Number of Post Offices by State (2021)

Which state has the most post offices, and how many post offices are there? In early 2017 Postlandia answered these questions, and now Postlandia shall do so again!

Here is a ranking of U.S. states and territories by the number of active U.S. Post Offices by state (and territory) as of October 2021. Facilities include all USPS retail facilities: independent post offices (including APOs, RMPOs, and PTPOs), classified [USPS-staffed] stations and branches, and the handful of Post Office Express locations. Excluded are carrier-only facilities, specialized mail processing facilities, Contract Postal Units (CPUs) and Community Post Offices (CPOs), and Village Post Offices (VPOs).

Postlandia obtained a complete list of active postal facilities via Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. The list included 30,986 entries total, 548 of which were identified either by USPS or the author as carrier-only facilities. In 2017 we identified 30,606 U.S. Post Offices; presently there are 30,438. This count is not definitive: there are liable to be modest discrepancies depending on, for example, how temporarily suspended operations are accounted for. In fact, several states registered (modest) increases in the number of post offices when it comes to these counts; however, no new post offices have opened in the U.S. in several years.

Total: 30,438 post offices

Rank	State		# P.O.s
1	NY	New York	1820
2	PA	Pennsylvania	1782
3	TX	Texas	1650
4	CA	California	1621
5	IL	Illinois	1300
6	OH	Ohio	1115
7	MI	Michigan	890
	MO	Missouri	890
9	VA	Virginia	880
10	IA	Iowa	827
11	NC	North Carolina	826
12	MN	Minnesota	779
13	FL	Florida	749
14	WI	Wisconsin	741
15	IN	Indiana	716
16	GA	Georgia	705
17	NJ	New Jersey	687
18	KY	Kentucky	673
19	WV	West Virginia	653
20	AR	Arkansas	614
21	KS	Kansas	584
22	AL	Alabama	580
	TN	Tennessee	580
24	OK	Oklahoma	579
25	MA	Massachusetts	578
26	WA	Washington	516
27	LA	Louisiana	502
28	NE	Nebraska	478
29	MD	Maryland	450
30	CO	Colorado	434
31	ME	Maine	421
32	MS	Mississippi	419
33	SC	South Carolina	400
34	OR	Oregon	361
35	MT	Montana	314
36	NM	New Mexico	312
	SD	South Dakota	312
38	CT	Connecticut	301
39	ND	North Dakota	292
40	AZ	Arizona	266
41	VT	Vermont	264
42	ID	Idaho	234
43	NH	New Hampshire	231
44	AK	Alaska	205
45	UT	Utah	196
46	WY	Wyoming	140
47	NV	Nevada	130
48	HI	Hawaii	105
49	RI	Rhode Island	79
50	DE	Delaware	62
	PR	Puerto Rico	116
	DC	District of Columbia	50
	VI	Virgin Islands	12
	GU	Guam	6
	FM	Federated States of Micronesia	4
	MH	Marshall Islands	3
	MP	Northern Mariana Islands	2
	AS	American Samoa	1
	PW	Palau	1

Hope you enjoyed, and check back soon for more entries. Thanks, everyone!

Number of Post Offices by State (2017)

Which state has the most post offices, and how many post offices are there? For those curious souls, here is a ranking of states by number of active U.S. Post Offices by state (and territory) as of early 2017. Facilities include all USPS retail facilities: independent post offices (including APOs, RMPOs, and PTPOs), classified [USPS-staffed] stations and branches, and the handful of Post Office Express locations. Excluded are carrier-only facilities, specialized mail processing facilities, Contract Postal Units (CPUs) and Community Post Offices (CPOs), and Village Post Offices (VPOs). Postlandia obtained a complete list of active postal facilities via Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. Enjoy!

Total: 30,606 post offices

Rank	State		# P.O.s
1	NY	New York	1826
2	PA	Pennsylvania	1805
3	TX	Texas	1655
4	CA	California	1634
5	IL	Illinois	1315
6	OH	Ohio	1117
7	MO	Missouri	904
8	MI	Michigan	894
9	VA	Virginia	888
10	IA	Iowa	830
11	NC	North Carolina	822
12	MN	Minnesota	777
13	FL	Florida	750
14	WI	Wisconsin	740
15	IN	Indiana	715
16	GA	Georgia	706
17	NJ	New Jersey	692
18	KY	Kentucky	676
19	WV	West Virginia	655
20	AR	Arkansas	616
21	MA	Massachusetts	588
22	KS	Kansas	586
23	AL	Alabama	583
24	OK	Oklahoma	582
25	TN	Tennessee	582
26	WA	Washington	519
27	LA	Louisiana	507
28	NE	Nebraska	479
29	MD	Maryland	457
30	CO	Colorado	437
31	ME	Maine	428
32	MS	Mississippi	421
33	SC	South Carolina	398
34	OR	Oregon	362
35	MT	Montana	314
36	NM	New Mexico	314
37	SD	South Dakota	314
38	CT	Connecticut	303
39	ND	North Dakota	295
40	VT	Vermont	266
41	AZ	Arizona	265
42	ID	Idaho	236
43	NH	New Hampshire	232
44	AK	Alaska	206
45	UT	Utah	197
46	WY	Wyoming	142
47	NV	Nevada	130
48	HI	Hawaii	105
49	RI	Rhode Island	80
50	DE	Delaware	63
	PR	Puerto Rico	118
	DC	District of Columbia	51
	VI	Virgin Islands	12
	GU	Guam	6
	FM	Federated States of Micronesia	4
	MH	Marshall Islands	3
	MP	Northern Mariana Islands	2
	AS	American Samoa	1
	PW	Palau	1

2015 Postal Summary

Welcome to Going Postal's sixth annual year-end summary. During 2015 I visited 179 new active postal facilities across four states, bringing my grand total to 6,595. Actually, it's by far and away my lowest yearly count since we started ... what having a full-time job and doing work for multiple other organizations does to you. As always, for the active and curious follower, here are the summaries for 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014. Woot!

I visited as many as 39 post offices in one day. State by state, counting only new, distinct active postal locations (including CPUs) for the year:

Pennsylvania: 74 post offices
Focus/Foci: Rural corners of northern PA

Ohio: 46
North-central Ohio and Cleveland suburbs

Connecticut: 38
Northeast and south-central CT

New York: 21
Southern Tier

In addition to these I also visited discontinued / suspended post offices for documentation purposes as well as historic former post office buildings.

Among privately-operated Contract Postal Units was the operation at the student center at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio:

Kent, OH: Kent State University CPU:


Former sites visited this year include the grand old post office of Hornell, New York, which celebrates its centennial in 2016. Well, I suppose it would be celebrated were the structure not presently relegated to the municipal equivalent of a paperweight.

Hornell, NY: former post office:




There had been a post office in Barton, New York until it was washed away by flooding caused by Hurricane Irene in 2011 and never replaced. It was around here somewhere:

Barton, NY:


Despite some yearning for what we've lost I did find several wonderfully photogenic post offices this year, including that in Milan, Pennsylvania, made all the more stunning during the peak of an August sunset:

Milan, Pennsylvania post office:


Count-wise, I reached a modest milestone this year. My 6,500th post office was New Riegel, Ohio.

New Riegel, OH post office:

See y'all next year! Well, this year. Had a bit of a late start on this post, I suppose.

2014 Postal Summary

Welcome to Going Postal's fifth annual year-end summary. This year I visited 658 new active postal facilities across 12 states and the District of Columbia, bringing my grand total to 6,417. Actually, it's my lowest yearly count since we started; I've taken on some wonderful new projects this year. For the active and curious follower, here are the summaries for 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013. Woot!

Here's the annual me-having-fun-in-some-corner-of-the-country photo:


Thank you to the Association of U.S. Postal Lessors (AUSPL) for having me to their convention in New Orleans this spring!

The above count, in addition to "regular" post offices (incl. stations and branches) and Contract Postal Units (CPUs), includes non-retail USPS facilities not generally intended for public access, such as mail processing facilities and carrier annexes. To wit:

Springfield, MA: Network Distribution Center (NDC)


Washington, DC: Wards Place Carrier Annex:


The count doesn't include previously discontinued facilities, peripheral operations such as Detached Box Units, or Village "Post Offices" (VPOs).

Jackson, MS: Jackson Village Detached Box Unit (DBU):


The former post office at Louis Armstrong International Airport outside New Orleans:


I visited as many as 33 post offices in one day. State by state, counting only distinct active postal locations for the year:

New York: 154 post offices
Focus/Foci: Eastern Hudson River, Syracuse and Glen Falls

Massachusetts: 147
All of Cape Cod, southeastern and southern MA. I completed visiting all Mass. post offices west of the Connecticut River.

Louisiana: 91
Bayous south and east of New Orleans, Baton Rouge

Maryland: 82
D.C. Metro area

Pennsylvania: 41
East-central mountains

Connecticut: 61
Northeastern CT

Mississippi: 39
Southwest Mississippi and Jackson

District of Columbia: 24

New Jersey: 12

Virginia: 9

Rhode Island: 9

Vermont: 6

Delaware: 3

Neither rain nor snow stayed my postal rounds. Post offices can be very photogenic in winter. This month I journeyed to PA to photograph some POs and snag some views of hearty snowy fields on the side.

Eagles Mere, PA:


A highlight of my year was the summer I spent outside Washington, DC by the National Archives in College Park, Maryland. The facility has boatloads of fantastic historic photographs and documents related to post offices/federal buildings and the New Deal artwork they so frequently house.

From the National Archives photo files:

Ilion, NY post office (1936):


Wewoka, Oklahoma (1936)


Old Houston, TX post office (1900):


Abingdon, IL post office relief: "Post Rider"


The best part of the artwork photographs at the National Archives is that they're not under copyright restriction, so you need not feel compelled to use the nonsense "Used with permission of USPS" tagline that its lawyers and Permissions staff force on the public and museums alike.

I've photographed some wonderful artwork at post offices this year, including the 1937 hybrid relief/painting "Eliphalet Remington" in the post office in Ilion, New York, whose exterior 1936 photo was posted above.

Gorgeous, no? There are thousands more from the Archives where all these came from!



While in the D.C. area I also spent a wonderful day at the National Postal Museum! Believe it or not I'd been to more than 6,000 post offices before visiting the museum. Sacrebleu!

Scene from the National Postal Museum:


Speaking of #6,000: the Lakeville Carrier Annex of the Middleborough, Massachusetts post office.


Well, wishing you all a happy 2015. I hope to update the blog on a more frequent basis next year. Cheers!
Evan

2013 Postal Summary

This is the fourth year of the Going Postal annual postal summary. Dang, I've been at this a while now, huh? 2013 brought adventures up and down the east coast from Boston to Florida. I completed a few geographic postal milestones. And, of course, here are the summaries for 2010, 2011, and 2012. This year I visited 837 post offices and other postal facilities across 15 states and the District of Columbia, for a grand total of 5,758 offices. The longest trip I took this summer lasted 29 days, and though I only drove from New York as far as Georgia, my mileage could have taken me across the country twice. Below is my counties-visited map at the end of 2013. Counties visited for the first time -- namely in Appalachia and the Southeast -- are colored dark gray:


The overall count does not include former and discontinued post office locations, such as what is now the Municipal Building in Toccoa, Georgia:


I also make efforts to find and document freestanding mail processing facilities, such as the Logistics and Distribution Facility in Tampa, Florida:


I finally finished visiting every post office on Long Island, in May:


And just this past week I quit procrastinating and completed my visits to every single post office [plus carrier annex, Contract Postal Unit, and other mail processing facility] in New York City:


I visited as many as 30 post offices in one day. State by state, counting only distinct active postal locations:

New Jersey: 112 post offices
Focus/Foci: Northern New Jersey, central shore
(I have now visited more than 75% of the nearly 800 postal facilities in New Jersey.)

Massachusetts: 94
Worcester, southeast Massachusetts

Tennessee: 75
Eastern Tennessee: Bristol to Knoxville

Virginia: 68
I-81 corridor, south-central tier

North Carolina: 63
Southwest N.C., Greensboro

South Carolina: 61
Northwest S.C., southern shore to Charleston

Florida: 59
Tampa / Saint Petersburg

West Virginia: 55
Northeast panhandle, Beckley

Maryland: 54
Baltimore and D.C. suburbs

New York: 49
The South Fork of Long Island

Georgia: 46
Very southeast and northeast corners

Connecticut: 39
Hartford area

Pennsylvania: 29

District of Columbia: 16

Rhode Island: 11

Delaware: 6

The year also brought milestones 5,000 and 5,500...
#5,500: Petersburg, Virginia: Fort Lee Branch post office


Wishing you all a great 2014!

2012 Postal Summary

In keeping with the 2010 and 2011 Going Postal tradition of tabulating postal experiences for the year, let's see what 2012 had to offer: This year I visited an insane 2,097 [new-to-me, active] post offices across 31 states and the District of Columbia -- or about 5.7 per day. The highlight of the year was my 102-day, 17,600-mile, 1,406-post office road trip that spanned July to October. If you'd like a general sense of where I've been, you can see my counties visited map -- counties first visited in 2012 are colored yellow:



That statistic does not include well more than 150 discontinued post offices / contract locations, nor previous sites for post offices, such as WPA offices that have been sold by USPS and consolidated into other facilities. This year I made special efforts to find those locations, photos of many of which have been presented to you on this blog. For example...

Below: Denton, Texas's former early-century post office lies across the street from its present site:


Below: Cleveland's Brook Park Branch post office was discontinued as part of the 2009-2011 SBOC initiative. Photographed in October, the building is now home to The Post Office Café.


I also made special efforts to visit freestanding processing facilities, like the Seattle P&DC (which is way too big for one photo), partly seen here:


State by state, counting only distinct active postal locations:

Pennsylvania: 268 post offices
Focus/Foci: Northern Philadelphia Metro area; east-central PA.

Texas: 231.5*
Dallas-Fort Worth metro area; Austin; El Paso; Big Bend National Park
* Texarkana's Downtown Station lies square on the Texas/Arkansas border.

New Jersey: 212
West-central New Jersey and central coast

California: 167
Los Angeles and the Central Valley (e.g. Bakersfield, Merced, Sacramento)

Washington: 115
Olympia, Tacoma, central Washington (e.g. Yakima), Columbia River Gorge, Tri-Cities

Arkansas: 108.5*
Northeast (e.g. Jonesboro), northwest (Fayetteville), southwestern I-30 corridor

Oregon: 99
South central (Crater Lake), Eugene, Portland, Columbia River Gorge

Virginia: 92
Suburban D.C. (Arlington and Alexandria), I-81 corridor

North Carolina: 89
Western: Winston-Salem, Hickory, Asheville, mountains

South Dakota: 72
Central east-west corridor; Rapid City, Pierre, all of Sioux Falls

New York: 68
Southern tier; Ithaca, Binghamton

Minnesota: 67
Southwest Minnesota (New Ulm, Mankato) and Twin Cities

Nevada: 57
Las Vegas metro area. All of it.

New Hampshire: 57
Southern N.H.

Oklahoma: 57
Tulsa metro area

Montana: 43
Missoula, Helena, Billings

Arizona: 39
Tucson

Tennessee: 57
Knoxville, Cookeville, Murfreesboro

Ohio: 37
Cleveland suburbs

Vermont: 35
Connecticut River valley

New Mexico: 30
Southwestern; Las Cruces, Alamogordo

Missouri: 28
Branson area for PMCC Convention

Iowa: 25
Iowa City

Louisiana: 13
Shreveport / Bossier City

West Virginia: 12

Maryland: 11

Massachusetts: 10

Idaho: 8

District of Columbia: 7

Illinois: 7

Indiana: 2

Wyoming: 2

2012 also noted the following threshold post office visits:
#3,000: Riverside, NJ: Delanco Branch
#3,500: Timberville, VA


#4,000: Killeen, Texas: Harker Heights Branch


#4,500: Bingen, Washington


Hope everyone has a great 2013!

2011 Postal Summary

I've finally fully updated my spreadsheet of post office visits and can declare with certainty that I visited 1,253 [new-to-me] operating postal facilities in 2011; an average of 104 a month or 3.4 per day over the year. The year-end total is 2,825, which doesn't quite jive with last year's figure... I think I realized that I forgot a couple days' visits and logged them in this year. Not bad considering I've had a job and graduate work. This count compares with 768 back in 2010. My only regret is that this year's assortment represents less geographic diversity than in previous years.

Furthermore, I visited a total of 1,298 facilities, if independent APC locations, Box Units, and the former sites of discontinued post offices are included in the count. Though even this does not include the fact that, say, I photographed the former (WPA) Olyphant, PA post office in addition to its present setting.

The former Olyphant, PA post office ... and its present site since 1983



So, let's have the state rundowns! We're using the official, lower count (1,253) here.

Pennsylvania: 484
Focus/Foci: All over the state. (+18 DPOs = 502 new visits overall)

New Jersey: 261
The NYC—Philadelphia corridor, down to Vineland

New York: 193
Suffolk County; Albany, the last day of the year

Massachusetts: 79
Berkshire and Hampshire counties (the first week of the year); Cape Ann

Maryland: 67
Eastern shore; Frederick area

Maine: 56
Southeast coast

Rhode Island: 36
Providence; I-95 corridor

Connecticut: 27
Southeast CT

Delaware: 25
Wilmington, "inland" Delaware

Vermont: 16
Southern VT (including my first PO visit in the state)

Virginia: 8
Northern DelMarVa: Virginia

West Virginia: 1
Ridgeley

2010 Postal Summary

The stats are in:

This year I visited 738 [new] post offices, bringing my grand total up to 1,561. Even though the following numbers add up to 736. Oh well. Here are my post office visits by states:

New York: 186
Focus/foci: New York metro, including Westchester and Nassau counties

Ohio: 124
Northern Ohio, near I-80; Cincinnati

Massachusetts: 101
Boston metro

Hawai'i: 80
O'ahu and the Big Island

Pennsylvania: 59
Near I-80; Philadelphia

New Hampshire: 40
South, along I-93; the coast

Oregon: 40
Salem and Portland

New Jersey: 36
Near I-80; near Route 1

Maryland: 26
Baltimore, & -D.C. corridor; Silver Spring

Connecticut: 14
Hartford; New London for the annual PMCC Convention

Kentucky: 11
Cincinnati metro

Maine: 7
Southern tip

D.C.: 6
Northern stations; The Capitol

Rhode Island: 1
Block Island

Just Stating

Presenting the first POs I visited in each state, on my own. Grayed-out states I've not yet been to, except in the case of Vermont, to which I've not been since I started collecting.

Edit [1/8/11]: First Vermont office visited. Alabama: Oxford
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
California: Arcata
Colorado: Loveland
Connecticut: Darien -- [Noroton] Heights Sta.
Delaware: Claymont
District of Columbia: L'Enfant Plaza [Retail at base of Postal HQ]
Florida: Jacksonville -- BP Convenience CPU
Georgia: Savannah -- Port Wentworth Br.
Hawaii: Honolulu -- Hawaii Postal Express CPU 96815
Idaho: Island Park
Illinois: Champaign
Indiana: Covington
Iowa: Des Moines -- West Suburban Br.
Kansas: Saint Francis
Kentucky: Covington -- Dixie Br.
Louisiana
Maine: Kittery Point
Maryland: Cabin John
Massachusetts: Northampton [rejected as a teenager in 2002, attempted as a favor to my father]
Michigan: Monroe -- Luna Pier Br.
Minnesota: Minneapolis -- Dinkytown Sta.
Mississippi: Tremont
Missouri: Maryville
Montana: Garryowen
Nebraska: Red Cloud
Nevada: Carson City
New Hampshire: Laconia -- Weirs Beach Sta.
New Jersey: Linden -- Grasselli Sta.
New Mexico
New York -- unknown
North Carolina: Raleigh -- Westgate Sta.
North Dakota: Antler
Ohio: Bellevue
Oklahoma
Oregon: Moro
Pennsylvania: Woodlyn
Rhode Island: Providence -- East Side Sta.
South Carolina: Hamer
South Dakota: Buffalo
Tennessee: Middleton
Texas
Utah: Wendover
Vermont: Readsboro
Virginia: Lorton
Washington: Dayton
West Virginia: Charleston -- Stonewall Sta.
Wisconsin: Brooklyn
Wyoming: Beulah