United States Post Office

United States Post Offices are post offices in the United States, operated by the United States Postal Service (USPS). As of September 2020, the USPS operates 26,362 U.S. Post Offices and 8,089 satellite facilities, a total of 34,451 locations in the United States and associated territories.

Location history
The data in the below tables and graphs is taken from the Annual Report of the United States Postal Service, formerly known as the Annual Report of the Postmaster General of the United States, which has been published each year since the early 19th century and provides statistics about USPS operations.

During the service's first century, the number of U.S. Post Offices grew rapidly with the expansion and settlement of the United States. The total number of locations peaked in 1901 at 76,945. Due to the enormous bureaucratic pressures created by the number of post offices, all independently reporting to the federal government, the Post Office Department began efforts to consolidate its operations in the 1890s. These efforts included converting urban offices into stations or branches of the city's main post office, and the introduction of, which required fewer post offices in rural areas. While the volume of mail processed by the Postal Service has increased dramatically since 1901, the number of locations it operates has steadily declined for over a century.

In addition to standard Post Offices, the USPS operates several other types of locations that are counted separately in the table below. Classified stations, branches, and carrier annexes are satellite locations which operate under a larger post office, typically in a major city which requires more than one facility. Contract Postal Units are spaces leased by the USPS within retail or commercial businesses where postal products are sold and mail can be deposited. Community Post Offices, known as rural stations or branches until 1973, are contract units intended to replace Post Offices that have closed. Village Post Offices, first introduced in 2011, are a similar type of contract unit offering a smaller selection of products and services.