diff --git a/src/changes/changes.xml b/src/changes/changes.xml
index b023f95c0..13e83b41c 100644
--- a/src/changes/changes.xml
+++ b/src/changes/changes.xml
@@ -76,6 +76,7 @@ The <action> type attribute can be add,update,fix,remove.
     <action issue="LANG-1297" type="update" dev="ggregory">Add SystemUtils.getHostName() API.</action>
     <action issue="LANG-1301" type="update" dev="pschumacher" due-to="Karl Heinz Marbaise">Moving apache-rat-plugin configuration into pluginManagement</action>
     <action issue="LANG-1311" type="fix" dev="pschumacher" due-to="Aaron Digulla">TypeUtils.toString() doesn't handle primitive and Object arrays correctly</action>
+    <action issue="LANG-1312" type="fix" dev="pschumacher">LocaleUtils#toLocale does not support language followed by UN M.49 numeric-3 area code</action>
   </release>
 
   <release version="3.5" date="2016-10-13" description="New features including Java 9 detection">
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/commons/lang3/LocaleUtils.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/commons/lang3/LocaleUtils.java
index a3126ebf4..f13b52f38 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/apache/commons/lang3/LocaleUtils.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/commons/lang3/LocaleUtils.java
@@ -67,6 +67,7 @@ public class LocaleUtils {
      *   LocaleUtils.toLocale("")           = new Locale("", "")
      *   LocaleUtils.toLocale("en")         = new Locale("en", "")
      *   LocaleUtils.toLocale("en_GB")      = new Locale("en", "GB")
+     *   LocaleUtils.toLocale("en_001")     = new Locale("en", "001")
      *   LocaleUtils.toLocale("en_GB_xxx")  = new Locale("en", "GB", "xxx")   (#)
      * </pre>
      *
@@ -134,7 +135,8 @@ public class LocaleUtils {
             case 1:
                 if (StringUtils.isAllLowerCase(split[0]) &&
                     (split[0].length() == 2 || split[0].length() == 3) &&
-                     split[1].length() == 2 && StringUtils.isAllUpperCase(split[1])) {
+                     (split[1].length() == 2 && StringUtils.isAllUpperCase(split[1])) ||
+                      (split[1].length() == 3 && StringUtils.isNumeric(split[1]))) {
                     return new Locale(split[0], split[1]);
                 }
             throw new IllegalArgumentException("Invalid locale format: " + str);
diff --git a/src/test/java/org/apache/commons/lang3/LocaleUtilsTest.java b/src/test/java/org/apache/commons/lang3/LocaleUtilsTest.java
index 4a867bab1..79198af5b 100644
--- a/src/test/java/org/apache/commons/lang3/LocaleUtilsTest.java
+++ b/src/test/java/org/apache/commons/lang3/LocaleUtilsTest.java
@@ -505,6 +505,13 @@ public class LocaleUtilsTest  {
         assertValidToLocale("fr__POSIX", "fr", "", "POSIX");
     }
 
+    @Test
+    public void testLanguageAndUNM49Numeric3AreaCodeLang1312() {
+        assertValidToLocale("en_001", "en", "001");
+        assertValidToLocale("en_150", "en", "150");
+        assertValidToLocale("ar_001", "ar", "001");
+    }
+
     /**
      * Tests #LANG-865, strings starting with an underscore.
      */