Keyboard Layouts Around the World: Complete Guide

Updated February 28, 2026 · 7 min read

There isn't just one type of keyboard in the world — there are dozens of different layouts, adapted to the languages and habits of each country. This guide covers the main layouts you might encounter.

Overview Table

QWERTY: The Most Common Layout

The QWERTY layout is by far the most used worldwide. Invented in the 1870s for American typewriters, it became the international standard. But there are many variants!

• QWERTY US: the "cleanest" version, used as the international base. No dead keys or accented characters
• QWERTY UK: the Enter key is larger (inverted L shape), £ replaces #, and @ is above the quotation mark
• QWERTY ES / LATAM: add Ñ and rearrange punctuation for Spanish
• QWERTY BR (ABNT2): adds Ç and an extra key between the right Shift and /

AZERTY: The French Keyboard

The AZERTY layout is used mainly in France and Belgium. It differs from QWERTY by:

• Swapping A/Q and Z/W
• Numbers require Shift (the top row gives accented and special characters directly)
• M moved to the right of L
• Dedicated keys for é, è, ç, à

Learn more in our detailed article: AZERTY vs QWERTY: What's the Difference?

QWERTZ: Central Europe

The QWERTZ layout is the standard in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and some Central European countries (Hungary, Czech Republic, etc.). Its main feature:

• Z and Y are swapped compared to QWERTY (because Z is much more common than Y in German)
• Dedicated keys for Umlauts: Ä, Ö, Ü
• The ß (Eszett) has its own key

The Swiss version (QWERTZ CH) is special because it serves three national languages (German, French, Italian) with a single layout.

Nordic Layouts

The Nordic countries (Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway) use QWERTY variants with special letters added on the right:

• Swedish/Finnish: Å, Ä, Ö keys
• Danish/Norwegian: Å, Æ, Ø keys

These layouts are recognizable by the presence of three extra letters to the right of L and P. Iceland has its own layout with characters like Þ (thorn) and Ð (eth).

Cyrillic Layouts

Countries using the Cyrillic alphabet have their own layouts:

• ЙЦУКЕН: the standard Russian layout, named after its first six letters
• Ukrainian: similar to Russian but with specific letters (Ї, І, Є, Ґ)
• Bulgarian: different layout, called "BDS" or "Phonetic"

Most Cyrillic keyboards are bilingual: they display both Cyrillic and Latin letters, and allow switching between the two via a keyboard shortcut.

Asian Layouts

Japanese (JIS)

The standard Japanese keyboard (JIS — Japanese Industrial Standard) is based on QWERTY but adds:

• Conversion keys to switch between input modes (romaji, hiragana, katakana)
• A shorter spacebar to make room for these extra keys
• Hiragana markings on each key (in addition to Latin letters)

Korean (Dubeolsik)

The standard Korean layout follows QWERTY for Latin letters, but adds Hangul characters:

• Consonants on the left side of the keyboard
• Vowels on the right side
• Syllables are composed automatically as you type

How to Identify Your Layout

With so many variants, it's not always easy to tell which layout matches your keyboard, especially if:

• You bought your PC abroad
• The key markings are faded or missing
• Your keyboard seems to be somewhere between two standards