Life Jacket Requirements by State: Carriage and Wearage

To view carriage (legal) requirements for PFDs (life jackets) in your state, start by reviewing the table from the U.S. Coast Guard Boating Safety website. You may want to also review any relevant websites for your state agency.

• “Carriage” describes the legal requirements defining the style and number of life jackets that must be carried on board for a vessel to operate legally. They are defined at both the state and federal level.
• “Wearage” describes a person’s legal requirements to wear a life jacket in addition to the attributes needed to match the life jacket to their activity needs and the environment they anticipate using the device in. While the legal requirements are defined at both the state and federal level, the activity and environmental requirements are generally defined by the user.