Occupational Licensing by State
Every U.S. state regulates a different set of occupations and imposes a different mix of education, examination, and renewal requirements. PlainCredential ranks all 50 states and D.C. by a composite licensing-burden score that combines the number of licensed occupations, average required education hours, application fees, and continuing-education obligations, and pairs that with a complementary count of licensed professions. Click any state below to see its full list of licensed professions, links to the underlying licensing boards, and a per-profession comparison against the national distribution.
Burden score vs catalog breadth
New Hampshire leads the composite burden score (65.0) while Alabama leads catalog breadth (97 licensed professions) - intensity and breadth answer different questions. The paired tables below sort the same jurisdictions both ways.
Highest composite burden
| # | State | Burden |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | New Hampshire | 65.0 |
| 2 | Maine | 64.0 |
| 3 | Vermont | 63.5 |
| 4 | Wyoming | 63.0 |
| 5 | South Dakota | 62.0 |
| 6 | North Dakota | 61.0 |
| 7 | Idaho | 60.0 |
| 8 | Alaska | 59.5 |
| 9 | Nebraska | 59.0 |
| 10 | Kansas | 58.5 |
| 11 | Iowa | 58.0 |
| 12 | Oklahoma | 57.5 |
Most licensed professions
| # | State | Professions |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alabama | 97 |
| 2 | Alaska | 97 |
| 3 | Arizona | 97 |
| 4 | Arkansas | 97 |
| 5 | California | 97 |
| 6 | Colorado | 97 |
| 7 | Connecticut | 97 |
| 8 | Delaware | 97 |
| 9 | District of Columbia | 97 |
| 10 | Florida | 97 |
| 11 | Georgia | 97 |
| 12 | Hawaii | 97 |
All states (51)
State licensing FAQ
- Which state has the highest composite licensing-burden score?
- New Hampshire leads this extract at a composite burden score of 65.0 (rank #49). The score blends occupation count, education hours, fees, and renewal cadence, it is not a quality grade.
- Which state licenses the most occupations in this catalog?
- Alabama lists 97 licensed professions in this extract. Catalog breadth and composite burden can diverge when a state licenses many low-hour occupations.
- Does a high burden score mean a state is harder to work in?
- The composite is a descriptive index of regulatory intensity across four signals in this catalog. It does not measure job availability, wage outcomes, or whether any specific license is appropriate for a reader. Open a state page for the profession-by-profession breakdown.
- How many jurisdictions does PlainCredential cover?
- This directory lists 51 jurisdictions (50 states + D.C.) covering 4,947 state×profession licensing rows in the current extract (vintage 2026-05-15).
Methodology: Each state's burden score is computed from four equally-weighted signals: total licensed occupations (from state board registrations), median required education hours across the catalog, median application fee, and renewal-cycle frequency. Per-state ranks are recomputed when the underlying licensing dataset is refreshed, typically twice per year against NCSL Healthcare Database, IJ License to Work, and state board public registers. See the methodology page for the full breakdown and a worked example.
Download the jurisdiction snapshot (same CSV as /statistics): licensing-statistics.csv (CC BY 4.0).