The latest edition of NCARB’s annual data publication, NCARB by the Numbers, is now available! Focusing on data from the 2025 calendar year, this year’s publication provides an inside look at recent trends along the path to licensure and beyond.
In 2025, the overall time to licensure fell to 12.3 years—the lowest median time in nearly a decade. Time to complete the Architect Registration Examination® (ARE®) also fell significantly to just 2 years. Time to complete the ARE in 2025 was 4 months faster than in 2024 and the lowest average completion time seen in the history of the computerized ARE. Over 1,000 candidates who finished the exam in 2025 did so in 12 months or less.
Recently, NCARB has implemented several programmatic changes that could impact the state of licensure—including the retirement of the licensing exam’s 5-year expiration date on passed divisions and adjusting the experience program’s reporting policy to allow credit for experience older than 5 years. These changes have led to current decreases in the average time to earn a license but could result in longer licensure timelines in the future.
The 2026 edition also includes new insights into NCARB’s Pathways to Practice initiative. Our data shows that the current “single path” approach to the licensure process creates a variety of pinch points that can impact candidates based on a range of factors, including their career, education, and socio-economic background. However, the proportion of candidates pursuing licensure through alternative Pathways to Practice is growing. In 2025, 13% of new architects chose to earn additional experience in lieu of earning a degree from a program accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB), up 2 percentage points from 2024.
In addition, NCARB has seen sustained growth in gender equity and racial diversity across licensure candidate stages. In 2025, nearly half of all licensure candidates (49%) identified as a person of color. Women now represent 47% of licensure candidates, including 53% of new Record holders, and these increases are becoming more visible in the profession as candidates advance toward licensure.
By offering more flexibility in how candidates demonstrate their competency, NCARB can reduce the impact of these impediments and ensure that individuals of all educational and career backgrounds have a pathway to architectural practice, while still maintaining the level of rigor needed to protect the public.
Learn more about trends on the path to licensure in the 2025 edition of NCARB by the Numbers!
