Do numbers need to be localized?

Arabic and Japanese (?) do have different glyphs for numbers, but the standard system is so commonplace, that usually numbers are not converted.

If you're using the .NET formatting functions, then the numbers will be formatted according to the system preferences (I'm talking commas and decimal points here)


  • Different languages can use different digit sigils;
  • Number representation is different. eg 1,234.56 in English is represented as 1.234'56 in German.

So the answer is yes.


The digits 0-9 usually don't require any localization, except minor tweaks like AndreyT said, but those are more "fonts" related than anything.

The only important thing to take into account is large number representation.

For example, take 1mio$

In Switzerland, it will be:

$1'000'000.-

in US

$1,000,000

In Japan it will be $100万

I don't know other place, but you got the idea.

For Japan, it's very uncommon to see numbers greater than 10'000 without using a kanji.

But I think you should see with the person doing the localization.