7.3 Measuring regulation in the United States
There is no single measure of how much regulation a government imposes. Regulations differ enormously in length, scope, complexity, and effect. Researchers and governments therefore use several measures, each describing a different aspect of the regulatory system.
Pages of regulation
The Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) codifies the general and permanent rules issued by United States federal agencies. It is divided into 50 titles covering broad subject areas. In 2025 the United States government stated that the CFR contained more than 48,000 sections extending over 175,000 pages. The annual editions are published by the United States Government Publishing Office.
Pages published each year
The Federal Register records the annual flow of material published by federal agencies. Its page count is often used to indicate the rate of federal regulatory activity. It includes final rules, however, alongside proposed rules, notices, corrections, and other material. It therefore does not measure either the number of regulations taking effect or the stock of regulations remaining in force. The Office of the Federal Register publishes annual page statistics. From 2014 through 2023, the Federal Register averaged 78,350 pages a year, documenting proposed and final regulatory changes, notices and other agency actions.
Regulatory restrictions
The RegData project analyses regulatory text and counts words and phrases associated with binding commands, including shall, must, may not, required, and prohibited. It reported approximately 1.13 million restrictions in United States federal regulations in 2025. RegData also estimates which industries are affected, allowing regulation to be compared across industries and over time.
Restriction counts are generally more informative than page counts because they attempt to count obligations and prohibitions rather than text. They remain a proxy: the occurrence of a restrictive term does not reveal the cost, importance, justification, or practical effect of the requirement.
Other measures
- Numbers of proposed and final rules measure regulatory actions, but give a minor technical rule the same numerical weight as a rule affecting an entire industry.
- Paperwork burden estimates the hours and costs associated with government-mandated information collections. The United States Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs maintains a government-wide inventory, but it measures paperwork rather than the whole burden of regulation.
- Compliance-cost estimates attempt to value labour, equipment, delay, lost opportunities, and other consequences of regulation. Such estimates are necessarily incomplete and depend heavily on their assumptions.
Federal figures understate the total
The CFR, Federal Register, and federal RegData figures describe federal regulation only. Businesses and individuals are also subject to state regulations, local ordinances, licensing rules, zoning and land-use controls, building codes, and requirements imposed by other subnational authorities. These overlapping systems add further layers of regulation which are not included in the federal totals. Consequently, even the very large federal page and restriction counts understate the full body of government-imposed regulation operating across the United States.
Excessive regulation
This volume of regulation is excessive. Article VI: Laws, Section 5: Regulations is intended to reduce this complexity greatly. It permits regulation only where failure to comply would constitute harm or negligence rising to the level of violating the NAP, and requires every such regulation to be narrowly tailored to preventing that harm.