Which state has the most ski areas?
🔎 Skip to the answer (ranking table)Guess
Which states have the most skiing businesses — ski and snowboard areas with lifts and runs? Tap them most-to-least.
Tapping assigns 1→4 in order
I bet… Utah! Everyone talks about its powder 🐾
Answer
The real order is…
Colorado takes it — but by a whisker, with New York a hair behind! New York's slopes are small next to the Rockies; it simply has a lot of them. It even has more ski businesses than Vermont, and more than Utah.
📚 Background Colorado wins — but by a whisker, with New York right behind it. New York's slopes are small next to the Rockies; it simply has a lot of them, close to towns. New York even has more skiing businesses than famous ski states like Vermont and Utah — because this counts places, not size, snow or visitors. (U.S. Census Bureau, County Business Patterns) (opens in a new tab)
🔍 Explore more: ⛷️『Small hills, big list: how New York nearly caught Colorado』→ I bet… Utah! Everyone talks about its powder 🐾
Compare
Skiing businesses (by state, 2022)
Highest: Colorado (34 ski businesses); lowest shown here: North Dakota (3 ski businesses).
Note: counts skiing-facility business locations — not size, snow or visitors. A giant resort and a small town hill each count as one. 2022, U.S. Census Bureau. Only states where the Census published a count for this industry are shown — the rest have no published ski-business count.
My paws would freeze! ❄️
Recap
🏅 Today's discovery
🏅 Colorado is the USA's #1!
🐕 States in Numbers
Quiz a friend!
📋 See the ranking table (top 27)
| Rank | State | Value |
|---|---|---|
| #1 | Colorado | 34 ski businesses |
| #2 | New York | 32 ski businesses |
| #3 | California | 24 ski businesses |
| #4 | Wisconsin | 21 ski businesses |
| #5 | Michigan | 18 ski businesses |
| #6 | Washington | 16 ski businesses |
| #7 | Maine | 15 ski businesses |
| #7 | Minnesota | 15 ski businesses |
| #7 | Montana | 15 ski businesses |
| #10 | Idaho | 14 ski businesses |
| #10 | Vermont | 14 ski businesses |
| #12 | Alaska | 13 ski businesses |
| #12 | Pennsylvania | 13 ski businesses |
| #12 | Utah | 13 ski businesses |
| #15 | New Hampshire | 12 ski businesses |
| #16 | Massachusetts | 10 ski businesses |
| #17 | Wyoming | 9 ski businesses |
| #18 | Oregon | 8 ski businesses |
| #19 | Nevada | 6 ski businesses |
| #19 | New Mexico | 6 ski businesses |
| #19 | West Virginia | 6 ski businesses |
| #22 | North Carolina | 5 ski businesses |
| #23 | Ohio | 4 ski businesses |
| #24 | Connecticut | 3 ski businesses |
| #24 | Iowa | 3 ski businesses |
| #24 | New Jersey | 3 ski businesses |
| #24 | North Dakota | 3 ski businesses |
Only states where the Census published a count for this industry are shown — the rest have no published ski-business count.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau (2022)
Sources
Data as of: 2022
Census County Business Patterns 2022: skiing facilities (NAICS 713920), 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). Only the states the Census publishes for this industry appear.
↳ On the Census CBP data (data.census.gov or api.census.gov/data/2022/cbp), filter NAICS 713920 (Skiing Facilities) and read ESTAB (number of establishments) for 2022 by state.