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After peaking in 2022, the number of Concealed Carry Permit holders across the United States has declined for the third year in a row. The total now sits at 20.88million, representing a 2.7% drop from last year. A major factor behind this ongoing decrease is the widespread adoption of Constitutional Carry laws. Following Louisiana’s implementation of permitless carry on July 4, 2024, 29 states now allow residents to carry without a permit. As a result, 46.8% of Americans (157.6 million) now live in Constitutional Carry States, with 67.7% of the land in the country (2.57 million square miles). Although no additional states enacted such laws this year, the broader trend remains unchanged. Unlike gun ownership surveys that may be affected by people’s unwillingness to answer personal questions, concealed handgun permit data is the only really “hard data” that we have, but it becomes a less accurate measure as more states become Constitutional Carry states.
Among the findings of our report:
— Last year, the number of permit holders fell by 0.59 million to 20.88 million—the third consecutive annual decline. The total had previously peaked at 22.0 million in 2022. The primary reason for the decrease is that permit numbers tend to drop gradually in Constitutional Carry states, even though it is evident that more people are legally carrying.
— 7.8% of American adults have permits. Outside of the restrictive states of California and New York, about 9.3% of adults have a permit.
— In fifteen states, more than 10% of adults have permits. Utah has slipped below the 10% mark this year. Indiana has the highest permit rate at 22.7%, followed by Colorado at 19.0% and Pennsylvania at 16.2%.
— Five states now have over 1 million permit holders: Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Texas. Florida is the top states with 2.38 million permits.
— Twenty-nine states have adopted Constitutional Carry for their entire state, meaning that a permit is no longer required. Because of these Constitutional Carry states, the concealed carry permits number does not paint a full picture of how many people are legally carrying across the nation. Many residents still choose to obtain permits so that they can carry in other states that have reciprocity agreements, but while permits are increasing in the non-Constitutional Carry states, they fell in the Constitutional Carry ones even though more people are clearly carrying in those states.
— A survey we conducted with McLaughlin & Associates in 2023 found that 15.6% of general election voters carry concealed handguns.
— In 2025, women made up 28.5% of permit holders in the 14 states that provide data by gender. Seven states had data from 2012 to 2024/2025, and permit numbers grew 106.1% faster for women than for men.
— Three states that have detailed race and gender data for at least two decades show remarkably larger increases in permits for minorities compared to whites. In Texas, black females saw an 8.6 times greater percentage increase in permits than white males from 2002 to 2024. Oklahoma data from 2002 to 2024 indicated that the increase of licenses approved for Asians was slightly over seven times the rate for whites. North Carolina had black permits increase twice as fast as whites from 1996 till 2016.
— From 2015 to 2021/2024/2025, in the four states that provide data by race over that time period, the number of Asian people with permits increased 277.8% % faster than the number of whites with permits. Blacks appear to be the group that has experienced the largest increase in permitted concealed carry, growing 321.0% % faster than whites.
— Concealed handgun permit holders are extremely law-abiding. In Florida and Texas, permit holders are convicted of firearms related violations at one-twelfth of the rate at which police officers are convicted.
