Which states have the most historical-site businesses — old houses, forts, battlefields and heritage villages you can visit? Tap them most-to-least.
Tapping assigns 1→4 in order
I bet… California! Gold rush, movie studios — it must be full of old places 🐾
2Answer
The real order is…
Massachusetts wins — and it is one of the smallest states on the map! This is where the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth and where the Revolutionary War began, and those old places were kept. California — the museum champion on this site — is only #5 here.
📚 BackgroundNot a giant state — Massachusetts! This is where the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth in 1620 and where the Revolutionary War's first battles were fought at Lexington and Concord in 1775, and the state is dotted with preserved houses, ships and battlefields you can walk into. One honest catch: this table counts businesses with paid staff, so historic places run by the government — national parks and many state historic sites — are mostly not in it.(U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns)
Note: counts historical-site business locations with paid staff — each counted once, whatever its size. Historic places run by the government (national parks and many state sites) are mostly not in this table. 2022, U.S. Census Bureau. Only states where the Census published a count for this industry are shown.
Census County Business Patterns 2022: historical sites (NAICS 712120), establishments by state (2026-07-28) — Official published establishment counts (a business location with paid employees counts once, whatever its size; the committed raw file holds the API values verbatim with the NAICS code). CBP does not cover most government employers, so government-run historic sites are largely outside this count.
↳ On the Census CBP data (data.census.gov or api.census.gov/data/2022/cbp), filter NAICS 712120 (Historical Sites) and read ESTAB (number of establishments) for 2022 by state.