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HVAC Technician 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 6,658 licensed HVAC technicians
on its state register, or 76.4 per 100,000 residents.
6,658
licensed HVAC technicians
76.4
per 100k residents
#16
density rank of 32
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 HVAC technician license on the Virginia register, normalized to one ladder.
Tier
Licensed
Share
Journeyman
1,146
17%
Master
5,512
83%
Against comparable states
States nearest Virginia on licensed HVAC technicians per capita.
State
Licensed HVAC technicians
Per 100k
Virginia
6,658
76.4
Alabama
5,161
101.0
New Jersey
7,849
84.5
Michigan
8,161
81.3
Utah
2,378
69.6
Wisconsin
4,036
68.3
Minnesota
3,773
65.8
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 a HVAC shortage in Virginia?
Reporting on the shortage rarely states how many are actually licensed. Virginia carries 6,658 licensed HVAC technicians on its register as of 2026-08-09, or 76.4 per 100,000 residents. Readers can weigh that supply against demand directly.
How many licensed HVAC technicians does Virginia have?
6,658 on the state register as of 2026-08-09, including 5,512 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.