How Many Letters Does Santa Get? Letters to Santa Statistics
How many letters does Santa get? Around 8 million a year worldwide, according to the most recent global count by the Universal Postal Union. In Great Britain alone it counted more than 800,000 letters to Santa, and Royal Mail's elves still deal with hundreds of thousands every December.12
Behind every one of those envelopes is a child at a kitchen table, a wish list written in careful capitals and often a drawing of a reindeer. The numbers show how alive the tradition still is, even in a world of tablets and video calls.
Here are the letters to Santa statistics in one place: Royal Mail's figures since 1963, the international comparison, and what children actually ask for.
Letters to Santa in numbers
How many letters does Santa get in the UK?
Royal Mail does not publish an exact count every year. The best hard figure comes from the Universal Postal Union, which reported in 2013 that Great Britain received more than 800,000 letters to Santa.1 Recent reports speak of "hundreds of thousands" of letters, in 2021 as well as in 2025.52
| Year | Royal Mail and letters to Santa |
|---|---|
| 1963 | Post Office expects 5,000 replies and sends 7,500 |
| 2013 | Great Britain receives more than 800,000 letters to Santa (UPU) |
| 2021 | "Hundreds of thousands" of letters, service in its 58th year |
| 2025 | "Hundreds of thousands" of letters, answered from Tallents House in Edinburgh |
| 2026 | Deadline Wednesday 9 December |
The letters are answered by a team of elves at Royal Mail's Tallents House in Edinburgh, who spend about two months a year on Santa's post. In 2025 a British Sign Language reply was added to braille and large print.2 To get a reply, children need to post their letter with a real stamp by 9 December 2026 to the address in our guide Santa's address UK.6
Where it started: 7,500 replies in 1963
On 12 December 1963 the Post Office published a press release in Santa's name, promising replies to letters with a return address. It planned for 5,000 replies and sent 7,500, with a special Reindeerland postmark. The Postal Museum still keeps reply cards from 1964, 1965, 1981 and 1994.3
How many letters does Santa receive worldwide?
When the Universal Postal Union last added up the figures in 2013, it estimated around 8 million letters a year, up from 6 million in 2007. Canada, France and the USA each received more than a million.1
| Country | Letters to Santa | Year / source |
|---|---|---|
| Brazil | almost 2 million answered | 2009, UPU |
| Canada | more than 1 million a year | Canada Post |
| France | more than 1 million a year | La Poste, via Brut |
| USA | more than 1 million | 2013, UPU |
| United Kingdom | more than 800,000 | 2013, UPU |
| Germany | 564,500 (seven Christmas post offices) | 2025, Deutsche Post via epd |
| Finland (Rovaniemi) | around 500,000 a year | Santa Claus Village |
| Ireland | more than 135,000 replies delivered | 2024, An Post via Kildare Now |
Letters to Santa statistics: eight facts
1. About 20 postal services have their own "elves"
The UPU counted around 20 postal services that receive and answer letters to Santa. In Spain alone there were 174 special mailboxes for them.1
2. Canada answers letters from around the world
Canada Post has answered Santa's mail for more than 40 years and receives over a million letters a year, with the famous postcode H0H 0H0.7 In 2009 its elves answered 1.1 million letters and 39,500 emails in 30 languages, braille included.8
3. France started with 5,000 letters in 1962
La Poste's Père Noël service began in 1962 in Libourne with 5,000 letters in the first year. The child psychoanalyst Françoise Dolto wrote the first replies. Today it handles more than a million letters a year, without a stamp.9
4. Rovaniemi has received 25 million letters
Santa Claus' Main Post Office in Finland has received around 25 million letters from more than 200 countries, and about 30,000 a day in the busiest weeks.4 Today it gets around half a million a year,10 many from Poland, Italy, China and Taiwan.11
5. Germany: 564,500 letters in 2025
Deutsche Post's seven Christmas post offices received 564,500 letters in 2025, about 280,000 of them in the village of Himmelpfort. Around 14,000 came from 63 other countries.12
6. The USA has adopted letters since 1912
In 1912 the US Postmaster General Frank Hitchcock allowed post offices to respond to letters to Santa. Today USPS Operation Santa lets the public adopt letters online and send gifts.13
7. Brazil answered almost 2 million
In 2009 Brazil's post answered almost two million children's letters and donated 414,000 Christmas gifts.8
8. Ireland: over 135,000 replies
In 2024 An Post delivered more than 135,000 letters from Santa to children in Ireland.14
What do children ask Santa for?
Santa Claus' Main Post Office in Rovaniemi analysed more than 6,000 letters from 45 countries in 2024. Toys clearly lead, often copied from toy catalogues or TV adverts, sometimes with a picture cut out and glued in.4
| Wish | Share of 6,000 letters analysed in Rovaniemi |
|---|---|
| Toys | 67.2% |
| A pet | 1.3% |
| A new brother or sister | 0.2% |
Among the newer wishes, the elves noticed "worry eater" soft toys and stress toys, and many letters asking for families to see each other more or spend more time together.4 British children in the early 1960s asked for bunk beds, skates, a post office set, a guitar, a ride-on tractor, a colouring set and "lots of toys".3 Some wishes clearly never change.
Want to see how Santa delivers all those presents? Follow him on Christmas Eve with our Santa tracker, or find out what children call him around the world in Santa in different languages.
Use these figures
Writing about Christmas, the post or childhood? Feel free to use the figures and tables. A link back to this page is much appreciated:
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Letters to Santa statistics: common questions
How many letters does Santa get each year?
Worldwide around 8 million, according to the last global count by the Universal Postal Union in 2013. About 20 postal services around the world answer them.
How many letters does Santa receive in the UK?
Royal Mail does not publish an exact figure every year. The UPU counted more than 800,000 letters in Great Britain in 2013, and Royal Mail speaks of hundreds of thousands of letters each year.
Which country sends the most letters to Santa?
Brazil, Canada, France and the USA each handle around a million or more. Brazil's post answered almost 2 million letters in 2009.
Who answers the letters to Santa in the UK?
A team of Royal Mail "elves" at Tallents House in Edinburgh, who work on Santa's post for about two months each year.
What do children ask Santa for most?
Toys, by far. In an analysis of more than 6,000 letters to Rovaniemi, 67.2% of wishes were toys. Some children also wish for family time or for relatives to see each other more.
How long has Royal Mail answered letters to Santa?
Since 1963. In that first year the Post Office expected 5,000 replies and actually sent 7,500.
Sources
- 1Universal Postal Union: Santa to receive eight million letters this year (2013) (upu.int)
- 2Express & Star: Royal Mail elves on letters to Santa (2025) (expressandstar.com)
- 3The Postal Museum: Santa's little helpers (postalmuseum.org)
- 4Pirkkalainen: Santa Claus Main Post Office analyses 6,000 letters (2024, Finnish) (pirkkalainen.fi)
- 5Lincs Online: Letters to Santa deadline warning (2021) (lincsonline.co.uk)
- 6Royal Mail: Letters to Santa (royalmail.com)
- 7Canada Post: Write a letter to Santa (canadapost-postescanada.ca)
- 8Universal Postal Union: No small job for postal elves (2010) (upu.int)
- 9Brut: La Poste and letters to Père Noël (French) (brut.media)
- 10Santa Claus Village: Santa Claus Main Post Office (santaclausvillage.info)
- 11Wikipedia: Joulupukki (en.wikipedia.org)
- 12Sonntagsblatt/epd: German Christmas post offices answer over 560,000 letters (2025, German) (sonntagsblatt.de)
- 13USPS: Operation Santa (facts.usps.com)
- 14Kildare Now: Santa's message to the children of Ireland (2024) (kildarenow.com)