United States Postal Service – Location Analysis

The United States Postal Service is suffering from declining demand due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With the mail volume plunging and businesses cutting back on advertisements, the USPS could grind to a halt and go bankrupt soon.

While the effect of Covid on USPS is one of the reasons for going bankrupt, the USPS has been losing billions each year over the past decade due to the digital age. The volume of first-class mail, the lions share of USPS’s main revenue, has been diminishing over time. While its public obligations have not grown or changed as much, leading to a financial problem.

Search Trend for USPS

USPS has seen a gradual increase in the number of Google searches in the past few months. It looks like the people searching for US Postal Services on Google are mostly from states with the least number of post offices.

Alaska followed by Hawaii, Wyoming, Vermont, and Nevada are the states with most searches for USPS on Google. Hawaii, Vermont, and Wyoming are the states with the lowest number of USPS locations in the US.

For residents in Alaska, travel by air is the only way for emergencies and essentials such as medicines. There are bigger air carriers that take mail and freight across states, but only USPS sends mail and packages to remote villages throughout the state. The United States Postal Service plays an important role in connecting Alaska to the rest of the country.

USPS Map

There is a total of 31,263 USPS locations in the US across all 50 states.

USPS locations are concentrated in states with populated cities. You can notice in the USPS map there is a weaker presence of US post office locations in the western regions.

States with the most number of USPS locations

New York leads with 1,861 US post office locations, followed by Pennsylvania (1,832) and California (1,679). The chart below shows the top 5 states with the highest number of USPS locations:

States with the least number of USPS locations

Delaware, Rhode Island, and Hawaii are the states with the least number of US post office locations. The total number of USPS locations of the bottom 5 states consist of only 1.6% of total USPS locations.

Top Cities for USPS locations

USPS offices are located in 17,092 cities. Chicago with 66 locations, leads with the highest number of USPS locations. Followed by  New York City (60), and Brooklyn (58).

Risks of USPS Shutdown

USPS is critical to rural communities in America because it is obligated to serve everyone under federal law. Since it is a public service, its prices are lower. Other mailing services like FedEx and UPS don’t have as many postal workers or post offices as widely spread as USPS. In our USPS map, you can see post office locations are scattered in remote areas, where people depend on USPS for last-mile delivery. Residents will have to travel long distances just for there mailing needs if USPS locations shutdown.

The postal service is also important when it comes to voting by mail. Remote areas do not have a voting precinct, so for communities with a large elder population voting by mail is allowed. If USPS shuts down, voting rights for these people will be restricted.

A few solutions have been floated such as USPS taking up banking services to increase revenue or privatizing the postal service to prevent job loss. However, the sharp crisis induced by the Covid-19 outbreak is compelling the USPS for government support.