The International System of Units

The International System of Units is the modern form of the metric system. It is the world's most widely used system of units, both in everyday commerce and in science.
The older metric system included several groupings of units. The SI was developed in 1960 from the metre-kilogram-second system, rather than the centimetre-gram-second system which, in turn, had many variants.
The SI introduced several newly named units. The SI is not static; it is a living set of standards where units are created and definitions are modified with international agreement as measurement technology progresses.
With few exceptions, the system is used in every country in the world, and many countries do not maintain official definitions of other units. In the United States, industrial use of SI is increasing, but popular use is still limited. In the United Kingdom, conversion to metric units is official policy but not yet complete. Those countries that still recognize non-SI units have redefined their traditional non-SI units in terms of SI units.