Welcome to the 2025 edition of NCARB by the Numbers!
Each year, NCARB by the Numbers provides exclusive insights into key data shaping the architecture community. This year’s report marks our 14th edition, and, as always, we have continued to enhance and expand this publication to offer clear and reliable data on the path to architectural licensure.
For NCARB and our member licensing boards, the information contained in NCARB by the Numbers shines a light on the overall health, trajectory, and makeup of the licensure pipeline. By closely monitoring data coming out of our community of members, customers, and volunteers, we have been able to drive strategic decisions that are shaping the future of regulation and the architecture profession. Over the past several years, NCARB has implemented several programmatic and policy changes designed to promote greater accessibility on the path to licensure while maintaining the standards necessary to protect the public’s health, safety, and welfare: launching free practice exams for the Architect Registration Examination® (ARE®), retiring the ARE’s rolling clock policy, offering English as a Second Language accommodations, and more.
In this year’s edition, you’ll see the ongoing impact of those changes. The licensure candidate pipeline has fully recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic, with nearly 40,000 candidates actively working to become architects, and the average time to licensure has fallen below the 13-year mark for the first time since 2016. And while exam pass rates have decreased slightly, candidates are still completing the ARE faster than ever.
While the overall architect population has decreased as the baby boomer generation has begun to retire, architects are also demonstrating increased interest in reciprocal licensure. Over 51,000 architects hold the NCARB Certificate, and NCARB continues to keep pace with an increasingly interconnected global economy by enhancing the value of the NCARB Certificate as a passport to global licensure.
New in this year’s edition, you’ll find an expanded look at new architects’ educational backgrounds and their impact on experience and examination program progress. Additionally, we’ve included key takeaways from a recent NCARB survey exploring the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on licensure candidates.
Behind the scenes, our data is informing even more comprehensive changes to the licensure process as NCARB seeks to reimagine the path to becoming an architect through our Pathways to Practice initiative. We look forward to sharing how the information gathered in NCARB by the Numbers, as well as insight from our members, customers, volunteers, and the public, continues to shape the regulatory landscape in architecture and beyond.
Michael J. Armstrong
Chief Executive Officer
National Council of Architectural Registration Boards