Golden State Today

In 2021, California collected $5.2 billion in motor vehicle license, ranking it first in the United States, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's Annual Survey of State Government Tax Collections (STC).

The STC survey includes five broad tax categories and up to 25 subcategories. Data is gathered from all 50 state governments and all dependent state-level entities.

The Census Bureau cautions it sets the tax classifications among the survey categories, and they may differ from the classifications set by the state governments.

Below is a breakdown of how taxes were classified by the bureau and how much was collected.

Rank	State	Amount
1	California	$5,225,872,000
2	Illinois	$2,443,924,000
3	Texas	$2,220,914,000
4	Florida	$1,523,039,000
5	Michigan	$1,455,962,000
6	New York	$1,419,382,000
7	Pennsylvania	$1,307,236,000
8	Washington	$998,237,000
9	North Carolina	$994,556,000
10	Minnesota	$945,653,000
11	Oklahoma	$812,747,000
12	Oregon	$795,820,000
13	Iowa	$760,540,000
14	Wisconsin	$719,005,000
15	New Jersey	$681,061,000
16	Maryland	$520,688,000
17	Virginia	$504,374,000
18	Ohio	$504,197,000
19	Massachusetts	$472,172,000
20	Colorado	$458,464,000
21	Georgia	$406,893,000
22	Tennessee	$387,781,000
23	Indiana	$351,739,000
24	Missouri	$334,238,000
25	South Carolina	$302,509,000
26	Arizona	$293,109,000
27	Alabama	$260,114,000
28	Kansas	$243,334,000
29	Utah	$242,790,000
30	Idaho	$232,064,000
31	Connecticut	$223,255,000
32	Kentucky	$223,193,000
33	New Mexico	$213,998,000
34	Nevada	$209,528,000
35	Montana	$188,314,000
36	Arkansas	$178,731,000
37	Hawaii	$177,165,000
38	Mississippi	$169,938,000
39	Maine	$126,182,000
40	Nebraska	$117,972,000
41	North Dakota	$117,646,000
42	Wyoming	$102,438,000
43	New Hampshire	$94,400,000
44	South Dakota	$89,194,000
45	Louisiana	$85,059,000
46	Vermont	$75,544,000
47	Delaware	$62,180,000
48	Alaska	$36,472,000
49	District of Columbia	$34,843,000
50	Rhode Island	$28,168,000
51	West Virginia	$4,562,000

Source: U.S. Census Bureau