50 years after the Metric Conversion Act the U.S. is still stuck in the past using inches, pounds and gallons
December 23, 2025, marks the 50th anniversary of the Metric Conversion Act, designed to bring US weights and measures in line with the rest of the world.
The United States is one of the last holdouts to completely adopt the metric system in the world. The only other nations that still refuse to officially use the measurement system that came out of the French Revolution are Liberia and Burma, aka Myanmar.
However, America’s outlier status could’ve been quite the opposite, in reality it was one of the earliest adopters. And it’s not like there haven’t been efforts over the years to ditch the US compulsory system, aka standard or imperial system, and switch over to the metric system.
One of these will celebrate its fiftieth anniversary this year on 23 December.
The US’s Metric Conversion Act
President Gerald Ford enacted the Metric Conversion Act into law on 23 December 1975, making the metric system “the preferred system of weights and measures for United States trade and commerce.” The legislation was designed to facilitate the United States switching over to the metric system, aka the International System of Units or SI, by 1992.
Obviously, that attempt at universal adaptation of the metric system failed as is evident when you drive down the road and see mile signs or the weather forecast still gives the temperatures in Fahrenheit. The effort was declared finished in 1982 after then-President Ronald Reagan defunded the program the year before.
Not too many people were upset. Quite the opposite, with even a wide majority of those who knew what the metric system was opposed to its complete adoption.
The US was one of the earliest adopters of the metric system
Just because most Americans don’t use the metric system in their everyday lives, or at least they might not realize that they do, doesn’t mean that the US is not a metric country these days. The nation has been using the metric system for long, long time.
In fact, the United States was an original signatory to the 1875 Treaty of the Meter. Since 1866, it has been legal to use the metric system in the US and since 1988 it has been the preferred system of weights and measures for US trade and commerce.
Thomas Jefferson, one of the nation’s Founding Fathers, pushed to get the newly formed nation to adopt an early version of the metric system as Secretary of State. He even arranged for French scientist Joseph Dombey to bring an official ‘kilogram’, which was a metallic cylinder that, as you can guess, weighed one kilogram, to give a demonstration in the United States.
Unfortunately, enroute his ship got blown off course and he was captured by British pirates who imprisoned him for the rest of his life. And so, without the visual aid, the US eventually adopted the English system of weights and measures. What a coincidence.
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