Which state has the most historical sites?
🔎 Skip to the answer (ranking table)Guess
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 🐾
Answer
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.
📚 Background Not 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) (opens in a new tab)
🔍 Explore more: 🕵️『The historic places the count can't see』→ I bet… California! Gold rush, movie studios — it must be full of old places 🐾
Compare
Historical-site businesses (by state, 2022)
Highest: Massachusetts (93 historic places); lowest shown here: Utah (3 historic places).
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.
History leaves footprints!
Recap
🏅 Today's discovery
🏅 Massachusetts is the USA's #1!
🐕 States in Numbers
Quiz a friend!
📋 See the ranking table (top 48)
| Rank | State | Value |
|---|---|---|
| #1 | Massachusetts | 93 historic places |
| #2 | New York | 79 historic places |
| #3 | Pennsylvania | 78 historic places |
| #4 | Virginia | 63 historic places |
| #5 | California | 49 historic places |
| #6 | Minnesota | 44 historic places |
| #7 | Ohio | 39 historic places |
| #8 | North Carolina | 37 historic places |
| #8 | Texas | 37 historic places |
| #10 | Florida | 34 historic places |
| #10 | Maine | 34 historic places |
| #12 | Wisconsin | 30 historic places |
| #13 | Georgia | 29 historic places |
| #14 | Rhode Island | 27 historic places |
| #15 | Tennessee | 25 historic places |
| #16 | Connecticut | 23 historic places |
| #16 | New Jersey | 23 historic places |
| #18 | Illinois | 21 historic places |
| #18 | Maryland | 21 historic places |
| #18 | Michigan | 21 historic places |
| #21 | Indiana | 20 historic places |
| #21 | South Carolina | 20 historic places |
| #23 | Colorado | 19 historic places |
| #24 | Mississippi | 18 historic places |
| #24 | Missouri | 18 historic places |
| #24 | Washington | 18 historic places |
| #27 | New Hampshire | 17 historic places |
| #27 | Oregon | 17 historic places |
| #29 | Kentucky | 14 historic places |
| #30 | Alabama | 13 historic places |
| #30 | Iowa | 13 historic places |
| #30 | Louisiana | 13 historic places |
| #33 | Vermont | 12 historic places |
| #34 | Hawaii | 10 historic places |
| #34 | West Virginia | 10 historic places |
| #36 | Arkansas | 8 historic places |
| #37 | Montana | 7 historic places |
| #37 | Oklahoma | 7 historic places |
| #39 | Arizona | 6 historic places |
| #39 | New Mexico | 6 historic places |
| #39 | North Dakota | 6 historic places |
| #39 | South Dakota | 6 historic places |
| #43 | Delaware | 5 historic places |
| #43 | Wyoming | 5 historic places |
| #45 | Kansas | 4 historic places |
| #46 | Nebraska | 3 historic places |
| #46 | Nevada | 3 historic places |
| #46 | Utah | 3 historic places |
Only states where the Census published a count for this industry are shown.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau (2022)
Sources
Data as of: 2022
Census County Business Patterns 2022: historical sites (NAICS 712120), establishments by state (opens in a new tab) (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.