AMA Guides: The International Gold Standard
for Impairment Ratings

Where in the World Are the AMA Guides Used for Impairment Ratings?

The AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment are used across every legal and compensation context where permanent impairment must be quantified. This page covers the United States — all 50 states, the District of Columbia, US territories, and three federal compensation programs — followed by Canada, Australia, and other international jurisdictions. Not every jurisdiction uses the same edition, some name no edition at all, and some have built their own systems on AMA Guides methodology. Every entry separates which edition from how strongly it applies (mandated, advisory, supplemental, derived, hybrid, or not specified). Data is verified against official statutes and agency publications; each entry carries its own verification date.

Which AMA Guides Does My State Use?

The answer varies significantly. Nine states mandate the AMA Guides 5th Edition and nine mandate a fixed AMA Guides 6th Edition; seven more float on "the most recent edition" and auto-update as the AMA publishes; six still require the 4th Edition (Alabama as a recommended guide); Colorado alone remains on the 3rd Edition Revised; seven use state-specific systems; and eleven states name no edition at all. Use the map and the filters below, and open any entry for the governing statute or rule, how strongly it applies, and the source.

↑ Source confidence indicators follow the key in the first section

None of the five US territories references the AMA Guides in its workers' compensation statute or rules. Four run pure scheduled-weeks systems (three of them modeled on the federal Longshore Act); Puerto Rico uses its own statutory table. This is a useful negative result: there is no impairment-rating work of this kind in these jurisdictions. Federal and military workers in the territories covered under FECA or LHWCA follow those programs' standards.

↑ Source confidence indicators follow the key in the first section

Three federal compensation programs use the AMA Guides, and they do not agree. FECA (federal civilian employees) mandates the AMA Guides 6th Edition. EEOICPA (energy workers) mandates the AMA Guides 5th Edition, and the Department of Labor expressly declined to move to the 6th; at $2,500 per percentage point, the edition choice is directly monetized. LHWCA (maritime and overseas contractors) mandates the Guides only for hearing loss, at the most recent edition, and is not bound to any guide otherwise. These programs apply regardless of the claimant's state.

↑ Source confidence indicators follow the key in the first section

Which AMA Guides Does My Province Use?

Canadian workers' compensation is provincially administered; there is no national system. Eight of the thirteen jurisdictions mandate the AMA Guides, and seven of those name no edition at all, tracking "the most recent edition" as the AMA publishes. Alberta alone designates an effective date per digital release. Ontario is the only jurisdiction in North America still on a pre-4th edition (the 3rd Edition Revised, prescribed by regulation). British Columbia and Quebec run their own schedules; Alberta, Manitoba and Newfoundland use the Guides only to fill gaps in their own. New Brunswick requires its examiners to hold ABIME Certified Independent Medical Examiner status or equivalent.

↑ Source confidence indicators follow the key in the first section

Which AMA Guides Does Australia Use?

Australia is not an "AMA5 country." It splits roughly in half: New South Wales (workers compensation), Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, the Northern Territory, Comcare and Seacare use guidelines derived from the AMA Guides 5th Edition, while Victoria, Tasmania, the NSW motor-accident scheme and New Zealand use the 4th Edition. In every AMA5 jurisdiction the local guideline overrides AMA5 wherever they differ, so "AMA5" alone is misleading without naming the governing guideline. The ACT approves raw AMA5 alongside the superseded NSW 3rd-edition guides. Several jurisdictions split workers' compensation from motor-accident assessment with different editions.

↑ Source confidence indicators follow the key in the first section

Where Else in the World Are the AMA Guides Used?

Outside North America and Australasia, only two jurisdictions name the AMA Guides in a binding legal instrument: South Africa's Road Accident Fund (6th Edition, for the "serious injury" threshold in motor claims) and Colombia (5th and 6th, in a defined subsidiary role). Singapore names the latest edition as an official gap-filler; Korea benchmarked the 5th when building its own guideline. Everywhere else checked, including the United Kingdom, the EU's largest economies, the Gulf, Japan and China, runs its own statutory scale, and those sourced negatives are listed here so the answer is "no," not "unknown." Europe has its own regional instrument, the CEREDOC Guide barème européen, which exists precisely because Europe does not use the AMA Guides. Entries that could not be sourced to a statute, regulation or official scheme document have been removed rather than softened.

↑ Source confidence indicators follow the key in the first section

Each of these jurisdictions runs its own impairment or disablement scale, with no role for the AMA Guides in statute, regulation, or official scheme documents. Listed so the answer is "no," not "unknown." All verified September 2026.