If date format yyyy-mm-dd is ISO 8601 standard, why not everybody use it for international clarity?

Question

mm/dd/yy 02/01/03 in USA
dd/mm/yy 01/02/03 in UK, Europe
yyyy-mm-dd 2003-02-01 in Asia, East Europe, Canada ISO 8601 standard
Note: yyyy-mm-dd followed by hh:mm:ss is the natural order and very understandable

Answer 1

same reason the U.S. won't change measuring systems. We like what we know. Someone once told me that the U.S. and Sri Lanka are the only countries that use our measuring system, yet it appears on nearly everything. As long as you coddle us and let us have our way we'll keep doing it.

I'd never seen yyyy-mm-dd before. We use the mm/dd/yy system in the US and I'd seen dd/mm/yy in my Spanish classes (which was very confusing the first time I saw it because it was talking about october 11 which I read as november 10.)

Answer 2

I think its more about the information that is sought. When you ask for the date your more than likely asking for the day like 9th. In terms of time you are more than likely looking for the hour like one. Hence why in Europe when you ask for the date it goes date/month/year because perceptualy thats how the order the information is sought.

Answer 3

Because old habits die hard. People tend to not like to change trivial matters such as these, and generally just go with what they were taught by their parents and school. If it's not broken, why fix it?