CCW Permits by State

Educational information, not legal advice. Gun laws change often and vary by state, county and city. Check current law where you are and talk to a firearms attorney before acting. Full disclaimer

Last reviewed November 1, 2026

CCW Permits by State: Where They Stand in 2026

The state-by-state permit counts shown below this section date from around 2017. Since then, two big changes have reshaped the numbers. First, constitutional carry spread to 29 states, so millions of people in those states now carry lawfully without any permit, and permit counts there no longer measure how many people carry. Second, the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in NYSRPA v. Bruen ended discretionary “may issue” permitting, forcing states like New York, New Jersey, California, Maryland, Massachusetts and Hawaii to issue permits to qualified applicants. Permits in those states, once almost impossible for ordinary citizens to get, have since grown sharply from very low starting points.

The most widely cited national estimate comes from the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC). Its 2025 report counted about 20.88 million active permit holders, about 7.8 percent of American adults, down from 21.47 million in 2024 and a peak of about 22 million in 2022. The decline reflects the success of permitless carry, not a drop in carrying: many residents of constitutional carry states simply no longer renew. Florida leads with about 2.38 million permits, and Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Texas each have more than one million. Indiana has the highest share of adults with a license, at about 22.7 percent, even though it adopted permitless carry in 2022.

Permit counts are self-reported by states, collected on different dates, and some states do not publish data at all, so state totals should be read as estimates. Check the issuing agency for the latest official figure.

The maps below show how each state handles permits today: how hard a resident permit is to get, whether the state issues permits to non-residents, and whether it honors permits from other states. Tap any state for details, or open 2A Maps to see every state gun law map on one screen.

Folding these back up is not required. For more gun maps, see 2A Gun Law Maps

Shall Issue, Easy Permit (39): Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming

Shall Issue, Heavy Requirements (4): Connecticut, Illinois, Louisiana, New Mexico

Restrictive Permit Rules (9): California, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island

How this map is researched, from statute to state note: How We Research.

Key Facts

2025 (CPRC report): about 20.88 million permit holders nationwide, or about 7.8 percent of adults; the third straight annual decline since the 2022 peak.
2025: Florida (about 2.38 million) has the most permits; Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Pennsylvania and Texas each exceed one million.
2025: Women made up about 28.5 percent of permit holders in states that report sex, according to CPRC.
June 23, 2022: Bruen struck down New York’s “proper cause” requirement, ending may-issue discretion in New York and similar states.
September 1, 2022: New York’s Concealed Carry Improvement Act took effect, adding 16 hours of classroom training plus live-fire training and a long list of sensitive places.
As of October 2026: 29 states have permitless carry, but all of them still issue permits for travel and other benefits.

What Gun Owners Should Know

Even in a constitutional carry state, a permit is worth having for reciprocity while traveling, for the federal school-zone exemption, and in many states for skipping a separate NICS check when buying a firearm (where ATF has approved the permit as a NICS alternative).
Keep track of your expiration date; carrying on an expired permit can be a crime in permit-required states.
Update your address as required by your state, and carry your permit and ID whenever you carry.
In former may-issue states, expect long waits, high fees and heavy training requirements, and keep records of every step of your application.
See the history behind these numbers at History of Concealed Carry.

Sources

Background and Resources

Number of CCW Permits by State
as of approx 2017

Hawaii 0
District of Columbia 124
New Jersey 1,212
Rhode Island 2,560
Alaska 9,870
Maryland 17,414
Delaware 17,436
Wyoming 31,758
Maine 42,000
New Mexico 42,839
Mississippi 46,598
North Dakota 48,700
Montana 50,050
Nebraska 55,710
New York 88,205
New Hampshire 89,084
California 92,000
Kansas 93,092
South Dakota 93,438
Nevada 119,162
Idaho 129,312
West Virginia 147,801
Missouri 160,184
Louisiana 173,881
Arkansas 220,224
Illinois 243,245
Connecticut 255,502
Oregon 256,943
Iowa 273,852
Minnesota 276,109
Oklahoma 283,587
South Carolina 308,406
Kentucky 311,994
Arizona 325,421
Wisconsin 328,907
Colorado 388,646
Massachusetts 412,369
Virginia 429,837
Washington 578,299
Tennessee 594,498
North Carolina 604,737
Michigan 616,508
Ohio 623,000
Utah 698,920
Alabama 755,618
Indiana 799,546
Georgia 979,006
Texas 1,200,746
Pennsylvania 1,275,000
Florida 1,784,395
Vermont = No permits issued