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While your mail may seem to be made up of coupons and other junk mail, reliable mail delivery is an essential function.
Bills, medicine, and vital communication all depend on a working, consistent postal service. With mail delivery backed up, drop boxes being removed, and doubt about the USPS dampening the public’s confidence, we decided it was time to evaluate the accessibility of mail delivery in over 200 major cities.
The results? It turns out some cities have far fewer drop boxes per capita than others. While some cities have less than one drop box per 10,000 residents, others have 10x as much.
The Cities With The Least Drop Boxes Per Capita
- Highland, California
- San Bernardino, California
- Moreno Valley, California
- Fontana, California
- Buena Park, California
- Perris, California
- Arleta, California
- Fullerton, California
- Porterville, California
- Lancaster, California
In California, residents might have to search harder- and travel further- to find a drop box. Keep reading to see the numbers, and the cities with the most drop boxes.
How We Determined This
Using data from MailboxLocate, we determined the number of drop boxes in each zip code for 2020. However, population size matters. 20 drop boxes might be sufficient for a smaller population, but leave a larger one hard up.
To account for population size, we pulled population by zip code from the 2010 Census. From there, we added the total drop box numbers per place name. While most of these are city names, some cities like New York City have regional breakouts for areas like The Bronx and Brooklyn.
We then determined the number of drop boxes per 10,000 citizens. The more drop boxes, the more accessible for citizens.
1. Highland, California
Drop Boxes: 6
Population: 109,846
Drop Boxes Per 10,000 Residents: 0.5
Highland, California has the last drop boxes for its population size, only a measly half box for every 10,000 residents. Does it take half letters? Jokes aside, those 6 boxes aren’t going very far.
2. San Bernardino, California
Drop Boxes: 24
Population: 303,870
Drop Boxes Per 10,000 Residents: 0.8
In 2nd place is San Bernardino, California. While it has 24 boxes, when you bring it down to population size, that is less than 1 box for every 10,000 residents.
3. Moreno Valley, California
Drop Boxes: 17
Population: 213,438.
Drop Boxes Per 10,000 Residents: 0.8
Moreno Valley has 17 mail drop boxes for their population of 213,438. That barely beats out San Bernardino, earning them a (slightly better) 3rd place.
4. Fontana, California
Drop Boxes: 30
Population: 317,062
Drop Boxes Per 10,000 Residents: 0.9
In fourth place is Fontana, California. Which might also make Fontana the fourth worst place to try and mail a letter.
5. Buena Park, California
Drop Boxes: 10
Population: 103,138
Drop Boxes Per 10,000 Residents: 1.0
Buena Park, California has 1 whole drop box for every 10,000 residents. While this might be twice as much as Highland, it’s still not great.
6. Perris, California
Drop Boxes: 19
Population: 186,483
Drop Boxes Per 10,000 Residents: 1.0
Perris, California has 1 drop box (and some decimals) for every 10,000 residents. To put that into perspective, that’s 10% of what Chicago has.
7. Arleta, California
Drop Boxes: 16
Population: 155,020
Drop Boxes Per 10,000 Residents: 1.0
Arleta has 16 drop boxes for its 155,020 residents. This works out to 1 drop box for every 10,000 people trying to live their lives and do every day mail activities.
8. Fullerton, California
Drop Boxes: 17
Population: 161,748
Drop Boxes Per 10,000 Residents: 1.1
In 8th place is Fullerton, California. This Cali town has 17 drop boxes for over 160,000 citizens.
9. Porterville, California
Drop Boxes: 12
Population: 112,642
Drop Boxes Per 10,000 Residents: 1.1
Porterville has 12 drop boxes for it’s 112,642 citizens, making it the city with the 9th fewest drop boxes.
10. Lancaster, California
Drop Boxes: 20
Population: 186,358
Drop Boxes Per 10,000 Residents: 1.1
Lancaster, California isn’t the place to be if you have a package, letter, or absentee vote to drop off. When it comes down to it, 1.073 drop boxes for every 10,000 residents might be better than the first 9- but it’s a matter of 10th of 10th of a 10th, which isn’t too impressive.
Here are the cities with the most mail drop boxes
Access matters when it comes to mail delivery. While many people are fortunate to have a convenient flag on their mail box, not every is so lucky. Some live in situations that don’t have a mailing address or do not have mail pickup for letters or packages.
You’ve seen the cities where citizens are most disadvantaged when it comes to drop boxes, now here are the cities with the most drop boxes. No surprise, many of them are robust urban cities.
Places With The Most Drop Boxes
- Chicago, Illinois
- Brooklyn, New York
- Los Angeles, California
- Houston, Texas
- Bronx, New York
- Las Vegas, Nevada
- San Diego, California
- Miami, Florida
- San Antonio, Texas
- New York City, New York
The 100 Cities With The Least Drop Boxes
Author
Kathy is the head of content at Zippia with a knack for engaging audiences. Prior to joining Zippia, Kathy worked at Gateway Blend growing audiences across diverse brands. She graduated from Troy University with a degree in Social Science Education.
