The ISO story began in 1946 when delegates from 25 countries met at the Institute of Civil Engineers in London and decided to create a new international organization ‘to facilitate the international coordination and unification of industrial standards’. In February 1947 the new organization, ISO, officially began operations.
Since then,we have published over 19 500 International Standards covering almost all aspects of technology and manufacturing.
Today we have members from 166 countries and 3 368 technical bodies to take care of standard development. More than 150 people work full time for ISO’s Central Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland.
To find out more about the history of ISO, see our timeline.