OVERVIEW OF ISO

ISO is the International Organization for Standardization. It was
set up in 1947 and is located in Geneva, Switzerland. Its purpose
is to facilitate and support international trade by developing standards
that people everywhere would recognize and respect. ISO achieves this purpose through the participation and support of its members. These members come from 158 national standards organizations.

ISO standards are developed by technical committees. The people who serve on these technical committees come from many national standards organizations. Consequently, ISO standards have worldwide support.

The International Organization for Standardization chose the acronym ISO (and not IOS) because the word ISO also means “equal” or “equivalent” in Greek, and because ISO works better when translated into other languages.

Currently, ISO has 193 technical committees, 540 subcommittees, and 2244 working groups. Since 1947, ISO has developed 16,455 international standards! Quite an achievement.