If you’ve fallen down an out-of-home (OOH) internet rabbit hole and need to know how many billboards there are, you’ve come to the right place. The OOH industry has been wildly successful as of late, only adding to the vast sea of billboards and other advertising mediums within the U.S. and around the world.

Total Number of U.S. Billboards Explained

To get straight to the point, there were approximately 354 thousand billboards in 2023, but that’s not all there is to it. This immense total consists of both traditional and digital billboards, not even including the unimaginable presence of transit and place-based ads.

Clearly, billboard advertising is not at all dwindling, and with the introduction of digital advertising and the social media landscape, the relevance of physical and out-in-the-world ad formats has never been more important. Billboards may even have more of a zing as they cut through all that digital noise and bring people back to the world with ingenuity and creativity.

Physical & Digital Billboards

Let’s break some numbers down to reveal exactly how many physical and digital billboards there are (not including the millions of transit pieces). The total number of billboards in the U.S. is around 354,000, and digital billboards are skyrocketing to 16.6 thousand in 2023.

Digital billboards are the fastest-growing advertising medium in the U.S., and their presence has risen by over 44% in 2023 alone. We should be expecting many more brightly-lit ad mediums when we’re out and about, and they are certainly some of the most effective as well with their naturally eye-catching nature.

Transit Advertising

Now that we’ve covered your run-of-the-mill physical and digital billboards, we can discuss the real heavy hitters in terms of advertising quantity. Although billboards are some of the most popular ad mediums, they are nowhere near the most populated. This honor goes to transit and place-based ads.

Transit ads are coming in hot at around 1.7 million pieces, and place-based ads follow closely behind with approximately 1.4 million displays. These are some extraordinary numbers that show the substantial opportunities that exist in the OOH space and how powerful they can truly be. 

The Growth Continues

OOH is setting new growth records year after year, and the future holds immense potential for the advertising sphere. As digital out-of-home (DOOH) integrates into innovative arenas, billboards are graced with creative artistic expression, and AI makes its way in, what’s to come looks bright and prosperous.