Countries that Use Imperial 2025
Country | Use Imperial↑ | |
|---|---|---|
 | United States | Imperial |
 | Myanmar | Imperial |
 | Liberia | Imperial |
 | United Kingdom | Imperial and Metric |
- The United Kingdom is officially metric, but still uses imperial units in many cases.
- Similarly, imperial units occasionally appear in former Commonwealth countries such as Canada, India, South Africa or Australia, particularly when cooking or referring to one’s height and/or weight.
The imperial system is a set of standards used for weights and measures. These were first outlined through the British Weights and Measures Act of 1824. Before using the imperial system, Winchester Standards were used beginning in the 16th century.
The imperial system is used for measurements, including area, mass, and volume. For length, units of measurement in the imperial system include inches, feet, links, yards, poles, miles, and leagues, to name a few. When measuring area, imperial units include square feet, perches, roods, and acres. For volume, standard measurement units include ounces, gills, pints, quarts, and gallons. For mass, standard units include grains, ounces, pounds, and tons.
On the flip side, there is also the metric system. The metric system uses base units such as meter (for length), liter (for volumes/liquids), and grams (for mass). A prefix is added to the base unit to indicate the exact measurement based on a decimal system, i.e., kilogram or millimeter.
If you live in the United States, you may think that the imperial system is the most commonly used throughout the world? In reality, this is incorrect. The metric system is the most used measurement system in the world. Only three countries in the world don’t use the metric system: the United States, Liberia, and Myanmar. Every other country around the world uses the metric system.
