Industrial standards in the United States are largely developed by the voluntary consensus system, except in certain areas of public concern or safety or in military areas. The overwhelming proportion of consumer, industrial, and scientific standards are voluntary nongovernmental ones.

Until recently, this was also true internationally. However, the picture is changing rapidly in many parts of the world, for reasons not always wholesome to the foreign trade of the United States. In many countries the national standards bodies are governmental or quasi-governmental, and in nearly all countries outside the US the standards-making effort is financially supported by governments.