Data Report · Updated June 1, 2026

The Geography of Specialty Coffee Roasting

America has 8,886 independent specialty coffee roasters spread across all 51 states and territories — but they are not where you would guess. Per capita, the roasting heartland is rural and northern: Vermont, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and North Dakota lead the country, while California, New York and Texas — the raw-count leaders — don't crack the top ten per resident. This report maps 10,223 independent roasters across 59 countries, drawn from the PremiumRoast index.

How many specialty roasters are there, and where?

PremiumRoast indexes 10,223 independent, in-house specialty roasters worldwide — excluding chains and white-label operations. 8,886 are in the United States, present in every state plus the District of Columbia. The remaining roasters span 58 other countries.

Which US states have the most roasters per capita?

Raw counts track population — big states have more roasters. The more revealing measure is roasters per 100,000 residents, and it inverts the map. Small, rural, northern states dominate: Vermont tops the country at 12.51 per 100k, more than 6× the rate of Texas. The pattern — Vermont, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, North Dakota, Hawaii, Oregon, Idaho — points to coffee roasting as a craft that clusters in outdoorsy, independent-minded communities, not just dense metros.

Which states have the most roasters overall?

Which countries have the most specialty roasters?

The United States dominates the index with 8,886 roasters. Among the rest, Australia and Japan lead — both long-established specialty cultures — followed by Germany, France and the UK.

Which cities have the most specialty roasters?

Tokyo leads every city in the index with 101 roasters, ahead of New York and a tight cluster of Chicago, Berlin and Paris. The list mixes global capitals with smaller US specialty hubs like Portland, Salt Lake City and Albuquerque.

Methodology

Figures are computed from the PremiumRoast directory — a continuously-updated, editorially-filtered index of 10,223 independent specialty roasters, built primarily from OpenStreetMap contributors and enriched with editorial verification. Chains and white-label operations are excluded. Country is recorded for 100% of listings; a confirmed US state for 81%. Per-capita rates divide a state's indexed roaster count by its 2024 US Census Bureau population estimate and multiply by 100,000. The snapshot was taken on 2026-06-01.

Limitations

This is a measure of indexed roasters, not a government census, and directory coverage can vary by region depending on how thoroughly an area has been mapped. Per-capita figures should be read as a relative signal of specialty-coffee density within this index rather than an exact national count. We publish the per-state numbers in full above so the figures can be checked and challenged. Corrections are welcome at support@premiumroast.coffee.

Citation & reuse

This report and its underlying figures are free to cite and reuse under CC BY 4.0 with attribution to PremiumRoast.Coffee. Suggested citation: “PremiumRoast, The Geography of Specialty Coffee Roasting: 2026 Data Report, https://www.premiumroast.coffee/research/specialty-coffee-roasting-2026.”