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. 1
    California 21,002 permits
  2. 2
    Florida 5,936 permits
  3. 3
    New York 5,887 permits
  4. 4
    Texas 5,153 permits
  5. 5
    Washington 4,139 permits
  6. 6
    Oregon 2,963 permits
  7. 7
    Pennsylvania 2,450 permits
  8. 8
    Illinois 2,342 permits
  9. 9
    Virginia 2,025 permits
  10. 10
    North Carolina 1,913 permits
  11. 11
    Michigan 1,881 permits
  12. 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 PermitsWineriesDistilleriesWholesalers
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.

What to do with this state ranking

A rank only matters next to the state itself, or a different cut of the same federal data.

TTB FOIA List of Permittees, published August 2026.

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 (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.