Sadly, if/when Americans start to use YYYY-MM-DD (like my country's actual Canadian Standard) - I suspect some people around the world will start to use YYYY-DD-MM just because they refuse to do anything the way American's do.
peter horwood aka Madman Pierre, VP Development, Asset Pro Solutions Inc.
Actually, a lot of us in business in Canada use YYYY/MM/DD for our business and personal affairs. Indeed, it is the CSA (Canadian Standard's Association) standard since the 1980's, and almost all government forms etc.., in Canada use YYYY/MM/DD. We started to made the switch in the 1980's due to the upcoming millennium and basically to get rid of all the stupid problems between 9/11/xxxx 11/9/xxxx etc.., And yes, when our dealings are primarily with Americans, we use mm/dd/yyyy because it is more profitable to do so, and your other reasons for us using the American method are true too. And yes, most Canadians, if the form doesn't spell it out, use dd/mm/yyyy. Fortunately, no Canadians are confused when those of us that use yyyy/mm/dd write out a date(Though using yy/mm/dd still causes problems and will until 32/1/1 Unlike what I suspect is 'political comment' in some of the other replies, my following is not: I think it is a tragedy when anyone is killed regardless of their country of origin, religion or skin colour. However, I always had trouble remembering what the most common NON-standard in Canada (my country) was until '9/11'. Because the phrase 9/11 lets me remember that Americans use mm/dd. So now, whenever I'm trying to read a date from a Canadian or American that is not in our CSA format, I just remember '9/11' and then I know which non-standard they are likely using. >And I don't know how their brains don't explode. And our brains don't explode because we easily understand both formats (we just have no idea which it is when the day is < 12 and worse when the year is less than 31 AND the day is < 12) mm/dd/yyyy is the way it is spoken in English: "April 1st, 2051" dd/mm/yyyy is mathematically logical: "least important to most important" yyyy/mm/dd is the obvious 'you can't make it confusing'. And yes I realize if Americans ever changed to yyyy/mm/dd some people somewhere would probably decide to use yyyy/dd/mm just so they don't do it the way the Americans do it. But I suspect/hope rational heads would prevail. I've only once see a company use yyyy/dd/mm and they switched within days of doing that.
peter horwood aka Madman Pierre, VP Development, Asset Pro Solutions Inc.