An iSeeCars analysis of the 50 largest U.S. metros, drawing on U.S. Department of Energy Alternative Fuels Data Center figures, found that total charger counts and population-adjusted supply produce very different winners. The distinction matters for anyone buying an EV or planning around one, because the metro with the most chargers is not always the metro where charging is easiest to access.
Who Actually Leads on Total Chargers
Raw numbers favor California, with four of the top ten metros sitting inside state lines.
Four of the ten highest-ranked metros are California markets: Los Angeles, San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, San Diego, and Sacramento-Stockton-Modesto. Those ten leading metros collectively hold roughly 45% of the projected national total of public chargers.
The gap between top and bottom is stark. Los Angeles has more than 58 times as many chargers as Louisville, which sits at the bottom with 621. Greensboro-Winston-Salem (700), Milwaukee (852), Birmingham (857), and Oklahoma City (867) all fall under 900.
The Number That Actually Tells You Something
Population-adjusted supply, measured in residents per charger, reshapes the ranking entirely.
Total charger count reflects network scale. Residents per charger reflects how many people are competing for each one, which is the closer measure of population-adjusted supply.
San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose leads this measure at 334 residents per charger, roughly 71% below the projected national average of 1,143, according to iSeeCars. San Diego (432 residents per charger), Los Angeles (500), Denver (569), and Boston-Manchester (571) round out the top five.
Louisville ranks last on this measure as well, at 2,904 residents per charger. Indianapolis (2,758), Milwaukee (2,716), Greensboro-Winston-Salem (2,669), and San Antonio (2,666) cluster near that bottom. iSeeCars executive analyst Karl Brauer attributed Los Angeles’ strong showing partly to California’s EV-friendly climate. He also pointed to the region’s technology-oriented communities, according to Autoblog reporting.
The 2026 Outlook
The national network keeps growing, but its rate of expansion is slowing to a decade-plus low.
The national network is still expanding, from 259,555 chargers in 2025 to a projected 299,798 in 2026, per iSeeCars. The growth rate, however, tells a more cautious story: the projected 15.5% increase would be the lowest annual rate recorded since 2011.
Population-adjusted supply still improves. The national residents-per-charger ratio is projected to tighten from 1,317 to 1,143, a 13.2% gain relative to population. That improvement holds even as the pace of new additions slows.
What the Rankings Don’t Tell You
Metro-level charger counts leave out several factors that shape the real-world charging experience.
Metro-level totals say nothing about charger uptime, geographic spread within a city, or queue times. Pricing and fast-charging availability along specific routes are also absent from the data.
Home charging access, workplace charging, and apartment parking situations are all factors that influence day-to-day EV ownership. Treat this data as a useful starting point rather than a verdict on your specific situation.
If you are buying an EV or considering a relocation, residents per charger is the figure worth bookmarking. Total count tells you how big the network is. The ratio tells you how many people are sharing it.
