US Code growth 1991-2025

Christopher Mantzaris and Ajda Fošner
Additional contact information
Christopher Mantzaris: University of Primorska
Ajda Fošner: University of Primorska

Working Papers from HAL

Abstract: This is the first scientific article since 2010 counting the words which are effective and permanent federal law in the United States (US) Code. The latest version of the US Code –published in 2025– is the largest since 1991, encompassing over 24.4 million words. The low since 1991 was 1993 at roughly 15 million words. The word count grew in 30 out of 33 years. The average characters per word –potentially indicative of complexity– grew even in all 33 years. The research also touches upon why it is undesirable for laws to be longer and longer and mentions possible remedies.

Keywords: Law; Word; Count; Python; Code (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-11-13
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-05363201v1
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://hal.science/hal-05363201v1/document (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-05363201

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().