There's a thing I've seen on a couple sword-nerd channels "If swords were still in common use today, what would they be?" And so far every sword -nerd I've seen has said "the small sword of course, it's light, handy and was the last sword in common civilian use."
And I'm like "your nerdery fails you. The small sword is an excellent carry sword for people who go to fencing school and like swords. But the modern "sword" would be a machete. Or possibly a short sword of the practical variety.
The machete or short sword is less likely to get damaged in daily life. Easier to get into and out of cars and office chairs and modern spaces. Effective while easy to learn, machetes chop while long bayonet style short swords chop and could pierce.
Honorable mentions to:
A machete can be purchased for $10-20 at big box retail stores. If the meta is that almost everyone feels the need for a sword, but encounters violence at a rate equal to modern times, I don't think most of them are gonna spend the money.
Most people are going to buy the HarborFreight or Walmart machete out of a sense of necessity. Some people who are more combat-minded but not well-off fnancially would tent to "tactical Machetes" like the offerings of Cold Steel and the the like. People with Concealed Carry pistol money would be the ones who who buy purpose built swords and such. And the trained, "Gunfighter" types would be the ones with Small swords, rapiers etc. The "Open Carry" community would be the types to cary long swords and bastard swords, and somtimes even large axes and the like.
Would a trained smallsword user defeat the machete/short sword user, yeah probably. But most of carrying a weapon is carrying a weapon. Dealing with the inconvenience constantly. When it comes to actually using it? You're less likely to come up against a fencer then just some dude who also only has a machete.
Notebook, I may be biased, my personal "sword" is an 1897 bayonet with about 16" of blade.
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