Vehicle registration plates of the United States

In the United States, license plates are issued by a department of motor vehicles, an agency of the state or territorial government, or in the case of the District of Columbia, the city government. Some American Indian tribes also issue plates. The U.S. federal government issues plates only for its own vehicle fleet and for vehicles owned by foreign diplomats. Until the 1980s, diplomatic plates were issued by the state in which the consulate or embassy was located.

The appearances of plates are frequently chosen to contain symbols, colors, or slogans associated with the issuing jurisdiction. The term license plate is frequently used in statutes, although in some areas tag is informally used. Registration plate is another synonym.

The appearances of plates are frequently chosen to contain symbols, colors, or slogans associated with the issuing jurisdiction. Formats for license plate numbers, which are usually alphanumeric, are designed to provide enough unique numbers for all motor vehicles a jurisdiction expects to register. For example, the small states of Delaware and Rhode Island are able to use formats of 123456 and 123–456, respectively, while California uses the seven-character format 1ABC234, and several other populous states use seven-character ABC-1234 or AB-12345 formats. Other formats include those that use a county coding system or a month of expiration incorporated into the plate number.

Non-passenger vehicles tend to have their own special format and often have the vehicle type listed on the plate.

In the United States, many states and provinces distinguish their license plates through distinctive color schemes and logos, which historically have been changed annually. For example, the cowboy logo often associated with the state of Wyoming has appeared on that state's license plates continuously since 1936. Some early Tennessee plates were produced in a parallelogram shape approximating that of the state.

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