The licensure process is designed to help candidates build their knowledge, skills, and abilities in areas of architecture that are essential for protecting the public’s health, safety, and welfare.
Most candidates develop these competencies through a combination of education and experience. Typically, candidates earn a degree from a program accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB) and complete the Architectural Experience Program® (AXP®). However, 11% of new architects in 2024—approximately 400 practitioners—chose to earn additional experience in lieu of earning a degree from a NAAB-accredited program.
Through our Pathways to Practice initiative, NCARB is working to expand access to licensure outside of the traditional 5-7 years of higher education required for a NAAB-accredited degree.
The experience program continued to show signs of recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 8,300 candidates started reporting professional experience in 2024, and over 5,200 completed the AXP—both close to pre-pandemic levels. Plus, the time to complete the program fell by 1 month in 2024, and the proportion of candidates who complete the program in less than 4 years rose to 40%.
Still, NCARB expects to see the lingering effects of the pandemic for several more years. Explore the impacts of the pandemic on early career licensure candidates in the COVID & AXP chapter of this publication.
NAAB enrollment grew by almost 12% in 2024.
More than 33,000 students were enrolled in a NAAB-accredited program in the 2023-2024 school year, a 12% increase compared to the previous school year. The total number of students enrolled in a NAAB-accredited program has been steadily growing over the past several years. Of the more than 33,000 total enrollees, nearly 7,000 graduated in the 2023-24 school year.
Of students enrolled in NAAB-accredited programs, 57% are enrolled in Bachelor of Architecture programs, and 43% are enrolled in Master of Architecture or Doctor of Architecture programs. Forty-five percent are men, 55% are women, and nearly .5% are non-binary.
Note: This data is provided to the NAAB by accredited programs and will be published in the 2024 NAAB Report on Accreditation in Architecture, available at www.naab.org. Students enrolled in non-accredited architecture programs are not represented.
Most jurisdictions require a NAAB degree for initial licensure—but not reciprocal.
Of the 55 U.S. jurisdictions, most require licensure candidates to have a degree from a NAAB-accredited program for initial licensure: Only 18 jurisdictions offer multiple pathways to initial licensure. However, 49 jurisdictions allow multiple pathways to reciprocal licensure, a flexibility NCARB is working to expand through our Pathways to Practice effort.
Because most jurisdictions require a degree from a NAAB-accredited program, this is the most common path to earning a license in the United States. Only 11% of new architects in 2024 pursued licensure without a degree from a NAAB-accredited program, down 1 percentage point from 2023.
Earning a degree from an accredited program typically takes 5-7 years—often because candidates pursue a non-accredited, 4-year degree before completing a Master of Architecture program. Independent research shows that these additional years of school represent an investment of time and resources that not all aspiring architects can afford (see RAND’s Building Impact report for additional details). To address this impediment, NCARB is working to create multiple pathways to licensure that include a variety of education and experience opportunities.
In states with multiple pathways, 20% of new architects don’t hold a degree from a NAAB-accredited program.
While the proportion of new architects across the U.S. who don’t have a degree from an accredited program is just 11%, that proportion is typically higher in jurisdictions where a degree from a NAAB-accredited program isn’t required for initial licensure. On average, 20% of new architects don’t hold a degree from a NAAB-accredited program in states that offer additional licensure pathways.
The state with the highest proportion of new licensees without an accredited degree is Wisconsin: In 2024, 47% of new architects in Wisconsin did not hold a degree from a NAAB-accredited program. Some states that require a degree from a NAAB-accredited program still offer limited access to additional pathways, which is why states like Indiana still show as many as 12% of new architects without a degree from an accredited program.
As more states adopt additional pathways to initial licensure, NCARB expects to see an increase in the number of new architects who follow non-traditional pathways.
62% of new architects graduated from public universities.
Most new architects attend public, rather than private, universities. The ratio of public to private has stayed relatively stable over the past 5 years, with 60-62% of new architects each year attending a public institution.
This breakdown aligns with the makeup of NAAB-accredited programs. According to the NAAB’s latest report, 60% of schools that offer NAAB-accredited programs are public institutions, and the remaining 40% are private.
All five of the schools whose graduates make up the largest proportion of architects newly licensed in 2024 were public universities:
- Cal Poly (2.8%)
- Virginia Tech (2.5%)
- The University of Oregon (2.5%)
- The University of Michigan (2.1%)
- The University of Texas at Austin (2.0%)
Nearly 60% of new architects have more than 1 degree.
The majority of new architects hold more than one post-secondary degree. Of the roughly 3,600 architects licensed in 2024, 57% held 2 degrees, and an additional 1% held 3 or more degrees.
This data aligns with NCARB’s data regarding the types of degrees held by new architects. Approximately 58% of new architects hold both a degree from a NAAB-accredited program and a degree from a program not accredited by the NAAB. For some, this approach is planned: Many candidates intentionally attend a non-accredited bachelor’s program first and then complete their education at a NAAB-accredited Master of Architecture program. But for others, holding multiple degrees stems from low awareness of the education requirements for licensure. Because many candidates don’t know they’ll need a degree from a NAAB-accredited program, they must eventually return to school for an additional degree in order to earn a license in their chosen jurisdiction.
Candidates with multiple degrees consistently perform better on the exam.
Historically, candidates who hold a degree from a NAAB-accredited program have been more likely to pass the exam than their peers who don’t hold a degree from an accredited program. Licensure candidates who hold both a degree from a program accredited by the NAAB and from a non-accredited program are even more likely to pass the exam than those who only hold an accredited degree—performing 2 percentage points above the national average overall.
Candidates with multiple degrees tended to perform slightly better (1 or 2 percentage points above the national average) across all divisions, rather than significantly better on a single division.
Comparatively, candidates who only hold a degree from a non-accredited program perform slightly below the national average across most divisions, with the exception of the Project Development & Documentation division in 2024, where they performed on par with the national average.
Candidates who don’t hold any degrees consistently receive the lowest overall ARE pass rates. However, there are far fewer candidates in this cohort, leading to larger fluctuations in pass rates (for example, the jump from 34% in 2022 to 52% in 2023, or the high pass rate on the Programming & Analysis division in 2024).
NCARB’s Integrated Path to Architectural Licensure (IPAL) initiative expands.
There are currently 33 programs at 28 colleges participating in NCARB’s Integrated Path to Architectural Licensure (IPAL) initiative, including 1 that joined in 2024.
The IPAL option—offered as an additional path within an existing NAAB-accredited program—seeks to shorten the time it takes to become an architect for students who are committed to earning a license. Participating programs provide students with the opportunity to complete the AXP and take all 6 ARE 5.0 divisions prior to graduation.
Over the past several years, NCARB has been collaborating with schools to encourage greater participation in IPAL and to identify potential impediments for IPAL students. During the 2023-2024 school year, participation increased by approximately 200 students, with over 850 students enrolled in IPAL options across the United States.
DID YOU KNOW? Over 850 students are enrolled in IPAL options across the U.S.
The number of candidates beginning the AXP decreased slightly compared to 2023.
Following a drop in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of candidates who begin the experience program each year has returned to normal levels. More than 8,300 candidates started earning experience that counts toward the AXP in 2024.
Because candidates can report experience up to 5 years in the past, these numbers typically shift upward (sometimes dramatically) over time. When NCARB published the 2024 edition of NCARB by the Numbers, the number of candidates who had started the AXP in 2023 was 4,809. Now, just one year later, that number has risen to over 9,143 as candidates submit backdated experience. NCARB anticipates that the number reported for 2024 will also increase over the next year.
The number of candidates finishing the AXP decreased by 2% in 2024.
Unlike AXP beginnings, AXP completions are likely still showing the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. On average, candidates take between 4-5 years to complete the experience program—meaning that candidates finishing in 2024 likely began the program in 2020. Since fewer candidates began the experience program between 2020-2021, NCARB doesn’t expect to see the number of AXP completions rise significantly until 2026.
But just like AXP beginnings, the number of candidates who complete the AXP in a given year shifts upward over time. Based on current data, over 5,254 candidates finished gaining the professional experience needed to complete the AXP in 2024—approximately 2% fewer than in 2023.
DID YOU KNOW? NCARB measures experience start and end dates based on when the work was performed. For example, if a candidate submitted their final experience report in 2025 for work performed in 2022, their AXP end date would be counted as 2022.
Time to complete the AXP begins to fall.
In 2024, the average time to complete the experience program fell for the first time since the onset of the pandemic. Candidates who completed the AXP in 2024 took an average of 4.8 years to complete the program, 1 month faster than those who completed in 2023. While not a significant decrease, this could signal that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is beginning to fade from the experience program.
Because the AXP typically takes between 4 and 5 years to complete, NCARB expects to see the pandemic’s impact continue to fade over the next several years. Many candidates who completed the program in 2024 would have started earning and reporting professional experience in 2020 and are likely to have had their career trajectories altered by the pandemic—see the COVID & AXP chapter of this publication for more insights into the pandemic’s impact on candidates navigating the experience program.
DID YOU KNOW? Averages can be measured in several ways. NCARB uses median to measure averages throughout NCARB by the Numbers, which allows us to avoid skewing the average with outlier data points.
Candidates without a degree from an accredited program complete the AXP faster than their peers.
For the past several years, licensure candidates without a degree from a program accredited by the NAAB have consistently completed the AXP several months faster than their peers. In 2024, graduates of non-accredited programs completed the AXP in an average 4.6 years, approximately 4 months faster than candidates who hold degrees from both accredited and non-accredited programs.
However, it’s important to keep in mind that most licensure candidates hold a degree from a NAAB-accredited program. The pool of candidates without a degree from an accredited program is much smaller, and therefore more likely to fluctuate over short periods of time. Note: There were fewer than 30 candidates (NCARB’s minimum sample size) in the “doesn’t hold a degree” cohort in 2024.
Over a third of candidates complete the AXP in less than 4 years.
In 2024, the percent of candidates who finished the experience program in less than 4 years increased by 9 percentage points: 2 in every 5 candidates completed the AXP in less than 4 years. This aligns with AXP completion data that NCARB saw prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, when a larger proportion of candidates completed the program in a shorter time frame.
However, nearly a third of candidates (31%) continue to take more than 6 years to finish earning and reporting their experience.
Typically, women and people of color are more likely to complete the AXP in a shorter time frame compared to their peers. Men and white candidates are more likely to begin reporting experience younger (often while in school), which creates a period of slow progress because they aren’t
working full-time.
The number of AXP supervisors rose by 3% in 2024.
Licensure candidates are required to have an AXP supervisor who is responsible for guiding them through the process of gaining professional experience. Over 27,000 candidates submitted experience reports in 2024 to over 21,000 supervisors—a 3% increase in the total number
of supervisors.
Many candidates report experience to more than 1 supervisor within a given year, whether because they are changing roles or because they are gaining experience outside of their main job through one of the AXP’s setting O opportunities.
