The United States Postal Service
Summary
USPS delivered 108.7 billion pieces of mail to more than 170 million addresses in FY2025 on an $89.78 billion budget funded almost entirely by postage, not taxes -- about $262.67 per U.S. resident.
What is this organization?
What does it do?
In fiscal year 2025, delivered 108.7 billion mail pieces -- 44 percent of the world's mail -- and generated over $80 billion in revenue⧉, reaching more than 170.4 million delivery points nationwide⧉ -- 157.8 million residential and 12.6 million business addresses⧉ -- up 1.8 million net-new points that year⧉. It runs 31,000 Post Offices, stations, and branches plus 2,700 contract postal units⧉, moving the mail with 262,700 vehicles⧉ -- one of the largest civilian fleets on Earth -- and shipped 6.8 billion packages⧉ that year, competing with FedEx and UPS.
What does it cost to run — money and people?
Running that network cost $89.78 billion in FY2025 operating expenses⧉ against $80.45 billion in revenue⧉ -- an $8.98 billion net loss⧉. Almost none of it is tax money: is self-funded from postage and shipping revenue, and Congress appropriates only a small subsidy -- $49.75 million proposed for FY2026⧉ -- for "revenue forgone" on statutorily free mail for the blind and overseas voters. At fiscal year-end it employed 531,000 career and 93,000 pre-career workers, 624,000 in all⧉, the nation's third-largest civilian employer⧉. Against 341.8 million U.S. residents⧉, that's $262.67 per person -- a network's scale, not a tax bill.
View data as table
| Compensation and benefits | 55,781 | 62% of expenses |
|---|---|---|
| Retirement benefits | 10,342 | 11.5% of expenses |
| Other operating expenses | 12,567 | 14% of expenses |
| Transportation | 8,393 | 9.3% of expenses |
| Workers' compensation | 2,699 | 3% of expenses |
Why is it good for society?
operates under a statutory universal-service mandate: it must deliver to every address at uniform rates⧉, rural routes included. Congress enforces the floor directly: its FY2026 appropriations language bars USPS from closing small or rural post offices and requires continued free mail for overseas voters and the blind⧉. Without that floor, the 1.8 million delivery points added in 2025 alone -- rural and suburban growth a profit-driven carrier could price by distance -- would have no guaranteed carrier at one affordable rate.
- FY2025's $89.78 billion in operating expenses and 624,000-person workforce work out to about $262.67 per U.S. resident -- covered almost entirely by postage and shipping revenue, not taxes.
- A statutory universal-service mandate and a congressional appropriations rider together bar from closing small or rural post offices, guaranteeing every one of its 170.4 million delivery points -- 1.8 million of them added in 2025 alone -- the same uniform rate.
Your handles.* Track service performance, file a complaint, or find your local Postmaster through USPS Consumer Affairs. Comment on proposed rate or service changes through the Postal Regulatory Commission's docket system, which reviews 's price and product filings. To weigh in on 's budget or the rural-post-office protections in the appropriations rider, the lever is your own member of Congress on the relevant appropriations subcommittee.
Sources(6) ▾
- United States Postal Service (filed with the Postal Regulatory Commission), Form 10-K, Annual Report Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, for the Fiscal Year Ended September 30, 2025 (2025-11-14) — 's own audited annual report (Ernst & Young LLP has audited since 1972), filed with the Postal Regulatory Commission under 39 U.S.C. 3652 in the 10-K format voluntarily uses. Source for the Statements of Operations (operating revenue/expenses/net loss, p.46), the Workforce Composition table (career/pre-career headcount, p.26), the Operating Revenue and Volume table (mail volume by class, p.22), the Shipping and Packages volume table (p.24), the universal-service-mandate and Post-Office-count language (p.5), the FY2026 appropriations-rider language on rural post office closures and free mail (p.40), the delivery-point-growth figure (p.58), and the consolidated size/scope paragraph -- vehicles, retail units, mail volume, revenue, workforce rank (p.79). A Wayback capture of this exact PDF could not be completed on this agent's own repeated save attempts (archive.org's save endpoint returned 520 errors every time, likely from concurrent-save load across this batch's ~24 sibling agents); a snapshot from another save (timestamp 2026-04-24) was confirmed present via the availability API before publication and used here. about.usps.com · original document
- United States Postal Service, U.S. Postal Service Reports Fiscal Year 2025 Results (2025-11-14) — 's own press release announcing FY2025 year-end financial results -- corroborates the 10-K's operating revenue ($80.5B), operating expenses ($89.8B), and net loss ($9.0B) figures independently of the audited statements. about.usps.com · original document
- United States Postal Service, Postal Facts: Delivery Points (2026-05-15) — 's own Postal Facts page, source for the FY2025 total-delivery-points figure: 'In fiscal year 2025, the Postal Service delivered mail and packages to 170.4 million delivery points nationwide.' This page does not itself break the total down by residential/business (verified on a second, independent fetch during blind verification) -- that breakdown comes from the companion Size and Scope page (doc-facts-usps-size-scope below). The 10-K gives only the rounded 'more than 170 million' figure (p.5). facts.usps.com · original document
- United States Postal Service, Postal Facts: Size and Scope (2026-07-16) — 's own Postal Facts overview page -- source for the FY2025 residential/business delivery-point split (157.8 million residential, 12.6 million business addresses), which the Delivery Points page alone does not provide. facts.usps.com · original document
- U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Population Growth Slows Due to Historic Decline in Net International Migration (Vintage 2025 National and State Population Estimates) (2026-01-27) — The Census Bureau's own release of its Vintage 2025 population estimates -- source for the July 1, 2025 U.S. resident population figure (341.8 million) used as this entry's per-resident denominator. census.gov · original document
- U.S. Government Publishing Office (govinfo.gov), Office of the Law Revision Counsel, 39 U.S.C. § 201 -- United States Postal Service (2023 edition) (2024-09-24) — The current U.S. Code text of 39 U.S.C. Section 201, with editorial notes showing it was enacted by Pub. L. 91-375 (the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970) on August 12, 1970, and a Statutory Notes entry giving its effective date of July 1, 1971, per Board of Governors Resolution No. 71-9. govinfo.gov · original document
Comments
Always open. Logged-in readers can annotate paragraphs in place.
was established as an independent establishment of the executive branch⧉ by the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970 (Pub. L. 91-375), effective July 1, 1971, replacing the cabinet-level Post Office Department. An eleven-member Board of Governors⧉ -- the Postmaster General, Deputy Postmaster General, and nine Senate-confirmed Governors -- directs it. fulfills a legal mandate to provide universal service at fair and reasonable prices⧉, with rates reviewed by its regulator, the Postal Regulatory Commission.