North, South, East, West: directions in street names
Our counts from the Census Bureau's TIGER/Line Feature Names files: 8,261,451 streets in 3,231 counties.
Our take written by All Streets
6,615,569 streets in the files carry no direction before or after the name. Among prefix directions, W, N, E and S each appear on 250,531 to 266,992 streets, and NE, NW, SE and SW on 41,522 to 66,255.
The eight directions after the name, as in Main St NE, appear on 47,244 to 68,363 streets each. NE appears after the name on 68,363 streets and before it on 45,384.
Our reading of the counts on this page. It adds no facts of its own.
| Prefix direction | Streets | Share |
|---|---|---|
| W | 266,992 | 3.2% |
| N | 265,291 | 3.2% |
| E | 262,360 | 3.2% |
| S | 250,531 | 3.0% |
| SW | 66,255 | 0.80% |
| NW | 53,583 | 0.65% |
| NE | 45,384 | 0.55% |
| SE | 41,522 | 0.50% |
| Suffix direction | Streets | Share |
|---|---|---|
| NE | 68,363 | 0.83% |
| N | 64,621 | 0.78% |
| E | 59,135 | 0.72% |
| NW | 58,513 | 0.71% |
| SE | 57,987 | 0.70% |
| S | 54,954 | 0.67% |
| W | 49,283 | 0.60% |
| SW | 47,244 | 0.57% |
| O | 1 | 0.00% |
Our count: 6,615,569 streets (80.1%) have no direction before or after the name.
Rows from the Census files
Verbatim field values from the county Feature Names files behind this page's counts. Each is one edge record; our count treats each LINEARID as one street.
| File (county) | TLID | LINEARID | FULLNAME | NAME | PREDIRABRV | PRETYPABRV | SUFTYPABRV | SUFDIRABRV | MTFCC | PAFLAG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| tl_2025_13121_featnames.zip Fulton County, Georgia | 17350605 | 1101019202372 | NE Broad St | Broad | NE | St | S1400 | P | ||
| tl_2025_13121_featnames.zip Fulton County, Georgia | 17349793 | 1101019172963 | 1st Ave SW | 1st | Ave | SW | S1400 | P |
Our checker re-read these rows from census.gov on October 14.
How we counted
Method note Our count of Census linear features (streets, as defined in the method note): one street is one LINEARID that carries a primary name (PAFLAG P) on at least one edge classed S1200 or S1400, with a non-blank NAME, across 3,234 of the 3,235 county files; the file for St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands was answered by the Census server with a "Request Rejected" page and is left out. A name counts once per LINEARID, so a road the Census splits into several linear features counts more than once. Full method and definitions →
The MAF/TIGER System breaks/ends linear elemental features when the feature name changes. All spelling differences result in a new feature. Features will also break at county boundaries, changes in primary/alternate designation, MTFCC, and gaps in the geometry.
More questions
- Main Street or Second Street: which name is on more streets?
- How many streets are numbered, from 1st to 100th?
- The 100 most common street names in the U.S.
- Street, Road, Avenue or Drive: how U.S. streets end
- County Road, Calle, Via: street types that come first
- Streets named for presidents' surnames
- Oak, Pine, Maple: tree names on U.S. streets
- Red, Green, White: color names on streets
- Deer, Fox, Eagle: animal names on streets
- Lake, River, Creek: water in street names
- Hill, Ridge, Valley: land in street names
- Church, School, Mill: places of work and worship on street signs
- The longest street names in the Census files
- A Street to Z Street: single-letter street names
- Streets with Martin Luther King Jr.'s name
- Streets in every state, and each state's most common name
- How many Broadways are there?
- Ohio Avenue, Texas Street: street names that match state names
- Calle, Camino, Paseo: selected Spanish street types
- Streets with a County Road or County Highway prefix
- Street names found in just one county
- Second Street or 2nd Street? Spelled or digits, by state
- Main arteries and local streets: the two road classes counted