U+2461 · Other number
Circled Digit Two Symbol ②
② is circled digit two, and Unicode gives it the numeric value 2. It was added in Unicode 1.1, and Unicode files it under Other number.
Codes & technical data
| Unicode | U+2461 | |
|---|---|---|
| HTML hex | ② | |
| HTML decimal | ② | |
| CSS | \2461 | |
| JavaScript | \u{2461} | |
| Python | \U00002461 | |
| Java / C# | \u2461 | |
| Rust | \u{2461} | |
| Swift | \u{2461} | |
| PHP | \u{2461} | |
| URL encoded | %E2%91%A1 | |
| UTF-8 bytes | E2 91 A1 | |
| UTF-16 bytes | 2461 | |
| Base64 | 4pGh | |
| Decimal | 9313 | |
| Decomposes to | 2 (circle form) | |
| Numeric value | 2 | |
| Category | Other number (No) | |
| Introduced | Unicode 1.1 | |
Will ② survive being pasted?
- Normalisation. No. Anything that applies NFKC — search indexes, usernames, domain names, programming identifiers — rewrites ② as
2. Safe for display, not for storage. - Legacy encodings. ② is Unicode-only — it has no Latin-1 equivalent, so a system stuck on an 8-bit encoding cannot represent it.
- Size. 3 bytes in UTF-8. Character-limited fields — SMS, bios, some form validators — usually count bytes, not characters.
Other two characters
Unicode names 10 characters ending in “two”. They differ by direction, weight or decoration rather than by meaning.
Nearby in Enclosed Alphanumerics
Letters and digits inside circles, parentheses and full stops. Widely used for numbered lists in plain text, though NFKC normalisation strips the enclosure and leaves the bare character.
How to type ②
| Windows | Type 2461 then press Alt+X |
|---|---|
| macOS | Press Ctrl+Cmd+Space, then search for “circled digit two” |
| Linux | Press Ctrl+Shift+U, type 2461, press Enter |
| HTML | ② |
About Unicode’s Other number category
This is classified as a number that is not a plain digit — a fraction, a superscript figure, a circled or bracketed numeral. Software will not parse it as a number without being told to.
Frequently asked questions
- How do I type the ② circled digit two symbol?
- On Windows, type 2461 and press Alt+X. On Linux press Ctrl+Shift+U then 2461. On any system the quickest route is the copy button on this page.
- What is the code for ②?
- Circled Digit Two is U+2461. In UTF-8 it takes 3 bytes. The table above lists every escape format.
- Will ② survive being pasted anywhere?
- Not always. Circled Digit Two is a compatibility character: any system that applies Unicode NFKC normalisation — search indexes, usernames, identifiers — replaces it with 2. Use it for display, not where text is normalised.