Occupational licensing · 51 jurisdictions · data as of 2026-05-15
Where licensing requirements are hardest
A reproducible ranking of every U.S. state and D.C. on the Institute for Justice composite burden ladder. Lower score means heavier documented barriers, not fewer licensed professions (every state fills the same profession grid).
- Jurisdictions ranked
- 51
- Highest burden
- California #1
- High-burden tier
- 10 states
- Corpus avg score
- 48
10 of 51 jurisdictions sit in the high-burden tier (ranks 1–10). California scores 28.5 versus 65.0 in New Hampshire on the IJ composite ladder.
Burden ladder at a glance
The horizontal bars show the ten heaviest composite scores on this ladder; the gauge places California on the full corpus range (28.5–65.0). Both read the same states.burden_score column used in the table below.
Source: Institute for Justice, License to Work research program Composite burden score combines licensed-occupation coverage, average education requirements, fees, and other documented barriers. See methodology for the full weighting.
Full state ranking
| Rank | State | Burden score | Tier |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | California | 28.5 | High |
| 2 | Oregon | 30.2 | High |
| 3 | Illinois | 31.0 | High |
| 4 | Nevada | 32.1 | High |
| 5 | Colorado | 33.5 | High |
| 6 | Arizona | 34.2 | High |
| 7 | Washington | 35.0 | High |
| 8 | Hawaii | 35.8 | High |
| 9 | New Mexico | 36.5 | High |
| 10 | Montana | 37.0 | High |
| 11 | Louisiana | 38.0 | Medium |
| 12 | Connecticut | 40.0 | Medium |
| 12 | Rhode Island | 37.5 | Medium |
| 13 | Maryland | 40.5 | Medium |
| 13 | New Jersey | 41.0 | Medium |
| 14 | Massachusetts | 41.5 | Medium |
| 15 | Florida | 42.0 | Medium |
| 17 | New York | 43.2 | Medium |
| 18 | District of Columbia | 43.8 | Medium |
| 18 | Pennsylvania | 44.0 | Medium |
| 19 | Delaware | 44.5 | Medium |
| 20 | Texas | 45.5 | Medium |
| 22 | Ohio | 46.0 | Medium |
| 24 | Michigan | 47.5 | Medium |
| 25 | Georgia | 48.0 | Medium |
| 26 | North Carolina | 48.5 | Low |
| 27 | Indiana | 49.0 | Low |
| 28 | Virginia | 50.0 | Low |
| 29 | Tennessee | 51.0 | Low |
| 30 | Minnesota | 52.0 | Low |
| 31 | Missouri | 52.5 | Low |
| 32 | Wisconsin | 53.0 | Low |
| 33 | Alabama | 53.5 | Low |
| 34 | Mississippi | 54.0 | Low |
| 34 | Utah | 54.5 | Low |
| 34 | West Virginia | 54.5 | Low |
| 35 | Kentucky | 55.0 | Low |
| 36 | Arkansas | 56.0 | Low |
| 37 | South Carolina | 57.0 | Low |
| 38 | Oklahoma | 57.5 | Low |
| 39 | Iowa | 58.0 | Low |
| 40 | Kansas | 58.5 | Low |
| 41 | Nebraska | 59.0 | Low |
| 42 | Alaska | 59.5 | Low |
| 43 | Idaho | 60.0 | Low |
| 44 | North Dakota | 61.0 | Low |
| 45 | South Dakota | 62.0 | Low |
| 46 | Wyoming | 63.0 | Low |
| 47 | Vermont | 63.5 | Low |
| 48 | Maine | 64.0 | Low |
| 49 | New Hampshire | 65.0 | Low |
How the burden score works
The composite score comes from Institute for Justice License to Work research, cross-walked to PlainCredential's NCSL/state-board requirement grid. High tier (ranks 1–10) marks the most restrictive documented environments; medium (11–25) is mid-pack; low (26–51) is the lightest end of the ladder. A state can rank #1 on burden while still licensing the same 97 professions as every other jurisdiction, the score reflects fees, hours, exams, and related barriers, not a different profession census.
For row-level detail open any state page, or use the compare tool to place two jurisdictions side-by-side on the same profession. The statistics digest carries corpus-wide Key Findings and a downloadable CSV extract.
Compare strict vs lighter states
These open the live compare tool with both states and a high-traffic profession already selected, useful when you need fee and hour deltas, not just the burden rank.
Opens the live compare tool with both states and the profession already selected. Browse all comparisons.
Every figure on PlainCredential is rendered directly from NCSL and state occupational- licensing board data, no number is typed in by an editor. Every rank, score, and tier on this page recomputes from the live states table and NCSL/IJ extract, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.