Contents
- Garage and carport availability statistics in national housing surveys
- Garage and carport availability statistics by tenure
- Garage and carport availability statistics across U.S. regions
- Garage and carport availability statistics by metropolitan setting
- Garage and carport availability: off-street parking context
- Sources
Garage and carport availability statistics in national housing surveys
National survey figures provide several reference points for garage or carport availability, but the percentages below come from different surveys and years. They are not a single continuous time series. In the NIST comparison, apartments are excluded from the garage-or-carport measure, so these results describe the non-apartment dwelling sample rather than all U.S. homes.
| Survey year and program | Non-apartment sample with a garage or carport |
|---|---|
| 1997 Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS) | 56.4% |
| 1999 American Housing Survey (AHS) | 53.7% |
| 2020 RECS | 61.3% |
| 2021 AHS | 52.1% |
The values range from 52.1% in the 2021 AHS to 61.3% in the 2020 RECS. The two later observations are close in time but still come from different surveys. The gap between them should not be read as a measured one-year change: survey design and the population represented differ. The earlier figures likewise offer historical reference points, not a clean trend line.
These percentages are useful as broad survey snapshots. They do not establish what share of every housing type, tenure group, or geographic area has a garage or carport, and they do not separate garages from carports in the reported “yes” category.
Source: NIST, A Collection of Dwellings to Represent the U.S. Housing Stock: 2024 Update, Table 1 and footnote b.
Garage and carport availability statistics by tenure
The American Housing Survey reports counts of occupied units where a garage or carport is included with the home. In 2011, the reported count was 60.389 million owner-occupied units and 15.042 million renter-occupied units. These are counts in thousands in the original table, not percentages of owners or renters.
| 2011 occupied-unit group | Units with garage or carport included with home |
|---|---|
| Owner-occupied | 60.389 million |
| Renter-occupied | 15.042 million |
The 2009 AHS recorded 60.979 million owner-occupied units and 13.258 million renter-occupied units with a garage or carport included. Comparing 2009 with 2011, the owner count is lower in the later table while the renter count is higher. These are changes in reported counts, not evidence that the probability of access rose or fell for either group: the tables provide no denominator here for calculating within-tenure rates.
The tenure counts show why raw totals need context. Owners account for a larger reported number of units with included garage or carport in both years, but a count comparison alone cannot describe the relative prevalence among owner and renter households.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, American Housing Survey for the United States: 2011, Table C-02-AO; U.S. Census Bureau, American Housing Survey for the United States: 2009, Table 2-7. Counts are in thousands in the original tables and refer to occupied units.
Garage and carport availability statistics across U.S. regions
Regional AHS counts offer another view of where occupied units with an included garage or carport were located. The South had the largest count in both cited years, followed by the West, Midwest, and Northeast. Because the figures are counts rather than regional rates, they reflect the number of units in each region as well as availability; they do not show which region had the highest share of homes with this feature.
| Region | 2009 occupied units (thousands) | 2011 occupied units (thousands) |
|---|---|---|
| Northeast | 10,731 | 10,630 |
| Midwest | 18,726 | 19,012 |
| South | 25,052 | 25,530 |
| West | 19,727 | 20,259 |
Between the two observations, the reported South count rose by 478,000 units and the West count by 532,000. The Midwest count increased by 286,000, while the Northeast count decreased by 101,000. These modest differences are comparisons of published estimates across survey years; the tables alone do not explain why the counts changed.
The ranking is consistent across the two snapshots: the South has the highest total and Northeast the lowest. That ordering should not be mistaken for a regional comparison of likelihood. A percentage for each region would require the total number of occupied units in each region as the denominator.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, American Housing Survey for the United States: 2009, Table 2-7; U.S. Census Bureau, American Housing Survey for the United States: 2011, Table C-02-AO. Figures are thousands of occupied units with a garage or carport included with the home.
Garage and carport availability statistics by metropolitan setting
The 2011 AHS divides occupied units into those inside metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) and those outside them. Within MSAs, it distinguishes central-city units from units outside central cities. The reported counts with a garage or carport included with the home were:
| 2011 metropolitan setting | Occupied units (thousands) |
|---|---|
| Inside MSA, central city | 19,240 |
| Inside MSA, not central city | 41,471 |
| Outside MSA | 14,720 |
The largest count was in MSA areas outside central cities: 41.471 million units. Central cities accounted for 19.240 million, and areas outside MSAs for 14.720 million. This pattern describes the distribution of the counted units, not comparative availability rates. The categories may differ in their total occupied-unit populations, and these figures do not supply the denominators needed to calculate those rates.
The cited 2009 table does not provide the same metropolitan breakdown, so a direct 2009-to-2011 comparison by setting is not available from these observations.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Housing Survey for the United States: 2011, Table C-02-AO. Counts are in thousands of occupied units.
Garage and carport availability: off-street parking context
A garage or carport is only one kind of residential parking provision. The 2011 AHS also reports units with a garage or carport not included with the home and units with a driveway or off-street parking available. Those categories provide context, but they should not be added to the “included with home” figures or treated as equivalent measures without checking the table definitions.
In 2011, 75.431 million occupied units were reported with a garage or carport not included with the home. The same table recorded 32.759 million occupied units with a driveway or off-street parking available. The latter count included 13.719 million owner-occupied units and 19.039 million renter-occupied units.
These figures show that the AHS tracks parking arrangements beyond a garage or carport included with the dwelling. They do not establish how many units had both types of provision, and the table’s separate categories should not be read as mutually exclusive unless the survey documentation says so. The counts also differ from the non-apartment percentages above in both measure and scope.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Housing Survey for the United States: 2011, Table C-02-AO. Counts are in thousands of occupied units.