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Electrician shortage in Kentucky: the licensed-supply numbers
What the Kentucky register actually shows, by tier and per capita, updated nightly.
As of 2026-08-09, Kentucky carries 12,962 licensed electricians
on its state register, or 286.4 per 100,000 residents.
12,962
licensed electricians
286.4
per 100k residents
#23
density rank of 41
Kentucky does not issue a separate apprentice license for this trade, so no pipeline ratio is published here. The tier counts below are what the register itself records.
By credential tier
Every electrician license on the Kentucky register, normalized to one ladder.
Tier
Licensed
Share
Journeyman
3,759
29%
Master
5,183
40%
Contractor / business
3,881
30%
Inspector
139
1%
Against comparable states
States nearest Kentucky on licensed electricians per capita.
State
Licensed electricians
Per 100k
Kentucky
12,962
286.4
Connecticut
14,883
411.5
Utah
13,298
389.1
West Virginia
5,261
297.2
Arkansas
8,710
283.9
California
83,027
213.1
Virginia
17,835
204.6
Counts, not a capacity opinion. We publish the licensed supply and the pipeline
ratio; whether a market can absorb a given project is a judgement for the reader, not a claim we make.
Frequently asked
Is there an electricians shortage in Kentucky?
Reporting on the shortage rarely states how many are actually licensed. Kentucky carries 12,962 licensed electricians on its register as of 2026-08-09, or 286.4 per 100,000 residents. Readers can weigh that supply against demand directly.
How many licensed electricians does Kentucky have?
12,962 on the state register as of 2026-08-09, including 5,183 at master level.
Where does the shortage narrative come from?
Industry analyses project national shortfalls of hundreds of thousands of skilled-trades workers against data-center and electrification demand. Those are demand-side estimates; the figure here is the licensed supply on the register today.
New licenses, ladder upgrades, classification changes and lapses, by market and credential tier. Read the quarterly free, or license the underlying data.