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Boat Ramp Statistics

There are 40,834 boat ramps and public boat launches mapped across all 50 US states on BoatLaunchMap, spanning 15,029 cities and 4,040 counties. 26,528 (65%) are free public ramps. The average Google rating across all rated ramps is 4.5/5.

40,834
Total Boat Ramps
50
States Covered
26,528
Free Public Ramps
7,778
Google-Rated Ramps

Live Data Coverage

BoatLaunchMap is the only US boat ramp directory that surfaces real-time water conditions per location. Live readings update every 30 minutes and carry stale-data gates so a decommissioned gauge never publishes outdated info.

40,747
Ramps tagged with waterbody
Powers /boat-ramps-on/{lake} pages with live USGS gage height + streamflow.
5,885
Coastal ramps with live NOAA tides
Per-ramp live water level + next high/low prediction via NOAA CO-OPS.
40,834
Ramps with weather forecast
Every ramp page pulls live conditions from the National Weather Service.

Data Sources by Agency

Every ramp record is attributed back to the publishing agency. The breakdown below shows how many ramps come from each authoritative source. Federal sources are USACE, USFS, NPS, BLM, BOR, and USFWS via recreation.gov.

Boat ramp counts by publishing agency
RankAgencyLevelRampsShare
1OpenStreetMap contributors (OpenStreetMap)community21,95853.8%
2Google Places (Google Places)community3,9409.6%
3Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WI DNR)state2,3765.8%
4Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (MN DNR)state2,2785.6%
5Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TX TPWD)state1,7874.4%
6Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FL FWC)state1,7564.3%
7Arkansas Game and Fish Commission (AR AGFC)state7431.8%
8New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NY DEC)state6471.6%
9Indiana Department of Natural Resources (IN DNR)state6001.5%
10Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission (PA PFBC)state5101.2%
11Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LA LDWF)state4711.2%
12Michigan Department of Natural Resources (MI DNR)state4321.1%
13Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TN TWRA)state4061.0%
14Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WA WDFW)state3901.0%
15Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (ME IFW)state2840.7%
16Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (MT FWP)state2440.6%
17Missouri Department of Conservation (MO MDC)state2420.6%
18Nebraska Game and Parks Commission (NE GPC)state2350.6%
19New Hampshire Fish and Game Department (NH F&G)state2170.5%
20Recreation.gov / Recreation Information Database (USACE, USFS, BLM, NPS, BOR, USFWS) (RIDB)federal2140.5%
21Alaska Department of Fish and Game (AK ADFG)state1810.4%
22Massachusetts Office of Fishing and Boating Access (MA OFBA)state1810.4%
23Idaho Department of Fish and Game (ID IDFG)state1580.4%
24Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources (KY KDFWR)state1420.3%
25Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources (VA DWR)state1290.3%
26West Virginia Division of Natural Resources (WV DNR)state1190.3%
27New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJ DEP)state1030.3%
28Utah Automated Geographic Reference Center / State Parks (UT AGRC)state610.1%
29Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation (OK ODWC)state300.1%

Most-Mapped Waterbodies in America

Atlantic Ocean has the most catalogued ramps of any US waterbody (511 sites). Each link below opens a directory of every boat ramp on that waterbody, with live USGS water levels where a gauge is mapped.

#1
Atlantic Ocean
511 ramps
#2
Gulf of America
282 ramps
#3
Mississippi River
258 ramps
#4
Lake Michigan
181 ramps
#5
Hudson River
164 ramps
#6
Long Lake
153 ramps
#7
Chesapeake Bay
149 ramps
#8
Pacific Ocean
148 ramps
#9
Kentucky Lake
148 ramps
#10
Puget Sound
145 ramps
#11
Missouri River
135 ramps
#12
Delaware River
115 ramps
#13
Lake Erie
112 ramps
#14
Lake Superior
112 ramps
#15
Toledo Bend Reservoir
102 ramps
#16
Ohio River
102 ramps
#17
Lake Anna
101 ramps
#18
Colorado River
100 ramps
#19
Susquehanna River
99 ramps
#20
Clear Lake
91 ramps
#21
Bass Lake
89 ramps
#22
Snake River
84 ramps
#23
White River
82 ramps
#24
Lake Champlain
80 ramps
#25
The Everglades
75 ramps

States With the Most Boat Ramps

Wisconsin leads the nation with 3,513 mapped boat ramps. Minnesota is second with 3,350, followed by Florida with 3,331.

US states ranked by number of boat ramps
RankStateTotal RampsPublic RampsAvg Rating
1Wisconsin3,5133,1484.5/5
2Minnesota3,3503,0434.5/5
3Florida3,3312,7874.5/5
4Texas3,0512,5014.4/5
5Michigan2,7041,8824.5/5
6New York1,6801,1364.5/5
7Washington1,5706854.3/5
8Tennessee1,1708104.5/5
9Missouri1,1116404.4/5
10Pennsylvania1,1037864.5/5

States With the Highest-Rated Boat Ramps

New Hampshire has the highest average boat ramp rating at 4.8/5.

US states ranked by average boat ramp Google rating
RankStateAvg RatingTotal Ramps
1New Hampshire4.8/5472
2Nebraska4.7/5397
3Arkansas4.7/51,056
4Massachusetts4.6/5662
5Kansas4.6/5233
6Vermont4.6/5217
7Illinois4.6/5835
8Maine4.5/5890
9New York4.5/51,680
10Connecticut4.5/5286

All 50 States — Boat Ramp Data

Boat ramp counts and ratings for all 50 US states
StateTotal RampsPublicAvg Rating
Alabama4852904.5/5
Alaska181181—
Arizona154234.5/5
Arkansas1,0569344.7/5
California1,0363634.5/5
Colorado25949—
Connecticut2861314.5/5
Delaware105564.5/5
Florida3,3312,7874.5/5
Georgia4903354.5/5
Idaho5232824.5/5
Illinois8351144.6/5
Indiana1,0197094.5/5
Iowa511744.5/5
Kansas233454.6/5
Kentucky7334134.5/5
Louisiana8677404.5/5
Maine8906604.5/5
Maryland5821554.5/5
Massachusetts6623234.6/5
Michigan2,7041,8824.5/5
Minnesota3,3503,0434.5/5
Mississippi2631444.5/5
Missouri1,1116404.4/5
Montana569295—
Nebraska3973374.7/5
Nevada88354.4/5
New Hampshire4723974.8/5
New Jersey4522484.5/5
New Mexico5484.5/5
New York1,6801,1364.5/5
North Carolina1,0503024.5/5
North Dakota310224.3/5
Ohio561874.1/5
Oklahoma3601024.5/5
Oregon5571584.1/5
Pennsylvania1,1037864.5/5
Rhode Island10135—
South Carolina2652324.5/5
South Dakota2071234.5/5
Tennessee1,1708104.5/5
Texas3,0512,5014.4/5
Utah3001524.5/5
Vermont217494.6/5
Virginia7653324.4/5
Washington1,5706854.3/5
West Virginia2601624.5/5
Wisconsin3,5133,1484.5/5
Wyoming9613—

Frequently Asked Questions

How many boat ramps are in the United States?

BoatLaunchMap has mapped 40,834 boat ramps and public boat launches across all 50 US states. Wisconsin has the most with 3,513.

Which state has the most boat ramps?

Wisconsin has the most boat ramps with 3,513 mapped locations. Minnesota is second with 3,350.

How many free public boat ramps are there?

There are 26,528 free public boat ramps in the US, representing 65% of all mapped boat ramps.

Cite This Data

Statistics, counts, and per-state breakdowns on this page are derived from the BoatLaunchMap open dataset (CC BY 4.0). You're free to use these numbers in articles, research, or apps with attribution.

Suggested attribution (web)
BoatLaunchMap. (2026). US Boat Ramp Statistics. Retrieved from https://www.boatlaunchmap.com/boat-ramp-statistics
Suggested attribution (academic)
BoatLaunchMap (2026). US Public Boat Ramp Dataset [Data set]. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). https://www.boatlaunchmap.com/api/data/geojson
Download GeoJSON
Full dataset, CC BY 4.0
Read methodology
How records are sourced & verified
Dataset landing page
License, schema, attribution

Cite this data

Free to reuse with attribution. Writing about US boat-ramp access? You can quote these statistics and link back, or build on our open dataset.

BoatLaunchMap (2026). US Boat Ramp Statistics. Retrieved from https://www.boatlaunchmap.com/boat-ramp-statistics
Open dataset (CC BY 4.0) →Methodology →