The Public Transportation Fact Book, published annually, contains national aggregate statistical data covering all aspects of the transit industry in the United States and Canada. Major sections include an overview of U.S. transit facts, transit finances and operating statistics by modes of travel, transit vehicle characteristics and deliveries, facts and numbers relating to federal grants and the Federal Transit Act.

Information in the 2022 Fact Book is based on data from the FTA’s National Transit Database for 2020.

Glossaries and Compendiums

Appendices

Appendix A: Historical Tables

Appendix A presents select data items for the entire time period they have been reported in the Fact Book and other statistical reports prepared by APTA and its predecessor organizations. Many data items are reported for every year beginning in the 1920s, and ridership is reported from 1907.

Appendix B: Transit Agency and Urbanized Area Operating Statistics

Appendix B presents six operating statistics for 2019 for each transit agency in size order, totaled for all service modes operated by the agency and in size order for each individual mode. Data are also summed and ranked for urbanized areas, both all modes totaled and for individual modes. These lists allow a simple method to determine comparably sized transit agencies.

Data for Appendix B are taken from the Federal Transit Administration’s National Transit Database (NTD) and include only agencies reporting to the NTD.

  • 2021 Appendix B tables in Excel format (Coming Soon!)

Appendix C: Urbanized Area Population, Land Area, and Density 1950-2010

The population, land area, and density of each urbanized area is traced from the 1950 Census, when they were first delimited, through the 2010 Census.  When UZAs were created, which other UZAs they merged with or were broken off from, and all of the name changes are identified.  Population growth from year to year and separate annual tables listing urbanized areas alphabetically and by size are also included.

Rural Transit Fact Book

The Small Urban and Rural Transit Center (SURTC) produces a yearly Rural Transit Fact Book with charts and analysis using the NTD Rural Data.  This publication is not produced by APTA.

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