US States With the Highest Share of Taxes From Licences

51 US states ranked by share of taxes from licences, from highest to lowest. First are Delaware (33.9), South Dakota (8.87) and Montana (8.44). The middle one of the 51 has 4.

What this measures

The percentage from all licence taxes together: vehicle registration, corporation and business licences, driver's licences, hunting and fishing, and the rest. The Census publishes no total for this group, so it is added up here from its nine parts. Without it, the other six main shares would add to 96%, with nothing to explain the gap. Source: Census government finances.

For most measures, a national ranking mostly sorts places by income and by how urban they are. Each county’s own page compares it with the 50 counties most like it instead, which is often the fairer view.

Every state

Rank	State	% of all taxes
1	Delaware	33.9
2	South Dakota	8.87
3	Montana	8.44
4	Tennessee	8.41
5	Nevada	6.54
6	New Hampshire	6.42
7	South Carolina	6.34
8	Oregon	6.15
9	Wyoming	6.1
10	Iowa	5.9
11	Idaho	5.81
12	California	5.8
13	Alabama	5.31
14	Washington	5.3
15	North Carolina	5.26
16	Mississippi	5.12
17	Oklahoma	4.99
18	Michigan	4.88
19	Hawaii	4.81
20	Florida	4.78
21	Virginia	4.64
22	West Virginia	4.51
23	Wisconsin	4.46
24	Pennsylvania	4.23
25	Nebraska	4.2
26	Illinois	4
27	Minnesota	3.94
28	Maine	3.68
29	Ohio	3.67
30	Indiana	3.58
31	Louisiana	3.46
32	North Dakota	3.39
33	Missouri	3.29
34	New Jersey	3.12
35	Alaska	3.12
36	Colorado	3.09
37	Arizona	3.02
38	Massachusetts	2.97
39	Arkansas	2.96
40	Vermont	2.93
41	Texas	2.93
42	New Mexico	2.92
43	Kentucky	2.92
44	Kansas	2.9
45	Rhode Island	2.82
46	Utah	2.72
47	Maryland	2.69
48	District of Columbia	2.53
49	Georgia	2.14
50	New York	1.49
51	Connecticut	1.46

More on share of taxes from licences

A ranking describes places, not the people in them, and a high or low place does not by itself say why. All US rankings.