1st letter of us place names

gistfile1.txt

mysql> select substr(name, 1, 1) as alpha, count(id) from places group by alpha;
+-------+-----------+
| alpha | count(id) |
+-------+-----------+
| 1     |         7 |
| 2     |         4 |
| 4     |         1 |
| 6     |         1 |
| 9     |         1 |
| A     |      7479 |
| B     |     16739 |
| C     |     18604 |
| D     |      6929 |
| E     |      7015 |
| F     |      7873 |
| G     |      8653 |
| H     |     12170 |
| I     |      2015 |
| J     |      2690 |
| K     |      4268 |
| L     |     11308 |
| M     |     14967 |
| N     |      6413 |
| O     |      5424 |
| P     |     12044 |
| Q     |       624 |
| R     |      9719 |
| S     |     19708 |
| T     |      7318 |
| U     |      1254 |
| V     |      2957 |
| W     |     12950 |
| X     |        21 |
| Y     |       814 |
| Z     |       365 |
| `     |         2 |
+-------+-----------+