U.S. Census Bureau Daily Feature for December 14

WASHINGTON, Dec. 14, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following is the daily "Profile America" feature from the U.S. Census Bureau:

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WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14: HOLIDAY MAILING

Profile America — Wednesday, December 14th.  This is the day that the postal service says is traditionally the heaviest mailing day of the year, about a 40 percent rise from the normal daily volume.  But last year, Americans procrastinated and the heaviest mailing volume was on December 20th.  Now with just 11 days until Christmas, it's a sure bet many homes have piles of holiday cards and packages yet to make the trip to the post office.  While the holiday season easily produces the heaviest volume, the post office is busy all year long, delivering more than 170.5 billion pieces of mail annually.  That works out to about two cards, letters, magazines and packages for every person in the nation — every day.  To handle this astounding volume takes 672,000 employees, working out of 27,000 postal facilities around the country.  Profile America is in its 15th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.

Sources: http://about.usps.com/news/state-releases/la/2010/la_2010_1215.htm
Statistical Abstract of the United States 2012, t. 1127

Profile America is produced by the Public Information Office of the U.S. Census Bureau. These daily features are available as produced segments, ready to air, on a monthly CD or on the Internet at http://www.census.gov (look for "Multimedia Gallery" by the "Newsroom" button). 

SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau