Metrication

Metrication or metrification is the act or process of converting to the metric system of measurement. All over the world, countries have transitioned from local and traditional units of measurement to the metric system. This process began in France during the 1790s, and has persistently advanced over two centuries, accumulating into 95% of the world officially exclusively using the modern metric system. Nonetheless, this also highlights that certain countries and sectors are either still transitioning or have chosen not to fully adopt the metric system.

Overview The process of metrication is typically initiated and overseen by a country's government, generally motivated by the necessity of establishing a uniform measurement system for effective international cooperation in fields like trade and science. Governments achieve metrication through either mandatory changes to existing units within a specified timeframe or through voluntary adoption. While metric use is mandatory in some countries and voluntary in others, all countries have recognised and adopted the SI, albeit to different degrees, including the United States. As of 2011, ninety-five percent of the world's population live in countries where the metric system is the only legal system of measurement. According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), there are only three countries that do not have mandatory metric laws (Liberia, Myanmar, and the United States), however a research paper completed by Vera (2011) stated in practice there were four additional countries, namely the United States COFA countries (Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands and Palau), and Samoa. Samoa has since mandated metric trade. In 2018, the Liberian government had pledged to adopt the metric system. In 2013, the Myanmar Ministry of Commerce announced that Myanmar was preparing to adopt the metric system as the country's official system of measurement, and metrication in Myanmar began with some progress was made (road signs and temperature are legislated to be in metric), however there had been very little progress in local trade. As of 2023, the United States has a national policy of adopting the metric system based on the Metric Conversion Act of 1975, amended by the Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988, and Presidential Executive Order 12770 of 1991, and all United States government agencies are required to adopt it. The metrication process can take years to implement and complete: for instance, Guyana adopted the metric system in 2002 and was only able to make it mandatory in local trade 2017 after the metric system was fully adopted in schools. Antigua and Barbuda, also officially metric, is moving slowly in its metrication process, with a new push in 2011 for all government agencies to convert by 2013 and the entire country to use the metric system by the first quarter of 2015. Other metric Caribbean countries, such as Saint Lucia officially metric 2000, are still in the process toward full conversion. The United Kingdom has officially embraced a dual measurement system. The United Kingdom as of 2007 halted its metrication process, and retain imperial units of the mile and yard in road markings, pints for returnable milk containers, and (with Ireland) for the pint for draught beer and cider sold in pubs. Throughout the 1990s, the European Commission helped accelerate the metrication process for member states, for the implemented the Units of Measure Directive to promote trade. This acceleration caused public backlash in the United Kingdom, and in 2007 the United Kingdom announced that it had secured permanent exemptions listed above and, to appease British public opinion and to facilitate trade with the United States, the option to include imperials units alongside metric units could continue indefinitely. The United Kingdom and the United States face ongoing resistance toward metrication, which may be partially rooted in a belief that their cultural identity is intertwined with the traditional measurement systems they historically have used. This has resulted in a review of mandatory sales and trade of metric units by the UK government. The outcome of this review with over 100 000 respondents was that a majority had limited or no appetite for increased use of imperial measures.

Forerunners of metrication

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