, as well, to provide better referenceabiity of precise content.

The HTML version of the core specification is authoritative. However, for convenience of reference, an archival version of core specification is also available as a single pdf. (13 MB)

Code Charts

Several sets of code charts are available. They serve different purposes:

The delta and archival code charts are a stable part of this release of the Unicode Standard. They will never be updated.

Han Radical-Stroke Indices

There are a number of radical-stroke indices available to assist in the lookup of Han ideographs in the code charts.

The complete radical-stroke index is a stable part of this release of the Unicode Standard. It will never be updated.

Unicode Standard Annexes

Links to the individual Unicode Standard Annexes for this version are available in Section I, List of Components below. The summary list of significant changes in the content of each Unicode Standard Annex for Version 17.0 can be found in Section G, Changes in the Unicode Standard Annexes below.

Unicode Character Database

Data files for Version 17.0 of the Unicode Character Database are available. The ReadMe.txt in that directory provides a roadmap to the functions of the various subdirectories. Detailed documentation about the data files can be found in UAX #44, Unicode Character Database.

Version References

Version 17.0.0 of the Unicode Standard should be referenced as:

The Unicode Consortium. The Unicode Standard, Version 17.0.0, (South San Francisco: The Unicode Consortium, 2025. ISBN 978-1-936213-35-1)
https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode17.0.0/

The terms “Version 17.0” or “Unicode 17.0” are abbreviations for the full version reference, Version 17.0.0.

The citation and permalink for the latest published version of the Unicode Standard is:

The Unicode Consortium. The Unicode Standard.
https://www.unicode.org/versions/latest/

A complete specification of the contributory files for Unicode 17.0 is found below in Section I, List of Components. For examples of how to cite particular portions of the Unicode Standard, see also the Reference Examples.

Errata

Errata incorporated into Unicode 17.0 are listed by date in a separate table. For corrigenda and errata after the release of Unicode 17.0, see the list of current Updates and Errata.

C. Stability Policy Update

No significant updates to the Character Encoding Stability Policies have occurred in the interval since the last release of the Unicode Standard.

D. Textual Changes and Character Additions

Changes in the Unicode Standard Annexes are listed in Section G.

Character Assignment Overview

4803 characters have been added. Most character additions are in new blocks, but there are also character additions to a number of existing blocks. For details, see the delta code charts.

New Blocks

The following blocks are newly defined in Version 17.0:

E. Conformance Changes

There are no new conformance requirements for the core specification in Unicode 17.0.

F. Changes in the Unicode Character Database

The detailed listing of all changes to the contributory data files of the Unicode Character Database for Version 17.0 can be found in UAX #44, Unicode Character Database. The changes listed there include character additions and property revisions to existing characters that will affect implementations. Some of the important impacts on implementations migrating from earlier versions of the standard are highlighted in Section M.

G. Changes in the Unicode Standard Annexes

In Version 17.0, some of the Unicode Standard Annexes have had significant revisions. The most important of these changes are listed below. For the full details of all changes, see the Modifications section of each UAX, linked directly from the following list of UAXes.

H. Changes in Synchronized Unicode Technical Standards

There are also significant revisions in the Unicode Technical Standards whose versions are synchronized with the Unicode Standard. The most important of these changes are listed below. For the full details of all changes, see the Modifications section of each UTS, linked directly from the following list of UTSes.

I. List of Components

This section lists the components of Version 17.0.0 of the Unicode Standard. The version numbering and the role of each component are explained in Versions of The Unicode Standard.

M. Implications for Migration

There are a significant number of changes in Unicode 17.0 which may impact implementations upgrading to Version 17.0 from earlier versions of the standard. The most important of these are listed and explained here, to help focus on the issues most likely to cause unexpected trouble during upgrades.

Core Specification Changes

The navigation bar for the core specification has been improved. New content has been added for Unicode 17.0, and many other improvements have been made to the text. In particular, many tables have been updated for better display, and the representative glyphs for many more Unicode characters in examples and citations are now displayed directly in the text.

Script-related Changes

There are four new scripts encoded in Unicode 17.0. One of these scripts, Tai Yo, has complex layout.

General Character Property Issues

• Note the change of field labels in TangutSources.txt and NushuSources.txt.

Security and Identifier-related Issues (See UAX #31 and UTS #39.)

The Identifier_Type character property affects which characters are included in the General Security Profile for identifiers, which is a default recommendation for identifiers used in secure contexts. Depending on the Identifier_Type property value, characters are included (Identifier_Status = Allowed) or excluded (Identifier_Status = Restricted).

For Unicode 17.0, the assignments of Identifier_Type for all existing characters in recommended scripts were reviewed and updated to match the best currently available data on usage. Note changes to Identifier_Type for numerous characters, particularly those whose associated Identifier_Status changed from Allowed to Restricted. See Choosing Identifier_Type Values in UTS #39 for an associated explanation of the rationale behind these changes.

• Han Ideographs—instead of making all ideographs Recommended by default, they are now all Uncommon_Use, except for one fixed set of 19,842 Han ideographs in modern common use that are widely implemented across identifier systems. This changes the Identifier_Status of 77,838 Han characters from Allowed to Restricted
• Non ideographic characters—as result of review, the following changes occurred:
  • 36 existing characters changed to Identifier_Status = Allowed as a result of Identifier_Type changes to Recommended or Inclusion.
  • 1,099 characters changed to Identifier_Status = Restricted as a result of Identifier_Type changes to Obsolete, Technical or Uncommon_Use.
  • Some characters changed Identifier_Type without affecting their Identifier_Status as Restricted.
• Bopomofo—the Bopomofo script is primarily limited to educational use. As a result the script has been reclassified as Limited_Use, making 74 Bopomofo characters Restricted.
• One newly-encoded character was assigned Identifier_Status = Allowed.

Segmentation (See UAX #14.)

UTC 181 approved a significant change to the linebreaking algorithm that introduces a new Line_Break character property value, Unambiguous_Hyphen. The need for this originated in changes related to handling of hyphens in Hebrew that had been approved for Unicode 16.0 (see decision 179-C25) but that proved to be problematic when being implemented in ICU. A temporary fix was made for Unicode 16.0 (see 180-C18 and section 5.6 of L2/24-162). The change for Unicode 17.0 is a more complete fix to those issues. See 181-C53 and section 6.1 of L2/24-224 for complete details.

U+034F COMBINING GRAPHEME JOINER (CGJ) is not frequently used but is essential for certain situations, including in German and in Biblical Hebrew text. Although CGJ was first added to Unicode 3.2 in 2002, it has been difficult to specify stable character properties and segmentation rules for it. An analysis of the issues has now been done. A detailed history of how the handling of this character in Unicode’s specifications has evolved over the years has been added to UAX #14. See Section 6.3 of L2/24-224 for details.

Numeric Property Issues

There is one new set of decimal digits added in Unicode 17.0, for the newly encoded Tolong Siki script. Implementations of numeric values and numeric formatting should take this new set into account.

CJK/Unihan Changes

• The new CJK Unified Ideographs Extension J block with 4,298 ideographs pushes the number of CJK ideographs to over 100,000.
• 18 urgently needed ideographs were added to the ends of the Extension C and D blocks.
• horizontal extension for 2,144 G-source ideographs
• horizontal extension for 306 K-source ideographs
• changes to 1,694 G-source references
• kTotalStrokes syntax change
• glyph changes for 47 G-source ideographs
• glyph changes for 384 T-source ideographs
• glyph changes for 340 J-source ideographs
• glyph changes for 1 K-source ideograph
• glyph changes for 26 V-source ideographs

See UAX #38, Unicode Han Database (Unihan) for further details on these changes

Standardized Variation Sequences

• A significant number of new standardized variation sequences have been added in Version 17.0, including 42 sequences for rotated forms of Egyptian hieroglyphs and 4 sequences for Sibe forms of quotation marks.

Changes to Code Charts

• There are a number of other Han glyph updates.
• Other glyph updates are listed explicitly in the delta charts index page.
• The two code charts for Egyptian hieroglyphs contain extensive functional and phonetic information derived from the data file Unikemet.txt, and have notable further updates for Version 17.0.

Collation-related Changes

The former documentation file, CollationTest.html, has been merged into a new section of UTS #10.

The DUCET ordering of Tangut components with respect to Tangut ideographs has been modified. See Table 16, Computing Implicit Weights, in UTS #10 for details.

Emoji Changes

For details about emoji changes, see the Unicode 17.0 emoji charts and Emoji Recently Added, v17.0.