US sales tax by state: California 7.25%, five states at 0%, average 5.11%

While building a sales-tax calculator I needed the statewide base rate for every US state. Once the table was in code, ranking it took three lines — and the result is a cleaner picture than most "sales tax by state" posts, because it keeps one distinction straight: these are state base rates, not the combined rate at the register.

The data

Statewide base rate (%), 50 states + DC — the exact table the calculator ships:

// abbreviated; full 51-row table in the post
const rates = [
  7.25, 7, 7, 7, 7, 6.88, 6.85, 6.63, 6.5, 6.5, 6.5, 6.35,
  6.25, 6.25, 6.25, 6.1, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6,
  5.75, 5.6, 5.5, 5.5, 5.3, 5, 5, 5, 4.88, 4.75, 4.5, 4.23,
  4.2, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 2.9, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0,
];

The findings — all just arithmetic

const avg = rates.reduce((a, b) => a + b, 0) / rates.length;
const sorted = [...rates].sort((a, b) => a - b);
const median = sorted[Math.floor(sorted.length / 2)];

console.log(rates.length);              // 51
console.log(avg.toFixed(2));            // 5.11
console.log(median);                    // 6
console.log(rates.filter(r => r === 0).length); // 5

• California is highest at 7.25%. Four states follow at 7% (Indiana, Mississippi, Rhode Island, Tennessee).
• Five states charge no statewide sales tax — the NOMAD set: New Hampshire, Oregon, Montana, Alaska, Delaware.
• Average 5.11%, median 6%. Most states cluster right at 6%.
• On a $1,000 purchase that's a $72.50 swing between the top state and the no-tax five — before any local tax.

The catch everyone blurs

These are base state rates. Many cities and counties add their own sales tax on top, so the combined rate at checkout is higher — in places like Tennessee and Louisiana, higher than California's. And Alaska has no state sales tax but permits local ones, so "0%" isn't 0% everywhere in Alaska. A ranking that mixes base and combined rates quietly compares apples to oranges; this one doesn't.

Full ranked table (all 51, with tax-on-$1,000) + chart: US Sales Tax by State →

Every figure is arithmetic on that one rate table — reproducible with the snippet above.