The US Postal Service delivered 203 billion pieces of mail in 2008 – a decrease of almost ten billion pieces from 2007 and the largest decline since the Great Depression.

So says the USPS Household Diary Study, which has been conducting detailed documentation of volumes and trends in its market since 1987.

In particular, Standard Mail – the vast majority of which comprises ad communications – has been affected; volumes dropped 4.5 per cent last year.

Letter-writing, generally, is becoming a thing of the past, usurped by electronic messaging. The study shows that, since 1998, First-Class mail volumes have plummeted 32 per cent. But the report says current poor economic conditions have also been a major contributor to lower First-Class volumes – 12 per cent of it advertising mail: ‘Because of the mortgage meltdown and tight credit conditions, the decline in First-Class advertising was driven mostly by the financial industry.

‘In 2008, First-Class financial advertising fell more than ten per cent, a drop considerably greater than reductions in any other industry. Similarly, the crisis surrounding financial institutions also forced them to cut Standard Mail advertising more significantly (-2 per cent) than other industries, but still to a lesser extent than the cuts made in First-Class advertising.’

Meanwhile, the package delivery market is proving to be an important and growing segment of the economy. The report says: ‘From 1999 to 2008, package volume grew from 7.6 billion pieces to 8.4 billion pieces, averaging 1.1 per cent growth per year.

‘Packages received by households most often contain music and videos, books, clothes and pharmaceuticals – a sign that online purchases and mail order retail are primary drivers of household package volume.’

The report has good news for mailers: Ad mail is read by 49 per cent of households and scanned by 30 per cent. Only 21 per cent don’t read it at all. Furthermore, one in ten of those mailed pieces will spark a response, householders told the researchers.