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Plumber shortage in Alabama: the licensed-supply numbers
What the Alabama register actually shows, by tier and per capita, updated nightly.
As of 2026-08-09, Alabama carries 7,867 licensed plumbers
on its state register, or 154.0 per 100,000 residents.
7,867
licensed plumbers
154.0
per 100k residents
#24
density rank of 42
Alabama 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 plumber license on the Alabama register, normalized to one ladder.
Tier
Licensed
Share
Journeyman
6,047
77%
Master
1,820
23%
Against comparable states
States nearest Alabama on licensed plumbers per capita.
State
Licensed plumbers
Per 100k
Alabama
7,867
154.0
Oklahoma
6,985
172.3
Montana
1,900
167.7
Utah
5,722
167.4
Oregon
6,346
149.9
Kentucky
6,298
139.1
Illinois
15,751
125.5
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 a plumbers shortage in Alabama?
Reporting on the shortage rarely states how many are actually licensed. Alabama carries 7,867 licensed plumbers on its register as of 2026-08-09, or 154.0 per 100,000 residents. Readers can weigh that supply against demand directly.
How many licensed plumbers does Alabama have?
7,867 on the state register as of 2026-08-09, including 1,820 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.