Federal alcohol permits · state ranking

States with the most federal alcohol permits

Every U.S. state and territory ranked by total active TTB Basic Permits, wineries, distilleries, importers, and wholesalers combined.

California
#1 state: 20,928
Permits: 51
States ranked: TTB
Federal source

According to the U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) List of Permittees, published April 2025, 83,590 federal alcohol Basic Permits are on file across 52 states and territories, 18,038 wineries, 5,590 distilleries, 21,314 importers, and 38,648 wholesalers. State counts here are tallied directly from that public federal record, not modeled or estimated, and per-capita rates use U.S. Census Bureau Vintage-2023 population. Breweries are excluded: they hold a Brewer's Notice under a separate statute and are not in the TTB list. See the methodology for the calculation.

The ranking in one line

California leads with 20,928 permits, followed by Florida (5,845) and New York (5,836).

20,928
permits · California: 5,845
permits · Florida: 5,836
permits · New York: 51
states ranked

Source: TTB FOIA List of Permittees, April 2025.

CA

20,928
FL

5,845
NY

5,836
TX

5,108
WA

4,121
OR

2,953
PA

2,428
IL

2,309
VA

2,005
NC

1,899
MI

1,861
CO

1,681

What this shows California leads the field with 20,928 permits.

Full ranking

#	State	Permits	Wineries	Distilleries	Wholesalers
1	California	20,928	6,399	561	9,309
2	Florida	5,845	211	197	2,662
3	New York	5,836	843	344	2,699
4	Texas	5,108	1,009	326	2,124
5	Washington	4,121	1,422	239	1,902
6	Oregon	2,953	995	157	1,451
7	Pennsylvania	2,428	619	320	1,000
8	Illinois	2,309	204	115	1,136
9	Virginia	2,005	637	155	713
10	North Carolina	1,899	307	185	983
11	Michigan	1,861	747	310	469
12	Colorado	1,681	274	173	782
13	Ohio	1,671	554	179	579
14	New Jersey	1,610	104	71	747
15	Georgia	1,492	204	146	682
16	Massachusetts	1,310	201	101	575
17	South Carolina	1,243	64	62	907
18	Iowa	1,235	182	55	927
19	Missouri	1,195	358	134	502
20	Maryland	1,193	214	86	526
21	Kansas	1,096	86	43	895
22	Wisconsin	984	251	123	434
23	Arizona	937	170	71	389
24	Connecticut	934	113	43	428
25	Kentucky	927	151	198	428
26	Puerto Rico	855	32	123	455
27	Tennessee	849	127	142	409
28	Nevada	778	18	40	406
29	Minnesota	765	166	82	319
30	Indiana	677	174	119	262
31	Maine	623	89	56	423
32	Mississippi	547	13	11	492
33	New Mexico	410	133	55	158
34	Idaho	400	125	35	172
35	Louisiana	399	24	55	194
36	Arkansas	380	46	23	269
37	Alabama	358	77	58	144
38	District of Columbia	356	11	14	163
39	Delaware	350	16	7	177
40	Vermont	346	104	53	135
41	Oklahoma	318	123	25	123
42	West Virginia	298	46	38	188
43	Hawaii	294	23	29	134
44	Rhode Island	287	34	21	134
45	Montana	270	48	42	128
46	New Hampshire	261	83	34	82
47	Utah	212	39	33	87
48	Nebraska	190	42	32	86
49	Wyoming	173	19	21	89
50	Alaska	158	30	24	73
51	North Dakota	118	30	5	59

Per-class columns show how each state's permits split across the four federal classes.

Frequently asked questions

What does this ranking count?

Active Federal Alcohol Administration (FAA) Act Basic Permits in the public TTB List of Permittees: one count per state covering wineries, distilled spirits plants, importers, and wholesalers. It does not count state-level licenses, which are issued separately by each state's ABC authority.

Why does one state lead by so much?

A single state can hold more permits than the next several combined when it concentrates both production (wineries, distilleries) and distribution (importers, wholesalers). Wholesalers are the largest permit class nationally, so states that serve as major distribution hubs rank high regardless of how much they produce.

Are breweries in this total?

No. Breweries operate under a Brewer's Notice issued under the Internal Revenue Code (protected from disclosure under IRC §6103), not an FAA Basic Permit, so they are not in the public TTB list this directory is built from.

Explore more rankings

Per capita → most wineries → most distilleries → most alcohol importers → most alcohol wholesalers → alcohol permits →

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Methodology

How the data is sourced

Permit guide

The TTB Basic Permit process

Sources: TTB FOIA List of Permittees (April 2025), published by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. Reformatted without alteration; confirm any record against the official TTB list.

Every figure on PlainAlcohol is rendered directly from federal TTB permit data, no number is typed in by an editor. This ranking is rendered directly from the TTB List of Permittees, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.