- 17.1% of Americans used a rideshare service (like Uber or Lyft) in the past 30 days.
- 71.4% of Americans received at least one delivery in the past 30 days—more than 4 times as common as rideshare use.
- Rideshare use is heavily concentrated in cities: 21.8% in urban areas versus 5.7% in rural areas, nearly a 4-to-1 gap.
- Delivery use shows almost no urban/rural gap at all: 72.1% in urban areas versus 70.9% in rural areas—a difference of just 1.2 percentage points.
- Gender shows the opposite pattern of age and location: rideshare use is nearly identical by gender (17.7% men vs. 16.7% women), while delivery use has a real gap (67.9% men vs. 74.9% women).
01 Introduction
17.1% of Americans used a rideshare service in the past 30 days, versus 71.4% who received at least one delivery—delivery is more than 4 times as common. Rideshare apps and delivery services have both reshaped how Americans move around and get things—but they haven't spread the same way. The 2022 National Household Travel Survey asked respondents directly whether they used a rideshare service or received a delivery in the past 30 days, making it possible to measure exactly how common each has become, and where the two diverge.
FHWA/BTS, 2022 National Household Travel Survey, public-use person file (perv2pub.csv), variables LAST30_RDSHR and DELIVER02 Rideshare Use: How Common Is It?
Nationally, 17.1% of Americans reported using a rideshare service like Uber or Lyft in the 30 days before being surveyed. Usage varies sharply by age, peaking among young adults and falling off steadily after that.
FHWA/BTS, 2022 National Household Travel Survey, public-use person file, variable LAST30_RDSHR, weighted by WTPERFIN| Age Group | Used Rideshare (Past 30 Days) |
|---|---|
| Under 18 | 11.3% |
| 18–24 | 17.0% |
| 25–34 | 27.8% |
| 35–44 | 24.7% |
| 45–54 | 19.0% |
| 55–64 | 13.1% |
| 65+ | 6.0% |
Rideshare use peaks at ages 25–34 (27.8%)—more than 4.6 times the rate among Americans 65 and older (6.0%).
Calculated: 27.8% / 6.0% = 4.6xEstimate your vehicle's driving cost using official EPA fuel economy data.
Use the Calculator03 Rideshare Use by Location: Urban vs. Rural
Beyond age, where someone lives makes an even starker difference in whether they use rideshare at all.
FHWA/BTS, 2022 National Household Travel Survey, public-use person file, variable LAST30_RDSHR cross-tabbed with URBAN, weighted by WTPERFIN| Location Type | Used Rideshare (Past 30 Days) |
|---|---|
| Urban area | 21.8% |
| Urban cluster | 4.9% |
| Rural (not in urban area) | 5.7% |
04 Delivery Use: Far More Common Than Rideshare
Delivery services—packages, groceries, food, or other goods brought to the door—are dramatically more common than rideshare. Nationally, 71.4% of Americans received at least one delivery in the past 30 days, more than four times the rideshare rate.
FHWA/BTS, 2022 National Household Travel Survey, public-use person file, variable DELIVER (any deliveries received in the past 30 days), weighted by WTPERFIN| Age Group | Received a Delivery (Past 30 Days) |
|---|---|
| Under 18 | 36.2% |
| 18–24 | 62.3% |
| 25–34 | 76.6% |
| 35–44 | 78.9% |
| 45–54 | 77.0% |
| 55–64 | 74.0% |
| 65+ | 65.2% |
Unlike rideshare, delivery use doesn't peak in early adulthood and fall off—it rises through the 20s and 30s, holds above 70% from ages 25 through 64, and only declines modestly after 65. Even the lowest adult age group (18–24, at 62.3%) still uses delivery more than three and a half times as often as the same group uses rideshare (17.0%).
Calculated: 62.3% / 17.0% = 3.7x05 Delivery's Surprising Urban/Rural Uniformity
The clearest contrast with rideshare shows up in location. Where rideshare use drops sharply outside cities, delivery use barely moves at all.
FHWA/BTS, 2022 National Household Travel Survey, public-use person file, variable DELIVER cross-tabbed with URBAN, weighted by WTPERFIN| Location Type | Received a Delivery (Past 30 Days) |
|---|---|
| Urban area | 72.1% |
| Urban cluster | 66.4% |
| Rural (not in urban area) | 70.9% |
06 Rideshare and Delivery Use by Gender
Age and location both show large gaps between highest and lowest usage. Gender tells a different, more surprising story—the two services split in opposite directions.
FHWA/BTS, 2022 National Household Travel Survey, public-use person file, variables LAST30_RDSHR and DELIVER cross-tabbed with R_SEX, weighted by WTPERFIN| Gender | Used Rideshare (Past 30 Days) | Received a Delivery (Past 30 Days) |
|---|---|---|
| Male | 17.7% | 67.9% |
| Female | 16.7% | 74.9% |
Rideshare use is nearly identical by gender—a gap of just 1.0 percentage point (17.7% men vs. 16.7% women), far smaller than the age or location gaps covered above. Delivery use shows the opposite pattern: a real 7.0-percentage-point gap, with women receiving deliveries more often than men (74.9% vs. 67.9%). Whatever drives the large age and urban/rural splits in this data, gender isn't a major factor for rideshare—but it is a measurable one for delivery.
Calculated: 17.7% − 16.7% = 1.0 percentage point; 74.9% − 67.9% = 7.0 percentage points07 Methodology and Caveats
All figures in this article are drawn directly from the 2022 National Household Travel Survey's public-use person file, weighted using the survey's person weight (WTPERFIN) to produce nationally representative estimates.
FHWA/BTS, 2022 National Household Travel Survey, public-use person file- Rideshare figures use the LAST30_RDSHR screening variable (a direct Yes/No question), not the related RIDESHARE22 frequency variable, which is only asked of respondents who already answered "Yes" and would overstate usage if treated as the full population.
- Delivery figures use the DELIVER variable (any deliveries received, 0–99 in the past 30 days), counting any value greater than zero as "received a delivery." This does not distinguish between one delivery and dozens.
- Respondents not asked these questions (coded as a structural skip in the source data) are excluded from both the numerator and denominator, rather than counted as non-users.
- This is a single-year snapshot from the 2022 survey. This site does not have earlier NHTS cycles on file, so no historical trend is claimed.
- Gender figures (Section 06) use the survey's R_SEX variable with the same LAST30_RDSHR/DELIVER/WTPERFIN methodology as the age and location breakdowns, verified to reproduce the exact same age-group figures published above before being applied to this additional dimension.
08 Data Sources
Every figure in this article comes from a U.S. government source. No proprietary, estimated, or third-party data was used.
- Federal Highway Administration / Bureau of Transportation Statistics. 2022 National Household Travel Survey, public-use person file (perv2pub.csv). nhts.ornl.gov