How many countries willingly accepted the metric system?

Question

By willingly, I mean they weren't forced or pressured by other nations and didn't have to force their own people by passing and enforcing laws.

In how many countries was the metric system simply accepted based on its own merits. Not just by scientist, engineers, teachers and politicians, but by the nation as a whole.

Answer 1

It's not like any country was forced at gunpoint by its neighbors to go metric. They all did so willingly.

But ... no country can change systems without passing laws. It takes far too much coordination. This isn't so much "forcing" people, as choosing a better system and going with it. Of course people are going to be hesitant to change from a system they grew up with ... but people in all countries of the world (except for a backward three) were able to deal with it. (Many countries also switched to a different currency ... we in the U.S. already have a metric currency, so we wouldn't have to.)

For example, it's not like local grocery stores are going to move from pounds/ounces to kilograms/grams just on a whim! Can you imagine the consumer confusion if one store is using one system, while the one next door is using another? Or one city had road signs in miles, and the next one had road signs in metric, and your car speedometer had only one or the other?

Instead, laws help everybody all do the transition at the same time, which reduces the confusion (or at least isolates it to a short transition period of a few years).

I can't think of a single country where the metric system was "simply accepted" ... it requires far too much coordination.

As far as countries that have gone metric ... there are only three countries in the world that have NOT gone metric: Liberia, Myanmar, and the United States.