Typing Hero App typingheroapp.com
The Most Common Keyboard Layouts Around the World — Map and Stats

The Most Common Keyboard Layouts Around the World — Map and Stats

· 3 min read · by Robin Érsek-Obádovics

The world doesn't all type QWERTY. Different regions adopted different layouts based on language needs, historical accidents, and national standards. Here's a world tour of the most common keyboard layouts and where you'll encounter them.

The major layout families

QWERTY family

  • Latin alphabet countries
  • US, UK, Canada, Australia, Latin America, India, etc.
  • Variants for accent characters

QWERTZ family

  • Central European German/Slavic
  • Germany, Switzerland, Hungary, Czech, Slovakia
  • Y/Z swap from QWERTY

AZERTY family

  • French-speaking countries
  • France, Belgium, parts of Africa
  • Major rearrangement from QWERTY

Cyrillic (ЙЦУКЕН)

  • Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, etc.
  • Different alphabets entirely
  • Layout name from top-left letters

Specialized

  • БДС Bulgarian
  • Greek QWERTY (Latin mapping)
  • One-off national standards

QWERTY variants by country

QWERTY-US (universal)

  • USA, Canada (English), Australia, NZ
  • Default everywhere else for English

QWERTY-UK

  • UK, Ireland
  • £ pound, @ swap, # key differences

QWERTY-ES (Spanish)

  • Spain
  • ñ direct key, ¿¡ direct keys

QWERTY-IT (Italian)

  • Italy
  • Accented vowels direct keys

QWERTY-PT (Portuguese)

  • Portugal
  • Cedilla c, accented vowels

QWERTY-BR (Brazilian ABNT2)

  • Brazil
  • Different from QWERTY-PT
  • Unique layout, more direct chars

QWERTY-PL (Polish Programmer's)

  • Poland
  • AltGr for diacritics

QWERTY-TR (Turkish-Q)

  • Turkey
  • ç, ş, ğ, ö, ü, ı, İ direct keys

Scandinavian

  • SE/FI: Sweden/Finland share layout
  • NO/DK: Norway/Denmark share layout
  • IS: Iceland (þ, ð, æ)
  • FO: Faroe Islands (rare)

Eastern European Latin

  • EE: Estonia (õ, ä, ö, ü)
  • LV: Latvia (ŪGJRMV unique)
  • LT: Lithuania (ĄŽERTY unique — replaces number row)

Other

  • MT: Malta (ġ, ħ, ż, ċ)
  • AZ: Azerbaijani (ə, ğ, ş)
  • VN: Vietnamese (IME)

QWERTZ variants

QWERTZ-DE (German)

  • Germany, Austria
  • ä, ö, ü, ß direct keys

QWERTZ-CH (Swiss-German)

  • Switzerland
  • French + German combined

QWERTZ-HU (Hungarian)

  • Hungary
  • ő, ű unique
  • ä on AltGr

QWERTZ-CS (Czech)

  • Czech Republic
  • Number row diacritics
  • ě, š, č, ř, ž, ý, á, í, é

QWERTZ-SK (Slovak)

  • Slovakia
  • Close to Czech, some differences

QWERTZ-RO (Romanian)

  • Romania
  • ă, â, î, ș, ț direct

QWERTZ-HR / SL / BA / SR-Latn

  • Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia, Serbian Latin
  • Č, Ć, Ž, Š, Đ direct keys

QWERTZ-AL (Albanian)

  • Albania
  • Ç, Ë direct

AZERTY variants

AZERTY-FR (French)

  • France
  • A/Q and W/Z swapped
  • Number row inverted (numbers via Shift)

AZERTY-BE (Belgian)

  • Belgium
  • Slight differences from FR
  • Multilingual context

Cyrillic variants

ЙЦУКЕН (RU - Russian)

  • Russia
  • Foundation for Cyrillic layouts

ЙЦУКЕН (UA - Ukrainian)

  • Ukraine
  • і replaces ы, ї replaces ъ, є replaces э

ЙЦУКЕН (BY - Belarusian)

  • Belarus
  • ў replaces щ (unique Belarusian letter)

БДС (BG - Bulgarian)

  • Bulgaria
  • Unique non-ЙЦУКЕН design
  • Vowels on left home row

Greek

QWERTY-GR (Greek)

  • Greece
  • Greek letters mapped to phonetic QWERTY positions
  • Easy for QWERTY users to transition

Estimated user counts

  • QWERTY family: ~3 billion+ users
  • QWERTZ family: ~150 million
  • AZERTY family: ~150 million
  • Cyrillic family: ~250 million
  • Other (CJK, Arabic, etc.): 2 billion+

QWERTY dominates globally due to:

  • USA tech industry influence
  • English as lingua franca
  • Open Source software defaults
  • Mobile keyboard defaults

Why so many layouts?

Language phonology

  • French needs accented letters → AZERTY adapted
  • German needs umlauts + ß → QWERTZ adapted
  • Russian needs Cyrillic → ЙЦУКЕН

National pride

  • Some countries chose unique standards
  • Bulgaria's БДС distinct from Russian

Historical accident

  • Sholes' design happened to be QWERTY
  • Early adopters of typewriters perpetuated

Layout standards bodies

  • ISO/IEC standardizes some
  • National bodies (ABNT, BDS, etc.) standardize others

Frequently Asked Questions

Most common layout in world?

QWERTY-US by far (defaults everywhere).

Hardest layout to learn coming from QWERTY?

Cyrillic ЙЦУКЕН (different alphabet) and AZERTY (major rearrangement).

Should I learn multiple layouts?

For your native language: yes. For others: only if needed (bilingual work).

Will layouts converge over time?

Unlikely — too entrenched in each region.

What about CJK keyboards?

Chinese/Japanese/Korean use IME (input methods) over base layouts, often QWERTY-US.

Best resource to learn unfamiliar layouts?

Typing Hero App supports 38 layouts.

Master your layout

Whatever your region: Typing Hero App supports your layout. 45 languages × 38 layouts.

For more: How to choose a keyboard layout, QWERTY history, Cyrillic layouts compared.