The COL Checklist version 2023-09-14

You can download the current version of the entire COL Checklist here:

• ColDP Archive
• Darwin Core Archive
• ACEF Archive
• TextTree

Please read the information on the available formats if you are unlcear which one to use. For versions from previous months, please visit the COL downloads site. ChecklistBank also offers partial downloads if you are only interested in a certain group of the checklist. Please note that this requires a free GBIF user account.

Historical versions of the COL Checklist

The Catalogue of Life Checklist has been released each year since 2000 (excluding 2001 and 2020). Every year, COL produces an annual version of the COL Checklist that receives long-term support and becomes part of the yearly archives. Monthly COL Checklists released between annual editions may not be kept indefinitely. These lose support once an annual COL Checklist is issued.

The following links give access to historical versions of the COL Checklist for each year from 2005 to 2019. MySQL dump files can be downloaded for each version from 2005 to 2019 and Darwin Core Archive ZIP files from 2012 to 2019. Since 2021 each release is available in 4 formats and kept for online access in COL Checklist Bank.

• COL Checklist 2021 - 1,898,157 living and 110,790 extinct species (ColDP, Darwin Core Archive, ACEF, TextTree)
• COL Checklist 2019 - 1,837,565 living and 63,419 extinct species (Darwin Core Archive, MySQL)
• COL Checklist 2018 - 1,744,204 living and 59,284 extinct species (Darwin Core Archive, MySQL)
• COL Checklist 2017 - 1,664,506 living and 49,346 extinct species (Darwin Core Archive, MySQL)
• COL Checklist 2016 - 1,635,250 living and 5,719 extinct species (Darwin Core Archive, MySQL)
• COL Checklist 2015 - 1,606,554 species (Darwin Core Archive, MySQL)
• COL Checklist 2014 - 1,578,063 species (Darwin Core Archive, MySQL)
• COL Checklist 2013 - 1,352,112 species (Darwin Core Archive, MySQL)
• COL Checklist 2012 - 1,404,038 species (Darwin Core Archive, MySQL)
• COL Checklist 2011 - 1,347,224 species (MySQL)
• COL Checklist 2010 - 1,257,735 species (MySQL)
• COL Checklist 2009 - 1,160,711 species (MySQL)
• COL Checklist 2008 - 1,105,589 species (MySQL)
• COL Checklist 2007 - 1,008,965 species (MySQL)
• COL Checklist 2006 - 884,000 species (MySQL)
• COL Checklist 2005 - 527,000 species (MySQL)
• COL Checklist 2004 - 323,000 species
• COL Checklist 2003 - 304,000 species
• COL Checklist 2002 - 260,000 species
• COL Checklist 2000 - 220,000 species

Historical versions of the monthly COL Checklist editions

The COL Checklist is updated throughout the year and snapshots are also available for many months from 2017 to the present. Changes in infrastructure have disrupted this series so some intervals are longer than monthly.

• Monthly Checklist Archive