730,187 Americans hold a ham license, 6.4% fewer than in January 2022
Licensed hams by state and class, from the FCC's public license files. Updated monthly.
The US has 730,187 licensed hams as of September 2026, down from 779,998 in January 2022 (ARRL's published count of the same FCC files). First-time licensing is running at 24,401 a year, 11.8% fewer than 4 years earlier (that includes October 2025, when the FCC granted almost nothing), while upgrades are 17.5% higher. Idaho has the most hams per capita (542.8 per 100,000 residents) and District of Columbia the fewest (81.0).
Recent licensing activity
September saw 1,718 first-time licenses: about the same as August (1,686) and 10.8% higher than September a year earlier (1,550). Over the last 12 months there were 24,401, 10.1% lower than the 12 months before (27,154).
September saw 1,924 upgrades: 16.2% higher than August (1,656) and 17.7% higher than September a year earlier (1,634). Over the last 12 months there were 21,783, 3.3% higher than the 12 months before (21,096).
In September the median was 1 day and the slowest tenth took 4 days or more. Over the last 3 months the median is 2 days and over 12 months 2 days; monthly medians have stayed between 1 and 2 days.
Is the number of hams growing?
ARRL's published count of active FCC licenses held by individuals was 779,998 in January 2022, 755,119 in December 2023 and 729,198 in October 2026: 3.2% lower over the first stretch and 3.4% lower over the second. New licenses and upgrades are the inflow, and licenses that expire without renewal are the outflow; the FCC data shows both, but one snapshot cannot say how they net out month by month, so we show ARRL's anchors, and our own monthly history will take over as it builds.
Where the hams are
Raw totals mostly follow population, so we compare states per capita: licensed hams per 100,000 residents. The national rate across the 50 states and DC is 211.8. Idaho leads at 542.8, 2.6 times the national rate, followed by Utah (507.6) and Oregon (460.3). 8 of the 10 highest states are in the West. California has the most hams in total (89,021) but ranks 25 of 51 per capita. At the other end, District of Columbia (81.0), Louisiana (124.4), New York (127.2) have the fewest per resident.
Map by state
Pick a state from the menu above or tap one on the map to see its details.
Every state, ranked
Sort by total, per capita or new licenses. Ranks are fixed; filtering never changes them.
| Idaho | 542.8 #1 | 11,017 | 1.13 #1 | 16.3 #1 |
| Utah | 507.6 #2 | 17,962 | 0.71 #7 | 14.6 #T-2 |
| Oregon | 460.3 #3 | 19,673 | 0.98 #2 | 14.6 #T-2 |
| Alaska | 425.5 #4 | 3,137 | fewer than 10<10 | 14.4 #4 |
| Washington | 403.3 #5 | 32,265 | 0.69 #8 | 11.6 #7 |
| New Hampshire | 403.0 #6 | 5,704 | fewer than 10<10 | 11.0 #8 |
| Wyoming | 401.0 #7 | 2,361 | fewer than 10<10 | 12.7 #6 |
| Montana | 386.1 #8 | 4,420 | fewer than 10<10 | 13.1 #5 |
| West Virginia | 322.7 #9 | 5,700 | 0.62 #13 | 8.5 #11 |
| Colorado | 320.5 #10 | 19,269 | 0.68 #T-9 | 10.4 #9 |
| Maine | 308.1 #11 | 4,359 | 0.85 #3 | 9.7 #10 |
| Vermont | 307.9 #12 | 1,985 | fewer than 10<10 | 7.4 #T-21 |
| New Mexico | 279.2 #13 | 5,935 | 0.52 #T-15 | 8.4 #T-12 |
| Tennessee | 273.7 #14 | 20,024 | 0.77 #4 | 8.4 #T-12 |
| Arizona | 272.8 #15 | 20,799 | 0.68 #T-9 | 7.0 #T-26 |
| Arkansas | 249.0 #16 | 7,755 | 0.74 #6 | 6.9 #29 |
| Nevada | 243.0 #17 | 7,975 | 0.34 #T-35 | 7.3 #23 |
| Missouri | 234.6 #18 | 14,713 | 0.46 #T-21 | 7.7 #20 |
| Kansas | 232.7 #19 | 6,927 | 0.40 #T-27 | 7.4 #T-21 |
| Oklahoma | 230.9 #20 | 9,519 | 0.51 #T-17 | 6.6 #T-33 |
| Hawaii | 229.5 #21 | 3,288 | fewer than 10<10 | 8.2 #T-16 |
| Alabama | 227.8 #22 | 11,828 | 0.46 #T-21 | 6.8 #T-30 |
| South Dakota | 227.5 #23 | 2,127 | fewer than 10<10 | 6.6 #T-33 |
| Virginia | 227.1 #24 | 20,166 | 0.56 #14 | 8.1 #T-18 |
| California | 226.2 #25 | 89,021 | 0.48 #20 | 7.0 #T-26 |
| Ohio | 220.1 #26 | 26,195 | 0.45 #23 | 6.0 #T-40 |
| Indiana | 215.8 #27 | 15,048 | 0.37 #T-31 | 6.8 #T-30 |
| Kentucky | 208.8 #28 | 9,619 | 0.33 #37 | 6.6 #T-33 |
| North Carolina | 207.0 #29 | 23,180 | 0.76 #5 | 8.3 #T-14 |
| Michigan | 200.1 #30 | 20,263 | 0.64 #12 | 7.0 #T-26 |
| Iowa | 193.4 #31 | 6,262 | 0.49 #19 | 7.2 #T-24 |
| Minnesota | 190.1 #32 | 11,084 | 0.39 #30 | 6.6 #T-33 |
| South Carolina | 188.9 #33 | 10,525 | 0.52 #T-15 | 7.2 #T-24 |
| Connecticut | 184.8 #34 | 6,817 | fewer than 10<10 | 5.4 #T-45 |
| Wisconsin | 184.4 #35 | 11,015 | 0.28 #38 | 5.5 #44 |
| Nebraska | 183.3 #36 | 3,698 | fewer than 10<10 | 8.1 #T-18 |
| Massachusetts | 182.4 #37 | 13,049 | 0.68 #T-9 | 8.3 #T-14 |
| Pennsylvania | 178.5 #38 | 23,315 | 0.51 #T-17 | 5.9 #T-42 |
| Florida | 177.0 #39 | 41,529 | 0.40 #T-27 | 5.4 #T-45 |
| North Dakota | 175.8 #40 | 1,405 | fewer than 10<10 | 6.4 #T-38 |
| Delaware | 174.0 #41 | 1,844 | fewer than 10<10 | 8.2 #T-16 |
| Maryland | 167.0 #42 | 10,465 | 0.37 #T-31 | 5.9 #T-42 |
| Texas | 166.3 #43 | 52,725 | 0.41 #T-25 | 6.4 #T-38 |
| Georgia | 164.8 #44 | 18,626 | 0.40 #T-27 | 6.6 #T-33 |
| Rhode Island | 163.4 #45 | 1,821 | fewer than 10<10 | 4.4 #50 |
| Mississippi | 159.5 #46 | 4,711 | 0.44 #24 | 3.8 #51 |
| Illinois | 145.4 #47 | 18,490 | 0.34 #T-35 | 5.2 #47 |
| New Jersey | 131.5 #48 | 12,557 | 0.36 #34 | 4.8 #48 |
| New York | 127.2 #49 | 25,448 | 0.37 #T-31 | 6.0 #T-40 |
| Louisiana | 124.4 #50 | 5,745 | 0.41 #T-25 | 4.6 #49 |
| District of Columbia | 81.0 #51 | 562 | fewer than 10<10 | 6.8 #T-30 |
Licenses by class
Technician 49.1%, General 25.2%, Amateur Extra 21.6%, Advanced 3.5%, Novice 0.6%. Technician is the entry-level class and the Technician exam is the usual first step, so its share rises when more people are newly licensed than upgrading.
- Technician358,449 (49.1%)
- General184,360 (25.2%)
- Amateur Extra157,729 (21.6%)
- Advanced25,581 (3.5%)
- Novice4,068 (0.6%)
New licenses and upgrades by month
In September the FCC granted 1,718 first-time licenses and 1,924 class upgrades. First-time licenses were about the same as August (1,686) and 10.8% higher than September a year earlier (1,550), below the 12-month average of 2,033 a month. A further 57 went to people who had held a license before.
How we measure this
Source
Source: the FCC's Universal Licensing System public access files (the transaction and complete files the FCC publishes at data.fcc.gov). Names, addresses and other personal fields are discarded on arrival; we store and publish aggregates only.
Data through September 2026. Reports describe whole calendar months and are updated monthly; licensed counts are taken from the FCC files at the end of that month.
What counts
A licensed ham is an active license held by an individual whose expiration date has not passed, in the Novice, Technician, General, Advanced or Extra class. ULS keeps an expired license active for a two-year renewal grace period; those 80,891 licenses are not counted. Club stations, government and military licenses are excluded. Someone holding two licenses counts twice, a small effect.
States use the licensee's mailing address as filed. Licenses outside the 50 states and DC (6,260, mostly territories and APO addresses) count in the national total only. Per-capita rates use the Census Bureau's Vintage 2025 population estimates (July 1, 2025).
A new license is a first-time license: an application for a new license, filed by volunteer examiners, granted in the month, to someone with no earlier license on file. 57 grants in September went to people who had held a license before; they are counted separately. An upgrade is a volunteer-examiner-filed application, granted in the month, after which the license shows a higher class than before. Technician Plus conversions are excluded. Vanity call sign changes keep the same license and are not counted. We identify upgrades by the class change on the license, so a later class change can be attributed to an earlier application.
Limits
Licensed does not mean active on the air. Addresses are self-reported and can be years old. Counts below 10 are withheld and drawn hatched, never as zero.
We do not publish a 12-month change in the number of licensed hams. A single FCC file cannot reproduce the past: grant dates reset on renewal, and licenses renewed late inside the grace period look like departures. We tested a reconstruction against ARRL's published totals and it missed by more than the change it was measuring. The monthly history on the map therefore shows first-time licenses, which the application records support. A licensed-per-capita history will build from our own archived snapshots.
Our total matches ARRL's published FCC license counts to within 0.02% on the same date.
Credit
For many years the amateur radio community relied on Joe Speroni (AH0A)'s FCC licensing statistics. Our counting uses the same public data and a comparable approach, and we credit his long-running work.
US ham radio statistics FAQ
How many ham radio operators are there in the US?+
730,187 people hold an active license that has not passed its expiration date, as of September 2026. Another 80,891 licenses are past expiration but still inside the two-year renewal grace period and are not counted.
Which state has the most ham radio operators?+
California has the most in total (89,021). Per capita the leader is Idaho with 542.8 per 100,000 residents.
How many new hams are licensed each month?+
Over the last 12 months the FCC granted 24,401 first-time licenses, an average of 2,033 a month, plus 21,783 class upgrades.
Does a license mean someone is active on the air?+
No. A license shows that someone passed an exam and kept the license current. It says nothing about whether they transmit. Addresses are self-reported and can be years out of date.
How do you count a ham radio operator?+
We count individual licenses with active status whose expiration date has not passed. Club stations, government and military records are excluded. Licenses outside the 50 states and DC (6,260) count in the national total only. The same convention gives ARRL's published count to within 0.02% on the same date.