US Code growth 1991-2025
Christopher Mantzaris, Ajda Fo\v{s}ner
TL;DR
This study analyzes the growth of the US Code from 1991 to 2025, revealing a significant increase in legal text size and complexity, and discusses implications and potential remedies for excessive legal length.
Contribution
It provides the first detailed word count analysis of the US Code since 2010, highlighting growth trends and discussing the implications of increasing legal length.
Findings
US Code reached over 24.4 million words in 2025
Word count grew in 30 of 33 years since 1991
Average characters per word increased over time
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.
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Taxonomy
TopicsAuthorship Attribution and Profiling · Text Readability and Simplification · Language and cultural evolution