On Mon, Mar 23, 2026 at 10:48 AM Rick McGowan via Unicode <[email protected]> wrote: > If I recall correctly, the last time we looked seriously at "how long > until the space fills up", based on the rate at which things were being > encoded, we calculated it would take about 800 years. Please reflect: > 800 years before now we had no computers, and 800 years from now, who > knows what computing will look like, if computing even exists by then.
Using this chart, https://www.unicode.org/versions/stats/chart_charbyyear.html : Back of the envelope calculation says that Unicode has 159,801 characters in 2025, and had 0 at the start in 1991, so that gives us 4700 characters a year, or an ETA of overflow in about 200 years. Starting from 2008 and 100,548 characters gives us 3400 characters a year, or overflow in 280 years. (Between 2000 and 2001, 49,000 characters were added, so at that rate Unicode will overflow in 21 years. Or, rather, assuming that rate from 2001 on, it overflowed in 2023. It's possible these numbers were cherry picked.) Doing some basic straight-line extrapolations, we've got a couple centuries. I'd bet the 280 years is more accurate than the 800, but neither is anywhere near small enough to worry about. -- The standard is written in English . If you have trouble understanding a particular section, read it again and again and again . . . Sit up straight. Eat your vegetables. Do not mumble. -- _Pascal_, ISO 7185 (1991)
