Latin Capital A with Ring Above Å

The Latin Capital A with Ring Above character (Å) is a standard HTML entity defined in the HTML specification. In HTML source code, it can be written using the named entity reference Å, the decimal numeric character reference Å, or the hexadecimal numeric reference Å. The character is assigned Unicode code point U+00C5 in the Universal Character Set.

The capital A with ring above (Å) is a separate letter in the Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish alphabets, positioned at the end of the alphabet after Z. It also represents the ångström unit (Å) in physics, equal to 10⁻¹⁰ meters. The ring above historically represents an 'aa' combination.

Latin extended character entities provide the accented and modified letters required by dozens of European languages. From French accents aigus and graves to German umlauts, Scandinavian rings, and Icelandic thorns, these entities ensure correct rendering of non-ASCII characters within HTML documents. While modern UTF-8 encoded pages can include these characters directly in source code, HTML entities remain valuable for source code clarity and legacy compatibility.

When deciding how to encode the Latin Capital A with Ring Above character in your HTML documents, the named entity Å is generally the most readable choice for developers reviewing or maintaining source code. The decimal form Å and hexadecimal form Å are equally valid alternatives that work in contexts where named entities may not be supported, or when generating HTML output programmatically from server-side code. All three representations produce identical visual output in every modern web browser.

Use this entity in Scandinavian language text where Å is a distinct letter, not a decorated A. In scientific content, Å represents the ångström unit for atomic-scale measurements. Treating Å as a variant of A in sorting or comparison is incorrect for Scandinavian languages.