The US Postal Service (USPS) is losing billions of dollars and has a bleak outlook. One reason why is that young people have gone digital and have little use for letter mail. With the continued relentless decline of letters in the coming years, roughly half of the USPS’s current revenues may disappear.
Demographic data on postal system use is available in the USPS’s “Household Diary Survey.” Younger people use all types of (non-package) mail less than older people, and their use is declining rapidly. Aside from packages, household mail in 2024 consisted of advertising (64 percent), transactions (17 percent), correspondence (15 percent), and other (4 percent).
