There were 650,667 actively licensed CPAs in the United States on August 27, 2026, according to NASBA’s Accountancy Licensee Database, which draws on 53 of the 55 licensing jurisdictions (Hawaii and New Mexico are missing). That is 2,741 fewer than the 653,408 NASBA counted on August 28, 2025 from the same 53 jurisdictions, and 13,865 fewer than the 664,532 it reported in April 2016. The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts 1,449,500 accountant and auditor jobs in May 2025 at a median wage of $83,680, and projects 115,300 openings a year from 2025 to 2035, 44,100 of them from people leaving the labor force. The inflow is recovering from a low base. U.S. schools awarded 55,152 accounting bachelor’s and master’s degrees in 2023-24, 31% fewer than in 2015-16, and bachelor’s completions then rose 8.5% in 2024-25. In 2025, 36,590 people sat for the CPA Exam for the first time and 23,978 passed their final section. The workforce is older than average: 27.1% of employed accountants and auditors were 55 or older in 2025, against 23.2% of all workers. As of October 1, 2026, 46 jurisdictions had signed a new licensure pathway into law, in most of them a bachelor’s degree plus two years of experience in place of 150 credit hours; Florida, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, North Dakota and Wyoming had not.
Every figure below comes from NASBA, the AICPA, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Census Bureau or a state board of accountancy, read November 9 and 10, 2026 and linked at the end. California’s own counts are in California CPA firms by the numbers, and what scarcity does to the price of a practice is in how much CPA firms sell for.
- 01Licensed: 650,667 actively licensed CPAs on August 27, 2026 (NASBA, 53 of 55 jurisdictions), 2,741 fewer than a year earlier on the same coverage, or about 19 for every 10,000 U.S. residents.
- 02By state: Texas (78,040), California (69,929) and New York (68,541) report the most licensed CPAs. Among 32 comparable counts, the District of Columbia (48.0 per 10,000 residents), New York (34.3) and Washington (31.2) have the most per resident.
- 03Entering: 36,590 first-time CPA Exam candidates and 23,978 final-section passers in 2025. Schools awarded 55,152 accounting degrees in 2023-24, 31% fewer than in 2015-16; bachelor’s completions rose 8.5% in 2024-25.
- 04Working and leaving: 1,449,500 accountant and auditor jobs in May 2025 at a median wage of $83,680. The BLS projects 115,300 openings a year to 2035, 44,100 of them from people leaving the labor force. 27.1% of employed accountants and auditors are 55 or older.
- 05Policy: 46 of 55 jurisdictions have signed a new licensure pathway into law, in most of them a bachelor’s degree plus two years of experience instead of 150 credit hours. California’s takes effect January 1, 2027.
How many CPAs are there in the US?
NASBA, the national association of state boards of accountancy, publishes one national figure from its Accountancy Licensee Database, built from the boards’ own records. It counts CPAs whose status each board treats as active. The figure on August 27, 2026 was 650,667, from 53 of the 55 licensing jurisdictions: the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands.
| Date of count | Actively licensed CPAs | Jurisdictions reporting | Missing |
|---|---|---|---|
| April 22, 2016 | 664,532 | 51 of 55 | Not named |
| May 29, 2019 | 654,375 | 52 of 55 | Delaware, Hawaii, Utah |
| September 2, 2020 | 658,267 | 53 of 55 | Hawaii, Utah |
| August 24, 2021 | 669,130 | 54 of 55 | Hawaii |
| August 24, 2022 | 665,612 | 54 of 55 | Hawaii |
| September 1, 2023 | 672,587 | 53 of 55 | Hawaii, Vermont |
| August 29, 2024 | 671,855 | 52 of 55 | Hawaii, New Mexico, Vermont |
| August 28, 2025 | 653,408 | 53 of 55 | Hawaii, New Mexico |
| August 27, 2026 | 650,667 | 53 of 55 | Hawaii, New Mexico |
NASBA, How Many CPAs Are There?, the current page and earlier versions archived by the Internet Archive. Each version shows one figure; NASBA does not publish the series as a table.
The highest of these figures is 672,587, in September 2023. Since coverage changed from year to year, the only like-for-like comparison is the last pair: 653,408 in August 2025 and 650,667 in August 2026, both without Hawaii and New Mexico, a fall of 0.4%. Against a U.S. population of 341.8 million on July 1, 2025, the current count is about 19 active CPAs per 10,000 residents (WIN’s calculation). The BLS counts about 42 accountant and auditor jobs per 10,000 residents.
How many CPAs are in each state?
NASBA does not publish its count by state, so WIN collected the latest figure from each state’s board of accountancy or licensing agency: annual reports, meeting minutes, licensee pages and, where a board publishes no total, a count of the board’s own licensee file. We found a usable figure for 34 states and the District of Columbia. Fifteen states publish none that separates active CPAs from firms or other statuses, and Ohio’s own reports conflict. Pick a state for its count, its CPAs per 10,000 residents and its rank among the 32 jurisdictions whose count covers active individual CPAs only.
Licensed CPAs, active
CPAs per 10,000 residents
Rank, CPAs per 10,000
Accountant and auditor jobs, May 2025
Licensed CPAs are the latest count each state board or licensing agency publishes or, where it publishes none, WIN’s count of its licensee file, on the date shown; most include CPAs who live in another state, and a CPA licensed in several states is counted in each. CPAs and jobs per 10,000 residents are WIN’s calculation using the Census Bureau’s July 1, 2025 population estimates. Jobs are the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ May 2025 estimates for accountants and auditors (SOC 13-2011), licensed or not, excluding the self-employed. Sources for each state are listed under Sources.
The ten largest counts that cover active individual CPAs:
| State | Licensed CPAs | Date | Per 10,000 residents |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 78,040 | August 11, 2026 | 24.6 |
| California | 69,929 | January 8, 2026 | 17.8 |
| New York | 68,541 | July 1, 2026 | 34.3 |
| Florida | 32,686 | July 9, 2026 | 13.9 |
| Illinois | 28,762 | October 1, 2026 | 22.6 |
| Virginia | 27,160 | October 31, 2026 | 30.6 |
| Washington | 24,930 | December 31, 2025 | 31.2 |
| New Jersey | 22,232 | November 2026 | 23.3 |
| Georgia | 21,892 | May 21, 2025 | 19.4 |
| Colorado | 16,493 | November 2026 | 27.4 |
State boards of accountancy and licensing agencies, listed under Sources. Per 10,000 residents is WIN’s calculation with the Census Bureau’s July 1, 2025 estimates. Pennsylvania (about 28,819 active licensees including firms, January 2025) and North Carolina (22,743 licensees of all statuses, March 2025) publish broader totals and are left out.
Texas reports more licensed CPAs than California, 78,040 against 69,929, with 7.6 million fewer residents. The densest counts belong to places with many licensees who live elsewhere: 23,775 of New York’s 68,541 registered CPAs, 34.7%, have a mailing address outside the state, and Washington’s board says about 35% of its licensees live outside the United States. The thinnest are South Carolina (11.1 per 10,000), West Virginia (11.4) and Arkansas (12.4). California, at 17.8, ranks 16th of 32.
How many people are entering the accounting profession?
The pipeline has three counts: accounting degrees, first-time CPA Exam candidates, and candidates who pass their final section. The AICPA’s Trends report carries all three.
Accounting degrees
| Academic year | Bachelor’s | Master’s | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011-12 | 57,483 | 20,865 | 78,348 |
| 2015-16 | 56,715 | 23,139 | 79,854 |
| 2019-20 | 52,481 | 20,442 | 72,923 |
| 2021-22 | 47,058 | 18,234 | 65,292 |
| 2022-23 | 42,194 | 16,856 | 59,050 |
| 2023-24 (provisional) | 40,817 | 14,335 | 55,152 |
AICPA, 2025 Trends, Table 1.1, from IPEDS completions for accounting and taxation programs (CIP 52.03 and 52.1601). Master’s includes accounting and taxation degrees.
Total accounting degrees peaked at 79,854 in 2015-16 and fell every year to 55,152 in 2023-24, a drop of 31%. Bachelor’s degrees fell 29% from their 2011-12 high of 57,483. The AICPA’s 2026 Trends report, released November 4, 2026 in PowerPoint format, states that bachelor’s completions rose 8.5% in 2024-25, the first increase in recent years, while master’s completions fell. Enrollment turned earlier: 266,506 students were in accounting programs in spring 2025, up from 225,915 in spring 2023 (National Student Clearinghouse, in the 2025 Trends report).
CPA Exam candidates and passers
| Year | New candidates | Unique candidates | Passed fourth section |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 49,597 | 103,609 | 29,539 |
| 2016 | 48,004 | 102,291 | 27,889 |
| 2019 | 36,670 | 83,013 | 23,365 |
| 2020 | 30,385 | 73,106 | 20,703 |
| 2021 | 32,186 | 72,271 | 19,544 |
| 2022 | 30,251 | 67,336 | 18,847 |
| 2023 | 42,626 | 86,103 | 19,382 |
| 2024 | 28,082 | 74,175 | 13,070 |
| 2025 (NASBA) | 36,590 | 87,660 | 23,978 |
2010 to 2024: AICPA, 2025 Trends, Tables 3.1 to 3.3 (AICPA Exams Team). 2025: NASBA release on its Candidate Performance report, 2025 Edition, August 18, 2026. NASBA’s own 2024 figures are 27,994 new candidates, 74,165 candidates and 13,070 final-section passers.
Two exam changes distort the recent years. Candidates rushed to finish before the new exam launched in January 2024, which lifted 2023 to 42,626 new candidates and left 2024 at 28,082. In 2024 NASBA also began dating a final-section pass by when it received the score, so most candidates who finished in late 2024 were counted in 2025, which depresses 2024 (13,070) and inflates 2025 (23,978). On NASBA’s figures, first-time candidates rose 30.7% in 2025, to 36,590, which the AICPA describes as the highest level since 2018 apart from the 2023 surge. Over a longer run, final-section passers in 2025 were still 18.8% below the 29,539 of 2010.
What are the CPA Exam pass rates in 2025 and 2026?
The AICPA publishes pass rates by section each quarter. Since January 2024 every candidate takes three Core sections (AUD, FAR, REG) and one Discipline section of their choice (BAR, ISC or TCP).
| Section | 2025 cumulative | 2026 Q1 | 2026 Q2 | 2026 Q3 | 2026 to date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AUD, Auditing and Attestation | 48.21% | 47.80% | 49.38% | 52.23% | 50.03% |
| FAR, Financial Accounting and Reporting | 42.12% | 43.46% | 42.47% | 44.49% | 43.54% |
| REG, Taxation and Regulation | 63.12% | 66.65% | 66.87% | 65.37% | 66.32% |
| BAR, Business Analysis and Reporting | 41.94% | 41.30% | 45.62% | 44.35% | 43.88% |
| ISC, Information Systems and Controls | 67.79% | 66.79% | 67.98% | 70.22% | 68.56% |
| TCP, Tax Compliance and Planning | 77.65% | 79.28% | 79.75% | 80.08% | 79.75% |
AICPA, Learn more about CPA Exam scoring and pass rates, page dated October 22, 2026.
FAR and BAR pass fewer than half of their candidates and AUD about half; TCP, the tax discipline, passes about four in five. The AICPA notes that candidates choose their Discipline, so the rates reflect who sits for each section as much as how hard it is. NASBA’s 2025 report ranks Nebraska (64.7%), Utah (62.4%) and Kansas (61.8%) highest by jurisdiction.
How many accountants work in the US, and what are they paid?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts jobs by occupation, licensed or not. Most accountants and auditors are not CPAs: the 650,667 active licenses would cover at most 41% of the 1,595,200 jobs the BLS counts, even if every CPA held one. These figures describe the labor market a practice hires from.
| Accountants and auditors (SOC 13-2011) | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Wage and salary jobs, May 2025 | 1,449,500 | OEWS |
| Of which in accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping and payroll firms (NAICS 5412) | 330,500 | OEWS |
| Median annual wage, May 2025 | $83,680 | OEWS |
| 10th and 90th percentile wage | $56,020 and $144,090 | OEWS |
| Median annual wage, May 2019 | $71,550 | OEWS |
| All jobs including self-employed, 2025 | 1,595,200 (5.5% self-employed) | Employment Projections |
| Projected employment, 2035 | 1,674,600, up 5.0% | Employment Projections |
| Projected openings a year, 2025 to 2035 | 115,300 | Employment Projections |
BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 and May 2019; BLS Employment Projections 2025 to 2035, Tables 1.2 and 1.10 (August 27, 2026).
The median wage rose 17.0% between May 2019 and May 2025, from $71,550 to $83,680, while the number of jobs rose 13.2%. Those employed by accounting, tax and bookkeeping firms earned a median of $81,490. The BLS projects accountant and auditor employment to grow 5.0% over the decade, against 3.5% for all occupations, but most of the 115,300 yearly openings come from replacement rather than growth: 63,200 a year from people moving to other occupations and 44,100 from people leaving the labor force. California has 175,360 of the jobs, at a median of $97,050.
What is the average age of a CPA?
No national body publishes the age of licensed CPAs. The closest national measure is the Current Population Survey, which covers everyone who reports working as an accountant or auditor, licensed or not.
| Employed, 2025 annual average | Accountants and auditors | All occupations |
|---|---|---|
| Total employed | 1,766,000 | 163,493,000 |
| Aged 55 to 64 | 331,000 | 26,605,000 |
| Aged 65 and over | 148,000 | 11,374,000 |
| Share aged 55 and over | 27.1% | 23.2% |
| Median age | 44.7 | 42.1 |
BLS, Current Population Survey, Table 11b, Employed persons by detailed occupation and age, 2025 annual averages (last modified February 20, 2026). Shares are WIN’s calculation.
479,000 working accountants and auditors were 55 or older in 2025, and 148,000 were 65 or older, 8.4% of the occupation against 7.0% of all workers. For licensed CPAs the best available figure is state-level. The California Board of Accountancy reports a median age of 48 for its 88,565 active and inactive licensees, with 22,756 (25.7%) aged 60 or older and 7,825 aged 70 or older. Its newly licensed CPAs averaged 30.8 years old in 2024-25.
How many CPAs are leaving the profession?
No source counts departures from the CPA profession directly. Three figures come closest.
Net change in active licenses. On the same 53 jurisdictions, NASBA’s active count fell by 2,741 between August 28, 2025 and August 27, 2026. If reporting stayed the same, more CPAs left active status (by retiring, going inactive, letting a license lapse or dying) than were newly licensed or reactivated. The year before, the count fell 18,447 even though Vermont joined the database; NASBA does not explain that drop, and part of it may be reporting rather than departures.
Projected exits. The BLS expects 44,100 accountants and auditors a year to leave the labor force between 2025 and 2035, a rate of 2.7% a year (retirement is the example the BLS gives), and another 63,200 a year (3.9%) to move into other occupations.
Status changes in one large state. In California, licensees in retired status rose about 14% in 2024-25, to 5,615, and 21,221 more held inactive licenses, against 66,662 active. Together with 14,949 delinquent licenses, 41,785 of the state’s 108,447 CPAs, 39%, could not practice public accountancy on June 30, 2025.
Which states have changed the 150-hour rule?
The traditional route to a CPA license requires 150 semester hours of education, 30 more than a typical bachelor’s degree. In 2025 the AICPA and NASBA revised the Uniform Accountancy Act to recognize three routes: a master’s degree and one year of experience, a bachelor’s degree plus 30 credits and one year, or a bachelor’s degree and two years of experience. NASBA keeps a list of jurisdictions that have signed a new pathway into law. As of October 1, 2026 it lists 46 of the 55: 44 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
| Status, effective dates as NASBA lists them | Jurisdictions |
|---|---|
| In effect in 2025 (5) | Connecticut, Hawaii, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Washington |
| In effect in 2026 by November 11 (35) | Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, District of Columbia, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin |
| Signed, effective later (6) | New York (November 21, 2026), Arizona (December 31, 2026), California, Colorado, Illinois and Indiana (January 1, 2027) |
| Not on NASBA’s list (9) | Florida, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, North Dakota, Wyoming, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, U.S. Virgin Islands |
NASBA, New Licensure Pathways Legislation list, information current as of October 1, 2026. Several boards are still writing the rules that apply the new law.
California’s pathway comes from AB 1175: from January 1, 2027 a bachelor’s degree with an accounting concentration and two years of experience qualifies, and an advanced degree in an accounting subject can substitute for one of the two years. NASBA lists December 31, 2028 as the last day to apply under the old California rules. The new route replaces the fifth year of credits with a second year of experience.
What the shortage means if you own a practice
A small practice feels the numbers above in three places. The first is pay. The median accountant wage rose 17.0% in six years, to $83,680 nationally and $97,050 in California, and the top tenth of the occupation earns $144,090 or more. What a Los Angeles tax manager costs in 2026 is in what happens to your staff when you sell.
The second is capacity. Between 2020 and 2024 no more than 20,703 candidates a year passed the final exam section, against 29,539 in 2010, and those are the cohorts now reaching senior and manager level. A one-owner practice that loses its senior preparer competes for a replacement with every firm and company that hires from the same group.
The third is succession. In California 25.7% of active and inactive CPAs are 60 or older. An owner without a licensed successor inside the firm can hire one, merge into a firm that has one, or sell to a buyer that brings its own CPA and staff. In this hiring market the second and third carry less risk for a one-owner practice, because the buyer supplies the people the owner cannot hire. How the paths compare and how far ahead each one starts is in CPA firm succession planning; what a practice brings is in how much CPA firms sell for and the practice valuation calculator.
Wilshire Intelligence Network buys established CPA and tax practices across California and pairs each one with a practicing CPA who becomes its owner. The firm keeps its name, its office and its people.
What these numbers do not count
Licensees are not workers. An active CPA may work in a company, a government agency or a university. The BLS counts jobs whether or not the holder is licensed, and its wage survey leaves out the self-employed (5.5% of the occupation).
The national count misses two jurisdictions, and its method changed. Hawaii and New Mexico are not in NASBA’s 2025 and 2026 counts, and coverage has varied since 2016. NASBA’s 2016 description said most licensees with licenses in several states were matched so they were counted once; the current page says the count rests on status data that each board equates to active.
State counts overlap. A CPA licensed in three states is in three state counts, and boards count nonresidents: about 14% of California’s active licensees live outside the state. The state figures come from different dates and cannot be added up to a national total.
Inactive, retired and lapsed licenses are excluded. California alone listed 41,655 CPAs as not active in January 2026, none of them in the NASBA total; what each status allows is in California CPA license renewal.
Enrolled agents and tax preparers are a separate population. The BLS counts 76,480 tax preparer jobs in May 2025, and none of the counts here include enrolled agents, who are enrolled by the IRS rather than licensed by a state board.
Exam counts are not licensees. A candidate who passes the final section still has to meet the experience requirement and apply, so passers show up as licensees a year or two later, and some never apply.
Sources
- NASBA, How Many CPAs Are There? (650,667 as of August 27, 2026), and its earlier versions as archived by the Internet Archive (2017 to 2026 captures). NASBA, Pathways and its New Licensure Pathways Legislation list, information current as of October 1, 2026. NASBA, 2025 NASBA Report Now Available (August 18, 2026) and the 2024 edition release (August 18, 2025). Read November 9, 2026.
- AICPA, 2025 Trends: A Report on Accounting Education, the CPA Exam, and Public Accounting Firms’ Hiring of Recent Graduates, Tables 1.1, 3.1 to 3.3 and 4.1; 2026 Trends (November 4, 2026), key insights; Learn more about CPA Exam scoring and pass rates (October 22, 2026); The new CPA Exam, two years in (July 6, 2026). Read November 9, 2026.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 national, industry and state estimates for SOC 13-2011 and 13-2082, retrieved through the BLS public data API, and May 2019 estimates for accountants and auditors; Employment Projections Table 1.2 and Table 1.10, 2025 to 2035 (August 27, 2026); Occupational Outlook Handbook, Accountants and Auditors; Current Population Survey Table 11b, 2025 annual averages. The web tables were read from Internet Archive copies captured between October 31 and November 4, 2026. Read November 9, 2026.
- U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 state population estimates (NST-EST2025-ALLDATA, July 1, 2025). Downloaded November 9, 2026.
- California Board of Accountancy, Report on Long-Term Licensing Data Trends and the AICPA’s 2025 Trends Report, Item 5.F., November 20-21, 2025, Tables 3, 5 and 6, and the Licensees page (last updated January 8, 2026). AB 1175. Read November 9, 2026.
- State counts for the lookup, read November 9 and 10, 2026: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wyoming.
This article is general information for practice owners and is not legal, tax or investment advice. Counts are as published by each source on the dates given and will change; licensing requirements are set by each state board, which is the authority for any individual license or application.
Denis is a practicing tax and accounting professional and the principal of VistaTax, a practice serving individuals and closely held businesses: individual and business tax preparation, tax planning, bookkeeping, financial reporting and payroll. As WIN’s founding CPA he anchors the licensed side of the structure and sits at the table for every transition. More about WIN’s team.