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: 21,002
Permits: 51
States ranked: TTB
Federal source

According to the U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) List of Permittees, published August 2026, 84,273 federal alcohol Basic Permits are on file across 52 states and territories, 18,120 wineries, 5,670 distilleries, 21,526 importers, and 38,957 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 21,002 permits; the #51 cutoff to make this list is 116 (North Dakota).

21,002
#1 · California: 116
#51, the cutoff to make this list: 5,936
#2 · Florida: 51
states ranked

Source: TTB FOIA List of Permittees, August 2026.

Top 12 states - permits

Bar length = permits

1

California 21,002 permits
2

Florida 5,936 permits
3

New York 5,887 permits
4

Texas 5,153 permits
5

Washington 4,139 permits
6

Oregon 2,963 permits
7

Pennsylvania 2,450 permits
8

Illinois 2,342 permits
9

Virginia 2,025 permits
10

North Carolina 1,913 permits
11

Michigan 1,881 permits
12

Colorado 1,710 permits

Source TTB FOIA List of Permittees · August 2026

The bar to make this list

Permits across all 51 ranked states

every ranked state, bucketed by value

Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more states. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count and share, and where it sits relative to this entry.

Source TTB FOIA List of Permittees · August 2026

Full ranking

#	State	Permits	Wineries	Distilleries	Wholesalers
1	California	21,002	6,400	572	9,346
2	Florida	5,936	213	203	2,704
3	New York	5,887	854	347	2,724
4	Texas	5,153	1,013	332	2,143
5	Washington	4,139	1,430	239	1,909
6	Oregon	2,963	995	156	1,461
7	Pennsylvania	2,450	622	327	1,005
8	Illinois	2,342	204	117	1,154
9	Virginia	2,025	643	158	718
10	North Carolina	1,913	312	186	988
11	Michigan	1,881	754	318	471
12	Colorado	1,710	275	175	800
13	Ohio	1,680	558	179	584
14	New Jersey	1,620	104	73	752
15	Georgia	1,503	207	148	686
16	Massachusetts	1,329	205	102	581
17	South Carolina	1,260	65	62	920
18	Iowa	1,238	182	56	929
19	Maryland	1,206	219	87	529
20	Missouri	1,203	363	133	505
21	Kansas	1,109	87	44	902
22	Wisconsin	995	253	125	440
23	Arizona	950	173	72	394
24	Kentucky	946	151	206	436
25	Connecticut	945	114	44	432
26	Puerto Rico	864	32	125	458
27	Tennessee	862	130	144	413
28	Nevada	791	18	40	413
29	Minnesota	771	166	84	322
30	Indiana	680	174	120	262
31	Maine	625	88	58	424
32	Mississippi	556	13	11	501
33	New Mexico	416	133	55	162
34	Louisiana	407	24	56	197
35	Idaho	402	125	35	173
36	Arkansas	383	46	24	270
37	District of Columbia	360	11	14	164
38	Alabama	359	76	58	145
39	Vermont	352	105	55	137
40	Delaware	351	16	7	178
41	Oklahoma	318	122	23	125
42	West Virginia	300	47	38	189
43	Hawaii	296	23	30	134
44	Rhode Island	289	35	21	134
45	Montana	271	48	43	128
46	New Hampshire	263	85	34	82
47	Utah	214	39	33	88
48	Nebraska	187	42	32	84
49	Wyoming	177	19	21	91
50	Alaska	162	30	24	75
51	North Dakota	116	30	5	58

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 →

All states

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Methodology

How the data is sourced

Permit guide

The TTB Basic Permit process

Sources: TTB FOIA List of Permittees (August 2026), published by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. Reformatted without alteration; confirm any record against the official TTB list.

According to the U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau's List of Permittees, the August 2026 List of Permittees source contains 84,273 federal Basic Permit records. PlainAlcohol renders those records directly from the source; no figure 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, the data & editorial changelog, or report a data error.