Every two years, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) conducts a census of all ferry operators operating within the United States and its territories, called the National Census of Ferry Operators (NCFO). NCFO covers 56 jurisdictions, including the 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and five territories.

Adobe Stock Image by Nicholas J. Klein

BTS maintains the NCFO by collecting and maintaining information in a national ferry database regarding routes, terminals, vessels, operator funding sources, the number of passengers, vehicles carried, and more.

The 2024 NCFO contains operational data for the 2024 calendar year from 165 of the 260 (63%) known U.S. ferry operators. Of the 56 jurisdictions, 41 reported at least one ferry operator in the state.

Ferry key statistics:

• Number of Vessels: 723
  • In-Service: 89.0%
  • Passenger-Serving: 98.9%
  • Vehicle-Carrying: 41.1%
  • Freight-Carrying: 18.1%
• Total Terminals: 575
• Unique Route Segments: 897
• Nautical Miles Covered: 17,500
• Annual Transported Passengers: 105.8 million
• Annual Vehicles Carried: 24.1M

To dive further into the NCFO data, please visit BTS’ NCFO Facts and Figures or the BTS Data Inventory.

Prior to the 2024 NCFO, BTS collected the census data for 2005, 2007, 2009, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2022.