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Electrician shortage in Virginia: the licensed-supply numbers
What the Virginia register actually shows, by tier and per capita, updated nightly.
As of 2026-08-09, Virginia carries 17,835 licensed electricians
on its state register, or 204.6 per 100,000 residents.
17,835
licensed electricians
204.6
per 100k residents
#26
density rank of 41
Virginia 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 Virginia register, normalized to one ladder.
Tier
Licensed
Share
Journeyman
5,874
33%
Master
11,961
67%
Against comparable states
States nearest Virginia on licensed electricians per capita.
State
Licensed electricians
Per 100k
Virginia
17,835
204.6
Kentucky
12,962
286.4
Arkansas
8,710
283.9
California
83,027
213.1
New Jersey
16,696
179.7
Maryland
8,290
134.1
Alabama
6,052
118.5
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 Virginia?
Reporting on the shortage rarely states how many are actually licensed. Virginia carries 17,835 licensed electricians on its register as of 2026-08-09, or 204.6 per 100,000 residents. Readers can weigh that supply against demand directly.
How many licensed electricians does Virginia have?
17,835 on the state register as of 2026-08-09, including 11,961 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.