Comparing Postage Rates Between Countries

By Merry Law, WorldVu LLC

There are historic reasons why the U.S. postage rates have remained relatively low compared to some other countries. Chief among these was the desire to create an informed electorate, with the 1792 U.S. law on postal services setting low rates for newspapers. U.S. laws eventual set postage prices for letters at lower rates as well to encourage commerce. Congress continued to set low postage rates to encourage education and commerce, along with pleasing their constituents with low postage rates.

This goal remained in the law that created the U.S. Postal Service and the Postal Regulatory Commission, limiting postage increases, for the most part to the rate of inflation, and stating its “basic function” was “to bind the Nation together”.
USPS issued a chart of postage rates for a single letter (Chart 1 below) along with its proposed rate increase for August 29, 2021, claiming “The U.S. Postal Service currently charges far less for domestic First-Class Mail® postage than many other nations.”

Some versions say, “Under the current pricing model and the proposed rate change, the Postal Service still has some of the lowest letter-mail postage rates in the industrialized world and continues to offer a great value in shipping.”
The USPS chart showed postage for 8 of the 192 Universal Postal Union (UPU) member countries … (click to read more)