United States license plate designs and serial formats

In the United States, the appearance of license plates is frequently chosen to contain symbols, colors, or slogans associated with the issuing jurisdiction, which are the 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, the five inhabited U.S. territories, and Native American tribes, each of which independently registers motor vehicles. Regular-issue license plates for passenger vehicles typically have six or seven characters, with vanity plates having up to eight characters in a few states.

License plates in the United States often contain imagery associated with the state. A notable example is the Bucking Horse and Rider logo, which has been featured on Wyoming's license plates since 1936. From 1937 to 1956, Tennessee's license plates were constructed in a parallelogram shape similar to the state itself. This design element was carried over in almost every Tennessee plate since.

Other states offer a more simple license plate design with little decoration other than a slogan. Vermont's license plates have frequently used a white-on-green color scheme, while Alaska has preferred blue and yellow. New Jersey's license plates, while otherwise basic, are noted for having a yellow gradient background. Similarly, Connecticut's license plates feature a navy blue background. The license plates of California, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Texas, and Virginia all feature a plain white background. Delaware's plates have featured gold text on a black background since the 1960s.

As of 2025, the five oldest plate designs currently in use are those of Delaware (since 1959), Colorado (since 1960, continuously since 1978), Washington, D.C. (since 1975), Minnesota (since 1978), and North Carolina (since 1982). Each of these designs have received some minor cosmetic changes since their introduction, but have otherwise been virtually untouched.

Non-passenger plates tend to have a design and serial format differing from the passenger plates. This allows for more passenger plate availability.

Many license plates also feature a slogan associated with the state. The first state to feature a slogan on their license plate was Idaho in 1928. These license plates featured the slogan "IDAHO POTATOES", which would eventually morph into the "Famous Potatoes" slogan featured on present-day Idaho plates. The oldest continually used license plate slogan is Maine's "Vacationland", in use since 1936. In 1940, Arizona started using the slogan "Grand Canyon State", on its license plates, and Wisconsin started using the slogan "America's Dairyland". Illinois has featured the slogan "Land of Lincoln" on its license plates since 1954.

North Carolina has famously used the slogan "First in Flight" on its license plates since 1982, as a nod to the Wright Flyer. Later on, in 1998, the Wright brothers' home state of Ohio adopted the slogan "Birthplace of Aviation" for its license plates.^[1]

Some license plates, such as Florida's, feature the address to the state's official or tourism website.

Formats for license plate numbers are consistent within the state. For example, Delaware is able to use six-digit all-numeric serials because of its low population. In a similar case, New Hampshire uses seven-digit all-numeric serials.

Several states, particularly those with higher populations, use seven-character serials. The most common example is ABC-1234 (with or without a space or dash), used in Georgia, Michigan, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin. Other examples of seven-character formats are 1ABC234 in California; AB-12345 in Connecticut and Illinois; 1AB2345 in Maryland; and 1234ABC in Kansas. Many states have switched to seven-character serials after outgrowing their six-character formats, such as North Carolina in the 1980s and Connecticut in 2015.

States with lower populations typically use six-character serials with three letters and three numbers (such as ABC-123 or 123-ABC). These states are Alaska, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, and Vermont. Meanwhile, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, and New Jersey have grown to adopt a format with two numbers and four letters. Arkansas uses ABC-12D; Colorado and Florida use ABC-D12; and New Jersey uses A12-BCD. Rhode Island and Washington, D.C. use two letters and four numbers; while Nevada uses one letter and five numbers. Arizona is unique in that its serials are based on blocks of six-character alphanumeric combinations.

License plate numbers are usually assigned in ascending order from a starting point such as A00001. Typically, the numbers progress first, followed by the letters. In this example sequence, the second license plate would be A00002, the third would be A00003, and so on. After A99999 is issued, the next plates in line are B00001 to B99999, then C00001 to C99999, then D00001 to D99999, then E00001 to E99999, and so on. In most cases after Z99999 is reached, the positioning of the numbers and letters is flipped. Thus, the next plate in line would be 00001A, then 00002A, and so on. By observing the letters in a familiar license plate format, one can determine roughly when the plate was issued.

In a few cases, numbers have been assigned in descending order. For example, when Virginia switched to seven-character serials in 1993, numbers beginning with AAA-1000 were already in use for extra-cost, optional-issue plates. Therefore, the new standard license plates were issued in descending order from ZZZ-9999.^[2]

Delaware and Indiana issue plates randomly, based on which serials are readily available.

In some states, the month of expiration or the county of registration is incorporated into the plate's serial. The last number on a Massachusetts license plate indicates the month the vehicle's registration expires. For example, the plate 6RUW 17 would expire in July, the seventh month. "0" indicates an October expiration, while "X" and "Y" were formerly used for November and December respectively. In a West Virginia license plate, the first character indicates the month of expiration (1-9 for January to September; "O", "N", and "D" for October, November, and December). Missouri also blocks out its license plate serials by month, though this is done alphabetically instead of numerically.

In Alabama, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming, a one- or two-digit number representing the county of issue begins a license plate number. Standard-issue Idaho license plate numbers begin with a single-letter or a number-letter code representing the county of issue in alphabetical order. For example, vehicles registered in Ada County start with 1A, vehicles in Teton County start with 1T, vehicles in Twin Falls County start with 2T, and vehicles in Valley County start with V (since Valley County is the only county name that starts with a V). County codes have been based on historical population figures, the county names in alphabetical order, or some combination thereof. In Montana, for example, the county codes were assigned around 1930 and have not changed since.^[3] Other states like Indiana and Tennessee also once used the practice, before switching to a more conventional state-wide format.

Four jurisdictions in the United States use letters to designate a residence where a vehicle was registered. In Hawaii, the license plates have a unique letter designation based on the island counties that residents purchased or registered the vehicles from. A vehicle with a registration number beginning with H or Z is registered in Hawai‘i County, one beginning with K is registered in Kaua‘i County, one beginning with M or L is registered in Maui County, and one beginning with any other letter (and not containing H, K, L, M, or Z) is registered in the City and County of Honolulu. In the U.S. territory of Guam, the license plates use the first two letters that are coded by village of issuance. For example, "TM-1629" refers to a vehicle that was registered by a person who lives the village of Tamuning. In the U.S. Virgin Islands, a vehicle with a registration number beginning with C is registered in St. Croix, J in St. John, and T in St. Thomas.

Several states do require vehicles to display county codes, but these codes are not part of the serial. Indiana and Ohio display two-number county codes. Kansas plates display two-letter county codes, but these codes are placed on a sticker or are printed in the corner of the plate in a smaller font size. Texas places the county name only on the windshield registration sticker, where the car's license plate number is also printed. Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Ohio, and Tennessee place the full name of the county of registration explicitly on their standard-issue plates, although not as part of the serial. However, Florida allows its residents to choose either "Sunshine State" or "In God We Trust" in place of the county name. Georgia also allows its residents to choose from either the county name or the slogan "In God We Trust".

For various reasons related to visibility and readability, some states and territories exclude certain letters from use in their license plate serial formats. The most commonly skipped characters are I, O, and Q. Some states, such as Colorado, Georgia, and South Carolina have gradually adopted one or more of these letters over a course of years after previously skipping them in order to accommodate the demands of population growth and depletion of available serial combinations. The most common argument behind skipping I, O, and Q is that they can be too easily confused with 0, 1, and other characters, particularly when there isn't adequate spacing or divider between numbers and letters.

California only uses I, O, and Q in between two other letters, for example "7PIE123". Uniquely, Tennessee and Texas skip all vowels; Texas also skips the letter Q.

In amateur radio license plate issues, some states use a unique slashed zero character in place of the standard "0" character. This is mostly done due to lack of spacing between the letters and numbers. Iowa began using a slashed zero on its standard issue plates in 2012; Alaska did so in 2023 and Pennsylvania did so in 2025. Another unique aspect of Pennsylvania's license plates is that their number dies are noticeably taller and narrower than their letter dies. In Colorado, the "0" dye is more round than the "O" dye.

In the states, special plates displaying the International Symbol of Accessibility are issued to persons with disabilities that entitle them to special parking privileges. Alternately, a placard, which in some jurisdictions can be hung from the rear view mirror, may be issued; the placard has the advantage of being transferred from vehicle to vehicle.

The following tables give information on license plates currently being issued, with 2014 or later expiration dates, for private (non-commercial) use on passenger vehicles by the governments of the fifty U.S. states, the District of Columbia, the five inhabited U.S. territories, and Native American tribes. Information on serial numbering patterns is also given. Older designs and serial formats previously issued may still be valid for continued usage in certain jurisdictions; these are noted in a separate table below.

In addition to "regular" passenger plates, all jurisdictions also provide plates for other types of vehicles that may only be roughly similar in design and layout. Additionally, there has been an increasing trend in the field of "specialty" plates to promote specific causes or interests. To keep this table as simple as possible, most of these alternate types of plates will not be noted. More information may also be found within the individual articles for each state, as linked within the table. Exceptions to this guideline may be made for specialty plates that are available at no extra cost to the motorist, as these tend to be seen more commonly on the roads.

Plates with the following designs and serial formats are no longer being issued but may still be valid for use in certain instances. This table does not include year of manufacture registrations.

Diplomatic license plates are issued by the United States Department of State to accredited diplomats.

Prior to 1984 license plates for diplomatic vehicles were provided by the jurisdiction where the foreign mission was located. The District of Columbia provided license plates for missions headquartered in the capital, and New York provided plates for members of the United Nations, etc. Upon passage of the Foreign Missions Act in 1984 registration authority for foreign mission vehicles was centralized with the U.S. Department of State.^{[36][37][38][39]}

From 1984 until August 28, 2007, all plates issued followed the pattern of a letter identifying the status of the owner, followed by the two-letter country code, followed by a random three or four-digit number (S AB 1234). For member countries of the Organization of American States (OAS), a subset of that numbering pattern was allotted to vehicles based at those countries' missions to the OAS. Plates issued to cars based at the headquarters of the United Nations in New York City were issued in the reverse format, with the three or four-digit number first, followed by the two-letter country code, followed by the status code (1234 AB S).

The location of the status codes, either as the first or last character, allows the city of assignment to be easily identified because representatives of certain countries are limited to travel in a certain radius from their base. The status codes used until 2007 were "C" for Foreign Consul; "D" for Diplomat; "S" for Non-Diplomatic Staff; and "A" for the OAS. Status codes used for U.N. personnel until 2007 were "A" for the U.N. Secretariat; "D" for U.N. missions and diplomatic personnel; and "S" for U.N. Staff. The rights of the driver and car under diplomatic immunity are defined by this status code.

The country codes are unique to each particular country, but do not correlate to ISO Country Codes or other standards format. For example, in the system used until 2007, France is "DJ" rather than "F", and Australia is "XZ" rather than "AUS".

• Canadian licence plate designs and serial formats

• Website for Automobile License Plate Collectors' Association
• License Plates of North America, 1969–Present