With ASCE’s 2025 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure hot off the presses, it’s a great time to dive into the numbers, identify trends, and put it all in historical context.
First some good news: U.S. infrastructure received its highest grade ever from ASCE, coming away with an overall grade of C. Individually, eight categories improved their scores from the preceding incarnation (in 2021).
Further reading:
- Infrastructure’s upward momentum reflected in report card
- 5 key takeaways from the 2025 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure
- From halls of Congress to living room couches, infrastructure report card resonates
But the report card makes it evident that there is still so much work to do. Of this year’s 18 categories, half scored either D+ or D. The categories graded at D+ were aviation, dams, energy, levees, roads, schools, and wastewater. Stormwater and transit were even worse, receiving Ds.
Ports and rail were the stars of the show, coming away with a B and a B-, respectively. While rail was judged superior to almost every other category, it actually took a step back in its grade. The sector received a B in each of the two previous report cards. Rail was one of only two sectors that regressed. The other was energy, which fell to a D+ after earning a C- in 2021.
The ports model
Ports is a relatively new category for the report card. It joined the fray in 2013, receiving a C. It has been a true success story, rising incrementally each time.
In eight report cards, ASCE has assigned a total of 118 sector grades. Ports’ B for 2025 was only the third time a sector reached that level (the other times being the Bs that rail received in 2017 and 2021). No sector has ever scored higher.
Seven categories were stagnant. Solid waste held at C+, bridges repeated its C, and drinking water stayed at a C-. For aviation, schools, and wastewater, the D+ was unchanged. Stormwater’s D was the other repeat.
In addition to ports, the other categories to improve were hazardous waste (D+ to C, the only category to go up by more than one notch), inland waterways (D+ to C-), public parks (D+ to C-), dams (D to D+), levees (D to D+), roads (D to D+), and transit (D- to D).
As a new category, broadband has nothing to compare itself to, but it set its standard high with a C+.
The first report card, which was issued in 1998, had 10 categories, meaning eight sectors have been added over time. Broadband had the best debut score of any category, an honor previously held by ports.
While 50% of sectors scoring worse than C- in 2025 is jarring, in the big picture it’s a leap forward. Of the 118 sector grades issued overall in eight incarnations of the report card, 80 have been worse than C- (68%). Grades of C+, C, or C- have been assigned 33 times (28%), and a B or B- has been awarded five times (4%).
On another positive note, this year’s report card marks the second time that no sector received a grade below D; it also happened in 2001. A sector has received a D- on 16 occasions. The only F ever issued was for schools in 1998.
Four of the original 10 graded sectors (dams, roads, schools, and wastewater) have never received a grade higher than a D+. Hazardous waste exited that dubious club in the new report card. Aviation barely avoided that group with a C- in the original report card but a D or D+ in every subsequent issuance.
The strong categories
Bridges and solid waste are the top performers among the original 10. Bridges have received a C+ twice, a C five times, and a C- once. Solid waste has achieved a C+ six times, a C- once, and a D- once.
While bridges is the only original sector never to receive a score worse than C-, three categories that were added after the first report card can make that claim: rail, which has appeared in six report cards; ports, making its fourth appearance; and broadband, this year’s new category.
As for the overall grade, it has not dipped since 2005, when it fell to a D after receiving a D+ in 2001. 2009 saw a repeat of that D. In 2013, the grade rose to a D+, which was repeated in 2017. Then came a C- in 2021, followed by this year’s record C.
What does the future hold? Stand by; 2029 will be here before you know it.
