Prior to 2009, specialty license plate sales increased every year, despite the economic recession. On October 1, 2009, the Florida State Legislature significantly increased vehicle registration fees, particularly with respect to purchasing specialty license plate fees. In 2009, annual sales of Florida Specialty License Plates amounted to 1,623,486. Since 2009, there has been a 19.78% decline in Specialty Plate sales, reflecting approximately $7 million lost in annual revenue.

In September, 2013, the Florida Legislature reduced some fees associated with vehicle registrations, however, did not address the significant increase in the cost to purchase a new specialty plate that was imposed in 2009.

After a slight increase in annual sales in 2013 compared to 2012, specialty license plate sales dropped 4% in 2014 compared to 2013, by a total of 54,851 specialty plates, representing a drop of approximately $1.2 million in revenue.

Since 2010, specialty license plate sales have declined 6.76%, with a reduction in annual revenue of approximately $2 million.

The Florida Legislature did reduce annual registration fees in 2010, but did not address the increased costs of obtaining a specialty license plate and left the $28 new plate additional fee and $5.00 state specialty license plate processing fee in place.

The official vendor for specialty license plates in Texas, My Plates, is in the process of formally notifying over fifty organizations that their plate design does not meet the state's new minimum requirement of 200 plates actively in-use. 
This new requirement became effective December 1st, 2014 as part of the My Plates renewed contact with the state. This new requirement will not impact the state's vanity and military plates, which are not at risk of being removed.

Under the new threshold requirement, vendor plates that do not meet the minimum of 200 plates actively in-use over a given year are at risk of being permanently removed from the program. As of December 1, 2014, plates have up to a maximum of 365 days to meet the threshold. During this period, they must also meet the periodic milestones outlined below to ensure progress is being made towards the threshold.
Of the fifteen Texas high schools within the My Plates program, only one school, Carroll ISD has actually met the sales target. Four of the eight charity plate organizations within the program are at risk. The charities safe are the National Breast Cancer Foundation, Glory Gang Ministries, the Peace Officer's Memorial Foundation and the World Wildlife Fund. There are ten sports and outdoor plate designs that are below the threshold including recognized brands such as NASCAR (four plates), Texas Motor Speedway, Houston Rockets and Houston Dynamo.

Six of the seven plates within the Business plate category are at risk including, Dr. Pepper, Keller Williams and Ignite Energy. The only business plate safe is RE/MAX.
Sixteen College plates are at risk. Five of those are Texas colleges with the other eleven being from out of state.

Since November 2009, Texans have purchased more than 215,000 My Plates, putting more than $28M in the general revenue fund, which helps pay for services for all Texans.

Minnesota female veterans can now own a license plate honoring their service and dedication to the nation.
The specialty licenses plates, made possible by the Women's Veteran's Initiative, aim to remove the invisibility that many of Minnesota's 29,000 women Veterans feel. They are the first in the state that specifically refer to women Veterans.Stacey Rhodes, a Veteran working at the Duluth Vet Center says these plates will go a long way to help some veterans connect and identify with their service.
"If part of that is a license plate and that's what helps people identify with their service, take pride in it, and share experience than I think that's a great idea," Rhodes said. The goal is to get 500 plates on vehicles by end of 2015 in Minnesota. Nine other states offer similar plates.

Those specialized license plates with the Seattle Seahawks logo proved a monster hit in 2014.

Fans of the world champions bought 13,398 of them through mid-December to make it the second most popular specialty plate in Washington, according to a report delivered to state lawmakers Wednesday.

Only Washington State University sold more, 19,690, with the Law Enforcement Memorial plate ranking third with 10,705 followed by the University of Washington at 8,601, the Department of License report shows.

Washington now offers 47 different special designs and there are 121,000 specialty plates currently registered with the state.

Proceeds from license plate sales benefit public and private universities, nonprofits and certain state-run programs. In 2014, hundreds of thousands of dollars were generated for college scholarships, wildlife management and services for families of fallen police officers.

Sales began in January 2014 for the Seahawks plate as well as one for the Seattle Sounders FC.

Two new plates went on sale Jan. 2. One benefits scholarship programs at Seattle University and the other supports breast cancer screenings and follow-up tests for women with limited or no insurance through the state Department of Health’s Breast, Cervical, and Colon Health Program.

Nevada's Department of Motor Vehicles has released a new specialty license plate that is aimed at increasing motorists' awareness of the safety of other road users. The plate will feature a “Share the Road” message, along with images of a bicycle and a pedestrian.

It will cost $61 to purchase one of these plates, and $30 to renew it. A significant portion of these fees will go toward supporting safety campaigns run by the Nevada Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board.

“This license plate will not only bring awareness of how important it is for us all to share the road, it will also help fund safe bicycle and walking programs and projects,” Nevada Transportation Department Bicycle and Pedestrian Program Manager Bill Story said.

If all goes according to plan, hundreds of cars on Virginia’s roadways will soon display a special license plate with a small gold ribbon and a far bigger goal: to make passing motorists think about the wide-reaching impact of childhood cancer.

During the General Assembly session this month, Del. Thomas A. “Tag” Greason (R-Loudoun) will present a bill that would make specialty license plates, featuring the gold ribbon of childhood cancer awareness, available to all Virginia drivers. The bill marks the culmination of a project started by the family of Mathias Giordano, a cheerful and athletic Leesburg youth who was diagnosed with a form of bone cancer as a fifth-grader in 2012.

Soon after his diagnosis, Mathias had part of his leg amputated and began a grueling cycle of more than 20 chemotherapy courses. In the midst of Mathias’s treatment, the family bought a new car to take him to his many appointments and out-of-state surgeries. When his mother, Roya Giordano, went to the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles to get a new license plate for the car, she learned that there was no special plate to signify childhood cancer awareness.“I requested the gold childhood cancer ribbon, and the gentleman behind the counter said, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ ” Giordano said. “He said they had the yellow one for the troops, and the pink one for breast cancer. But no ribbon for childhood cancer. I thought, that can’t be right.”Mathias echoed that reaction when Giordano told him the news, she said.

“He said, ‘That can’t be right. Everyone knows what the pink ribbon stands for. We have to get the gold out there, Mom.’ ” She promised him they would.

Mathias died at home in December at age 13. Reeling from his loss, his family is even more determined to pursue an end to the illness that took his life. Compared with finding a cure, a license plate is a small step, Giordano said, but making people aware of the illness is critical.

“I knew about childhood cancer, but I didn’t really do anything about it before Mathias was diagnosed,” Giordano said. “It’s such a difficult and painful problem to contemplate.”

With dramatic advancements in printing technology and the use of “flat plates” instead of the embossed plates that require special and now obsolete printing presses, more states — including Nevada — are able to offer a much wider variety of license plates for those who want to support a given cause.

Nevada currently has a total of 46 different specialty license plates in its inventory. But per state law, DMV only offers 25-30 of them at any one time. To be on that list of offerings, each plate must have at least 1,000 active plates.

The state began offering the “Nevada 150” Sesquicentennial plates in July, 2013 as the governor and others urged vehicle owners to show their pride in Nevada’s 150th birthday as a state. There are now nearly 11,000 Nevada Sesquicentennial license plates on the road, making the plate honoring the state’s 150th anniversary of statehood one of the most popular in DMV’s inventory. The dark blue plate with a full-color state seal has proven extremely popular.

But according to the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles, that plate has a long way to go to become the most popular designer plate among Nevada drivers. Far and away the most popular specialty plate is the Las Vegas commemorative plate. A total of 85,700 Nevadans have chosen to put that plate on their car, truck or motorcycle. That’s almost eight times the number of dark blue “Nevada 150” plates, which currently adorn 10,795 vehicles.

Second to Las Vegas is the Lake Tahoe plate, which is sported by 17,389 vehicles, including 91 motorcycles.

Third is the “United We Stand” plate on 16,768 vehicles.