Which U.S. Cities Have The Most Public Restrooms

At some point in life, everyone experiences that moment when they urgently need to use the restroom, and finding one quickly becomes a top priority. However, access to public restrooms in populated cities across the U.S. has become increasingly complicated in many places nationwide. 

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This lack of access and availability is disproportionately more impactful on those with health conditions, the elderly, the homeless, as well as pregnant women, new parents, and those with young children. 

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While everyone pees and poops, not everyone knows where to go or where to find available bathrooms. As a result, we wanted to compare U.S. cities on their publicly available bathrooms to reveal the cities with the most and least “public” bathrooms recorded. 

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Using OpenStreetMap data of user-generated records, we analyzed the number of “public” restroom records across the 100 most populous cities in the U.S., providing insight into the cities with the most/least restrooms available per 100,000 residents.

Key Findings: 

• Denver has the highest reported number of public restrooms, with 82 restrooms per 100,000 residents.
• El Paso has the fewest reported restrooms per 100,000 residents in the US. 
• Of the ten most populous cities in the US, San Diego has the highest number of public restrooms available.
• The average US city has just 13 public restrooms per 100,000 people.

Where are all the restrooms? 

According to records available on OSM (OpenStreetMap), a typical U.S. city has just 13 public restrooms per 100,000 people, with cities with populations over 1 million found to have an average of just 10 per 100,000 people.

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However, that’s not to say all cities are completely lacking public restrooms; our analysis of restroom records revealed that Denver, Colorado, has 82 “public” restrooms recorded per 100,000 people - more than six times the national average. 

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The city with the second-highest number of restrooms is Honolulu, Hawaii, where the city area has 55 recorded restrooms per capita (100,000). 

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Rounding off the cities with the highest rates of restrooms per capita 100,000 are: Louisville (45), Portland (37), and Minneapolis (36).

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The OSM data showed that on average, U.S. cities have just 84 “public” restrooms, with more than three-quarters (79%) of cities analyzed having less than 100 restrooms.

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Analyzing the cities with the fewest restrooms listed, we found that El Paso, Texas, had the lowest number of restrooms per 100,000, with just 1.6 restrooms per capita.

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Close behind El Paso, Arlington, Texas, has the second fewest restrooms per capita, with 2.2 restrooms per 100,000 people. Rounding off the five cities with the lowest rates of restrooms per population were: Garland, TX (2.4), Stockton, CA (2.5), and Port St. Lucie, FL (2.7).

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How do the largest cities compare? 

A total of 11 cities in the U.S. have a population estimated to be above 1 million, with Texas contributing four out of the 11 most populous cities. However, among the cities with the most restroom access, San Diego, CA, came out on top.

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San Diego has a recorded 25.6 restrooms per 100,000 people, nearly twice the figure of the second-best major city for restroom availability, San Antonio.

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Philadelphia was found to have the fewest publicly accessible toilets recorded on OpenStreetMap, having just 4.1 toilets recorded within the city area per 100,000 residents.

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Cities Ranked By the Number Of Public Restrooms

Methodology & Sources

Methodology

Our analysis of OpenStreetMap data utilized Overpass Turbo to examine the 100 most populous cities in the U.S. for the recorded number of restrooms. Using a search for “public” accessible restrooms, our analysis collated the nodes of “public” restrooms for each city.

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In total, 126 cities were analyzed for this study, with the final results narrowed down to cities that had at least five data nodes and were among the most populous in the U.S. 

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Data was gathered in August 2025.

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Limitations

As with many user-generated and reported data tools, we were only able to source and collate data based on information shared by OpenStreetMap users and contributors. In some instances, city governments and local authorities will have reported different figures. 

One such example is New York, where the city has 1,066 public restrooms (12.6 per 100,000 residents).

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While our searches and data analysis focused on “public” restrooms, in some instances, node records may also include those found in coffee shops, restaurants, bars, and malls, as well as in public buildings such as libraries or transportation hubs.

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Sources:

Population Data - Census Bureau

Restroom Recorded Data - OpenStreetMap

Record Collection Tool - Overpass-Turbo

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