Now that the rush of the 80 million milestone is behind us, it’s time to sit down and sift through the data to see how Postcrossing is doing, stats-wise. We know many of you like to check out these posts with numbers and statistics, so let’s get to it!
5,014,287 postcards received
That’s a good 58,827 postcards more than last year, which is great to see! A steady average of 5 million postcards a year is quite impressive and puts us on track to celebrate 100 million postcards sometime in 2029!
29.1 average travel days and 19.2 median travel days
Average travel times keep increasing slightly, year after year, reflecting postal delays, global logistical challenges or just a higher number of postcards traveling over slower routes. However, the median travel days have only slightly increased, indicating that most postcards still arrive in a reasonable timeframe.
27,256,320,327 kms (16,936,292,258 miles) traveled
That’s a little bit more than Voyager 1’s current distance from Earth! 🛰️
19,941 kms (12,391 miles) was the longest distance traveled
Postcard ES-784984 was our long distance winner of 2024, again with the classic combo from Spain to New Zealand! Sabine (aka sabine223) from Germany used the Travel Mode in Spain last February and unknowingly sent the postcard that traveled the longest distance last year, aaaaaaaaaall the way to Neil (aka durbanshark) in Auckland.
The average distance a postcard traveled in Postcrossing in 2024 was around 5,436 kms (or 3,377 miles). It looks like our average postcard easily travels the length of a continent, which is impressive!
1,194,298 postcards were sent from Germany
Germany is once again the country with the most postcards sent in Postcrossing, at just over 1 million postcards per year! 💪 The USA came very close to that magical number, but is not yet over the threshold. Surprisingly, China had a big jump up the charts this year, surpassing Finland and Japan to reach the fifth place in the rankings. Well done! Here’s how the rest of the top 20 chart looks like:
| Ranking | Country/Territory | Postcards sent |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 🇩🇪 Germany | 1,194,298 |
| 2 | 🇺🇸 U.S.A. | 953,575 |
| 3 | 🇷🇺 Russia | 387,390 |
| 4 | 🇳🇱 Netherlands | 237,070 |
| 5 | 🇨🇳 China | 231,565 |
| 6 | 🇫🇮 Finland | 191,584 |
| 7 | 🇯🇵 Japan | 160,853 |
| 8 | 🇧🇾 Belarus | 154,583 |
| 9 | 🇹🇼 Taiwan | 143,990 |
| 10 | 🇨🇦 Canada | 112,640 |
| 11 | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | 101,081 |
| 12 | 🇫🇷 France | 85,701 |
| 13 | 🇨🇿 Czechia | 85,348 |
| 14 | 🇦🇺 Australia | 63,508 |
| 15 | 🇵🇱 Poland | 61,274 |
| 16 | 🇦🇹 Austria | 59,093 |
| 17 | 🇨🇭 Switzerland | 57,240 |
| 18 | 🇮🇳 India | 55,976 |
| 19 | 🇮🇹 Italy | 50,881 |
| 20 | 🇪🇸 Spain | 45,391 |
For those unfamiliar with this statistic, here’s a quick explanation: it represents the number of postcards sent from these countries and registered in 2024. This includes some postcards that were sent in 2023 but only registered in 2024, while others requested in 2024 are not included because they’re still in transit and will likely be registered in the coming weeks or months. By focusing on postcards registered within a specific timeframe, we can maintain consistency and make comparisons with previous years more straightforward.
BeckyS sent the most postcards
Looks like BeckyS grabbed first place this year, up from second last year! 😊 The top 5 senders in Postcrossing continue to be from the USA: BeckyS (2,297), ennasor (2,280), Shelleh (2,273), Djain (2,237) and RomaandPaul (2,231) took the top spots. All of them have chosen to exchange postcards within the USA, which speeds things up… as does the fact that the USA does not currently send mail to Russia, a country with slower mail delivery.
If we count only international exchanges though, then ned44440 in Ireland 🇮🇪 takes the cake, with 1,871 postcards sent! Other runner-ups are mapcardcollector 🇬🇧 (1,841), tiinama 🇫🇮 (1,833), SMatti 🇫🇮 (1,827) and uconn 🇺🇸 (1,802).
Åland Islands sent the most postcards per capita
Åland Islands, Finland and Liechtenstein continue to be the top contributors per capita, with Belarus rising through the rankings this year to grab fourth place.
| Ranking | Country/Territory | Postcards per capita* |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 🇦🇽 Åland Islands | 134.9257 |
| 2 | 🇫🇮 Finland | 34.3100 |
| 3 | 🇱🇮 Liechtenstein | 20.5772 |
| 4 | 🇧🇾 Belarus | 16.8422 |
| 5 | 🇱🇺 Luxembourg | 16.4518 |
| 6 | 🇱🇹 Lithuania | 14.4951 |
| 7 | 🇩🇪 Germany | 14.3408 |
| 8 | 🇳🇱 Netherlands | 13.2611 |
| 9 | 🇲🇴 Macao | 10.5348 |
| 10 | 🇪🇪 Estonia | 8.0195 |
| 11 | 🇨🇿 Czechia | 7.8560 |
| 12 | 🇬🇮 Gibraltar | 7.4082 |
| 13 | 🇱🇻 Latvia | 7.2796 |
| 14 | 🇦🇹 Austria | 6.4712 |
| 15 | 🇨🇭 Switzerland | 6.4401 |
| 16 | 🇹🇼 Taiwan | 6.1398 |
| 17 | 🇬🇺 Guam | 5.9637 |
| 18 | 🇮🇲 Isle of Man | 5.4298 |
| 19 | 🇬🇬 Guernsey | 5.1052 |
| 20 | 🇸🇮 Slovenia | 5.0065 |
(*) This ranking is calculated per 1,000 inhabitants, for countries with at least 10 members.
October 1 was the day in which more postcards were sent in 2024 (81,810)
As expected, and even with some limits in place, World Postcard Day continues to beat all the records, with about five times more postcards being sent on that day than on any other random day. 😅 It’s a lot of pressure on Postcrossing’s servers and database, but each year we introduce tweaks that seem to improve the situation and help things go smoothly.
Other big days this year were December 1st (the start of the Cards for Literacy initiative), the days around October 1st, and other assorted days between January and March.
November 13 was the day in which more postcards were received in 2024
Usually, the day with most postcards received is sometime in January… but not in 2024! November 13 saw the peak of postcards being registered, with 19,866 of them arriving to their destinations on that day alone. Most of the other high volume days happened between October and January.
Postcards were sent from 224 countries and received in 157 countries
Postcards were sent from an additional 3 countries or territories this year! Woohoo! Thanks to the Travel Mode, more and more postcrossers make an effort to locate a local wifi network, postcards and a post office during their trips abroad, so that they can send some postcards. That’s why the difference between the number of countries that sent postcards and those that received them is relatively large. Neat!
11,572 new forum topics and 892,564 forum posts in 2024
Less new forum topics, but more posts in 2024! The forum continues to be a welcoming space to organize events, swap postcards, play games or just a place where people can chat and get to know each other. This is thanks to our team of volunteer moderators, who do an excellent job keeping things tidy and running smoothly.
1,835 meetups in 62 countries
A slightly higher number of meetups, but the same number of countries! A curious mind might ask whether these 62 countries were the exact same ones that had meetups in 2023… they were not! For instance, Gibraltar, Jordan and Denmark all had meetings in 2024 but did not have them the year before. Wouldn’t it be cool if in the future we could have meetings in 100 different countries? It should be possible!
11,987 email replies
This is how many support emails the team has replied to throughout the year — a mind-boggling average of 32 per day. 🤯 That’s… a lot of emails!
And that’s all, folks! 2024 was another good year for Postcrossing, and these numbers offer a fascinating glimpse into it, highlighting the impressive scale and reach of our community. As we get started in 2025, there’s plenty to look forward to — new milestones, evolving trends, and even more postcards connecting people across the world. Here’s to another great year of postcards and connections!
PS: For those of you who would like to see longer rankings that don’t fit on a blog post, here they are.
78 comments so far
Thank you for the work you done and still doing, to keep postcrossing fun and see records like this.
Fantastic, I love reading this every year! The thought of "100 million postcards sometime in 2029!" is a crazy idea!!
Thank you Postcrossing for all the good work.
Thank you for keeping the spirit going. Way to go!
Thanks a lot for all this positivity and connection!
Wow! Beautiful numbers!!!
Molto belle queste informazioni grazie!
Wow! Muy interesante 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Thank you for all the work you do!
More and more people are sending postcards in China! For example, I myself am a new member of this site in September 2024!
Thank you for the great job you do!
Many thanks for all your work in keeping everything running smoothly!
I was one of the senders that sent a postcard on World Postcard day! I wanted the badge!
postcrossing makes me happy! Hank you for this possibillity!
I love the stats! But the postcards most... Most people on PC like to connect, and have a profile you can try to match with a card or stamp or both. But I see more and more 'empty' profiles... I am not sure why they are postcrossers? I always try to send a personal card. But if I read those nearly empty profiles (or sometimes only a 'wishlist') I have decided to send them a card, but with only one Dutch word on it: DOEI! (which means bye).... What do other PC'ers do? And are there stats about the profiles?
But, thanks for all the good moderating work you do and the very quick reply in case of received cards without an ID!
I enjoyed reading all the stats and appreciate all the work that goes into compiling this! Thank you for making Postcrossing such a joy! 😊🇺🇸❤️
Fantastic way to make the world a kinder place!
Interesting to see! Thanks for sharing! 🥰
That's so cool, I also contributed to it, although the number of postcards is not large due to the shipping and receiving speed being around 30 days. But I am still grateful for this project!
#KUDOS for keeping the spirit going!
xoxo
You all are incredible!! Thanks for improving so many lives around the world!
My experience with Postcrossing for the last four years has been wonderful, which is reflected by all these numbers. Every single, one of them brought joy. Thanks, Ana and Paulo.
I enjoyed reading about the stats 🤓
Thank you for all the good work!
Thank you for all that you do throughout each year to make this a fun, entertaining, and insightful place to share postcards with each other from all over the world. I learn so many things about people and places. It is always interesting and makes me realize, in many ways, we are all quite a bit alike:)
My favorite blog post of the year! A big thank you to Paulo, Ana, and all of the other wonderful people at Postcrossing HQ keeping things running smoothly for us. I'm looking forward to seeing the Postcrossing Census results as well!
Adding to all with my thank you for your work with the site and stats. And thank you for sending an email, (2 days ago) marking my 8th year with Postcrossing. I enjoy attending meetups in Southern California.
I haven't really received the postcard, I'm waiting!
I will be 29 years old in 2029. I can't imagine it.
I will write a postcard on this topic next time!
If someone could take this blog post and show it to Paulo and Ana back in 2005, I bet they'd laugh their butts off at the optimism. Yet it is all true. An amazing success and an amazing site. Thanks for all the hard work!!!
Love this! Is there any way to find out how many postcards were sent from my country, Malaysia, in 2024?
So appreciate your creation of this wonderful opportunity to exchange with folks around the world. Thank your work and continued creative updates.
Postcrossing is, by far, the best social media platform on the internet! I am obviously a huge fan. :) Thank you to all who are involved in its creation and maintenance <3
Thank you so much Postcrossing community!
Thank you so much !!!
Thank you Postcrossing for all your work. this is an amazing site
Thank you so much Postcrossing community! 📮🧡🙌
I love reading these stats.
Thank you for all the work you do!
Postcrossing keeps bringing so many smiles to so many lovely people across the globe! What a happy place. Thanks for this project and these amazing stats! 🙂💌
Woo hoo! Glad to be part of this wonderful adventure.
I enjoyed reading about the numbers of Postcrossing, thank you very much! 😃
How odd that a "normal" Wednesday in November was the day when most postcards were registered. 😯 Postcrossing is full of surprises.
Thank you all for your great work! ❤️
Best wishes for 2025 to the Postcrossing team!
Your hard work brightens our lives throughout the year.
I always enjoy seeing these annual statistics. Just fascinating!
Keep well
Thanks for all the work you are putting into this amazing project!
What an amazing work you did. I love the stats. Thank you very much! Especially the information about the meetups I love. I had have my own highlight organizing a meetup in an other country. My first meetup ever and it was a great experience. So I can highly recoment if you are travling more often to another country - try to set up a meetup there. :-)
Die eigenen Fehler merkt man nicht, nur die der Anderen! In der Statistik wo Deutschland an 1. Stelle steht, steht Deutschland nocnmal an 5. Stelle.
Thank you! I'm a data person so I love stats!
Amazing statistics! I loved reading this and it was so exciting to see who sent the most postcards! :)
Congatulations to BeckyS. Outstanding.
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!
A mururation of postcards came to mind with these statistics. A beautiful sight.
Thank you, team!
Thank you for such interesting statistics
Wow! It's an awesome statistics overview. Absolutely so. Then, I'd also like to join the previous commentators, and I join in saying Thank You dear Postcrossing team. For adding so much light to our years and for surprises consisting of postcards. Your snail mail fan, littleglitterwoman
Thanks for all that the team at Postcrossing does to facilitate the spreading of joy all over the planet !
Thank you to all Postcrossers and the Postcrossing team for keeping this wonderful project and this wonderful community alive! Looking forward to exchanging more postcards in 2025!
2024 was the year my postcrossing journey began and I’ve been hooked since! Thank you for making this project possible!
As a person who likes all kind of statistics, it's awesome to read these things!
I am curious, if Germany keeps the 1st place this year, too? Nice to see postcards sent per capita. Though it's a bit not informative, I think...so many postcrossers are not active anymore. Wouldn't it be nice to close these profiles after some time, like marking them 'not active' (not to delete them, of course!), so it would be clearer statistics this way?! 🤔
My personal random statistics of 2024😅
I sent 5 postcards on October, 1st (one expired).
No postcards received on November, 13th 😃 (1 on November, 12th).
I received a postcard from 1 new country - Réunion, and sent to 3 new countries: Slovakia, Malta and Uzbekistan ❤️
Thank you for making it possible!
Good job for all over the word.Happy postcrossing！
Postcrossing is one of the best things in the world. Thank you so much for all you do for so many.
Beautiful numbers! Many thanks to Postcrossing team 💌
Thank you for all that you do. I only joined last year, and have met so many nice people and the world has opened up to me, being able to "travel" via post cards from around the world.
Postcrossing team. Thanks for keeping up with the stats. Still going strong.
Postcrossing Team, I love those annual statistics, Shukran/thank you for keeping the postcards spirit going.
Keep up the good work 😊👍
Thank you so much for the interesting informations! I guess there is a Lot work behind these stats!
I wish you a wonderful, special jubilee year - 20 years!! Amazing 😃
And for all us postcrossers I hope that you, Ana and Paulo, will never stop your passion for postcrossing! ( What would I do with all these boxes of unwritten postcards😳😂)
We love Postcrossing & Love from Armenia
Thank you. What an amazing community you have created.
PEACE
Garry
Love this post so much! Thank you for all you do.
I'd be curious to know as well, shortest travel by time and distance, longest postcard by time, and most liked postcard of the year?
Alway fascinating to explore these stats! I wish we were able to track our expired cards better though. How many cards just didn't make it in 2024?
This is a amazing 👏 I ❤️ being a part of the post crossing community. Thank you 😊. Continue happy post crossing everyone 😊
Really intresting facts and thank you for all of us and all of you :)
Bin gerne dabei und lerne die Welt kennen. Vielen Dank für die Statistik und bitte weiter so. Grüße in die Welt. Thomas
And for everybody´s information: Åland Islands which are situated in Baltic Sea between Finland and Sweden belong to Finland. I do not know why these statistics handle Åland as it were an own country - it has some autonomic government but it is not independent state. It is a very beautiful area and archipelago, worth to visit!
My favorite website and online community! Thanks for all you do, Postcrossing team :)
Statistics for the past year are always interesting. Thanks to the Postcrossing project and all members!
Congratulations on postcrossing! I am sure 2025 will be an even better year !
Liczby są imponujące. To miliony radosnych, pocztówkowych spotkań ludzi na
całym świecie. Brawo .Dziękuję za dobro.
Postcrossing is a bright light of connection in the world... thank you for all your work to make it possible!.... cool numbers, too!
✨️🐌✨️
Who remembers the first postcard they got? I got my first card today Feb 1st, 2025, and it was an exciting moment for me. BIG SMILE.
That's so cool.Thank you for all the good work!
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