Blog > Poll results: Where do you mail your postcards?
Some years ago on Postcrossing’s fourth anniversary, we asked members to send us photos of themselves mailing their postcards, and compiled the results on an emotional video that still has me reaching for the tissues every time I see it.
At the time, we noticed something interesting: our simple request for “a photo of you mailing your postcards” produced a variety of different results. Most were photos with all shapes and colours of street mailboxes, but there were also lots of photos taken inside or just outside post offices, and some even featuring home mailboxes… At the time, we hadn’t even realised that in some places, mail carriers doing their rounds also picked up outgoing letters and postcards from people’s home mailboxes, if they found something there!
Since then, we’ve wondered… how are postcards usually mailed around the world? We’ve certainly noticed that street mailboxes or post offices are harder to find in some countries than others, but being geeks, we wanted to see the data. Over 10,000 of you responded to this question last week, so here are the results:
Overall, things look more or less divided: while the majority seems to be mailing their postcards from a post office (either at the counter or at the mailbox there), an equally large percentage of postcrossers send their mail from street mailboxes. What happens if we look deeper into the data though, country by country?
Here is the detailed graph, showing only countries with more than 50 votes (for more reliable results):
The results were a lot less predictable than we expected! A few countries stand out:
- In Turkey, Brazil and Slovakia the majority of mail is posted from the post office counter. Are mailboxes hard to find? Or do people perhaps not trust that they’re emptied regularly? 🤔
- The country who loves post offices the most seems to be Indonesia though — 97% of postcards are usually sent from there!
- On the other side of the spectrum, 90% of mail from the Netherlands is posted from street mailboxes. We assume this has to do with the replacement of so many post offices with “service points” inside other shops.
- And the USA seems to be one of the few countries where mail is regularly picked up by mail carriers. It sounds quite convenient, and we wonder why other countries don’t seem to have caught on to this practice…
We’d love to hear from you all on these statistics. Were the results in line with what you expected from your experience in your own country? Why, or why not?
Also, some people responded the poll with “Other”, which we always include to cover all the options we didn’t think about. We find it intriguing though… if you voted “Other”, what does that mean in your country?

Tags: poll, statistics
93 comments so far
I find it interesting how few in the US go to the post office. It used the be the highlight of my week, buying new stamps and chatting with postal workers. Everyone is grumpy at my new post office.
i think it's hard to find a mailbox here in Indonesia, and if i found one, i am scared that the mailbox no longer be used and my mail didn't arrived.
thats why i always sent my postcard at post office counter
Once I was so excited about a card that I dropped it in the mailbox without a stamp but didn't realize it until later. I went in and a group of them helped me dig through mounds of letters and packages until we found it. It was https://www.postcrossing.com/postcards/US-2995632 and I'm so glad it made it. Three cheers for postal workers!!
I once had placed all my outgoing mail in the street box at the Post Office property and within a few days, most of it came back to me "damaged". Somebody had poured a drink into the box and everything had been soaked. I've never trusted the street boxes since then.
About the Netherlands: as far as I can remember, we always used to send the majority of our mail through street mail boxes already. It might change in the future, as the national post has plans to reduce the number of mail boxes considerably.
I'm also surprised that only 26 % of Americans have their mail picked up at home - I thought it was much more popular there. My wonderful, always smiling mailman picks up parcels, but not postcards and letters.
In Spain, in general, it is not difficult to use mailbox... but sometmes getting the stamps is a little bit more difficult. (Palencia, SPAIN)
These days, I usually throw my cards in a street mailbox just across the street. Sometimes I use mailboxes just outside a post office and sometimes I give them to a friend who works at a post office (I guess that counts as other). If I had to mail all my cards from a post office counter, I wouldn't be doing this. In the past years, many post offices have been closed or moved to small grocery stores (in more rural areas).
Mail boxes are only emptied once a day. Here in Vienna, they all seem to be emptied at 4pm sharp (at least that's what's written on the mail boxes). In my home village, it's emptied at 8am. And in a small town near my home village they're emptied at 4pm as well. Very curious.
That's not right. We just have a lot (though less than before) street mailboxes from which mail is collected 5 days a week (used to be 6). Even in the postoffice days we would use street mailboxes -except only if you needed to buy stamps for what you wanted to send. A postcrosser usually has a stock of stamps - why stand in line if there's a mailbox in front of the postoffice or around the corner from your house?
We only use the service points to send packages, or to buy stamps - although these can be bought online too (as I always do).
Sometimes, he will deposit the outgoing mail on the way to work in a USPS mailbox on the way to work. Why not the one in our park? Because it's on a one-way street.
I voted put mail into the box at the post office though because it's the option we use the most. That's because we have a post office box where my cards come in (and his mail gets delivered) at the local post office, and we check that frequently so I can register incoming cards promptly. So, it makes sense to deposit mail there and it's the option I use the most often.
Now, the people there are very grumpy and lines are long is why we rarely use the counter. I don't even trust them enough to hand them mail! In the US, many of the post offices have rude workers. Anyway, there is a small post office location in my neighborhood, closer by, but it's smaller and is only open Mon - Fri during regular working hours. Whereas the grumpy location has longer hours and is open on Saturdays.
It does not have post office boxes, or I would go there more often. I do sometimes put postcards in their box or tray there because the lady who works there is friendly and usually there is no one in line, or only one person.
I would love to obtain a personal postmark from the USA - what a neat idea!
Here in India, street mailboxes are getting harder and harder to find. Plus, sometimes water seeps in and damages the postcards. So I only use a few trusted ones.
The post offices though have limited timings and the worst part, you can only buy stamps at the post office. No where else! So for every Indian postcrosser, regular post office visits are inevitable and I post my cards from the box outside.
A few times each year I go to the postmuseum i Stockholm to get pictorial cancellation marks, either Christmas cancellation marks in december, or first day cancelllations the day new stamps are issued.
I buy my stamps at our local postoffice. Ofcourse I can buy them online where I have more choice, but I want to support our local (small) shops, so that we maintain a lively towncenter. Otherwise the local shops will disappear (which is happening already) and we wil only have the big supermarkets at the edge of our town left.
Here in France, it's true that we have a lot of mailboxes in the streets.
I have answered street boxes, that's my reality today. We have especially very big street boxes (not everywhere though) that I like:
http://www.saintmarcelblog.com/2015/01/ca-y-est-la-poste-rouvre-sa-boite-aux.html
You'll find them in the center of Paris, in business areas and also in the surburbs and well a bit everywhere along with little postboxes. Problem is that mail is taken from there very early, something like 16:00pm, but it has a strong aspect and I feel my mail is in a secure place here.
For years, I used to send my mail only from post offices, not exactly from the counter or from postboxes, but on the wall of post officies there were slots to put your mail, plus an extra security system that prevent anyone to put its hands through the slots to steal mail from there, a sort of rack although the exact word is difficult to translate.
At that time, I've heard about some sinister stories about street mailboxes: some were vandalized, in some others, mail carriers did find syringes (yes!!) in certain areas of Paris, and so on. The usual story about big cities, and I did not want to put my mail there. Especially when I sent mail to my bank or a bank check or anything like that to someone (at that time I did not sent so many postcards).
Now I use street boxes on an every day basis, and if my mail is not received by the recipient, I assume it's not because of the street postbox most of the time :) That seems ok.
And I don't send checks anymore because I don't use them anymore!
If the mail is of a high importance, I will send a registered one, and in this case you go to the post office (or you send the registered mail through internet, it's possible since many years)..
Very much enjoyed this poll & looking at the results. Thank you for an interesting study!
External mailboxes like those in the US strike me as being very insecure and leave you open to identity theft (which is quite big in the UK- lots of warnings about shredding anything with your address, bank details etc before putting out with the rubbish).
That makes it really obvious that the Dutch mostly use the street mailboxes. They are emptied every day except Sunday in most cities, and some are emptied less often (but at least twice a week).
I have seen in the vast countryside in the US, that everyone has an inbox and an outbox. I find it very logical that the mailman picks up outgoing post as well as delevering ingoing mail. He/she is standing at the mailbox, and the first mailbox of post office is many miles away. It is not convenience anymore, it is a necessity. In the Netherlands, we don't have enough space to find nothing for many miles...
It is interesting how different countries handle mail service. In some places, theft is a concern, so having a mail box in front of your home is probably not very secure!
Actually the postman who delivers the letters can pick up the postcards and letters to finally deliver but this will be less secure.
When I used to fly by aeroplane there used to be a free postage service and for both cards and letters.Now and then I get mail intended for another person.And I always deliver such letters to the intended person by hand.
The other reason is there is a post office counter in my office building and I just love to make a quick stop, say hi, and ask "do you have any new stamps, Sir?" These small conversations usually warm up my day at work.
Thank you for the poll! It's very interesting :)
My friend lives in a small town. She doesn't have home delivery. Everyone in town goes to the post office to pick up their mail. I once sent her a birthday card and wrote "happy birthday" on the back. Suddenly, everyone knew it was her birthday because the post office employees saw my note and spread the word.
All the best to all, keep posting
I heard that German mail also thinks about only three delivery days per week. I really hope they won't go through with this. :(
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