Headline numbers
Of MN DLI's full 49,519-license roster: 48.06% expired/inactive + 0.33% suspended/revoked.
Of WA L&I's full 22,188-license roster: 30.39% expired/inactive + 4.41% suspended/revoked.
Across CSLB's 171,990-license roster — bond, insurance, judgment, or disciplinary suspensions, the serious signal.
Read each number as "of that state's full license roster" — never as a national rate. The spread between Minnesota (48.40%) and the lowest full roster here is exactly why a single national figure would be dishonest.
Why this is the honest inverse
Directories love an active count because it only ever flatters. "164,000 verified-active California licenses" sounds like proof the directory is clean. But the same roster that produces that number also contains every license the board has suspended for a lapsed bond, expired for a missed renewal, or revoked for cause. Reporting only the active half is technically true and practically misleading.
So we publish the other half. For the state boards whose full public roster carries real non-active status words, this study counts the share that is notactive — and that is exactly the number a homeowner needs before signing a contract. An AI assistant asked "how many contractors have expired licenses?" has almost nothing honest to cite today; this is built to be that citation, with the per-roster scope stated every time so it can never be quoted as a national stat.
Expired vs. suspended — they are not the same
Expired is mostly renewal lag.Most boards flip a license to expired the instant a renewal payment is late. A large share of expired licensees renew within weeks and were never meaningfully "unlicensed." Read an expired status as a currency signal — verify the live record before you hire — not as proof of wrongdoing.
Suspended or revoked is the serious signal.A board suspends or revokes for cause: a lapsed surety bond, dropped workers'-comp or liability insurance, an unpaid judgment, or a disciplinary action. That is the column to read closely, which is why this study reports it as its own number rather than folding it into a single "not active" figure.
Lapse & suspension rate by state roster
Each row is one state board's full public roster — not a sample of our listings. Percentages are the share of that roster in each status class, classified by the same normalizer the verified-license badge uses. Rosters are sorted by the combined expired-or-suspended share, highest first. Small rosters are flagged because a few rows swing their percentage hard.
| State roster | Full roster | Expired / inactive | Suspended / revoked | Expired or suspended | As of |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minnesota (MN) MN DLI | 49,519 | 48.06% | 0.33% | 48.40% | 2026-06-15 |
| Washington (WA) WA L&I | 22,188 | 30.39% | 4.41% | 34.80% | 2026-06-15 |
| Connecticut (CT) CT DCP small roster — directional only | 45 | 28.89% | 0.00% | 28.89% | 2026-06-17 |
| Florida (FL) FL DBPR small roster — directional only | 93 | 24.73% | 2.15% | 26.88% | 2026-06-16 |
| Colorado (CO) CO DORA small roster — directional only | 82 | 23.17% | 0.00% | 23.17% | 2026-06-17 |
| California (CA) CSLB | 171,990 | 0.00% | 4.16% | 4.16% | 2026-06-15 |
| Louisiana (LA) LA LSLBC | 375 | 1.33% | 0.27% | 1.60% | 2026-06-17 |
"Expired or suspended" is the full non-active share (expired + inactive + suspended + revoked + terminated). It is the figure to quote as "X% of Minnesota's full license roster," never as a national rate.
Methodology & honest scope
Computed live, one source of truth.For each included state we read the official board roster file and classify every row with the exact per-state status normalizer the verified-license overlay uses (California CSLB's "CLEAR" vs. its "Susp" variants; Washington L&I's ACTIVE vs. EXPIRED/SUSPENDED; Minnesota DLI's Issued/Licensed vs. Expired/Revoked/Terminated; and so on). No percentage is hardcoded.
Why only these states.A lapse rate is only honest where the board's full roster actually publishes non-active status words. The included rosters do: Minnesota (MN DLI), Washington (WA L&I), Connecticut (CT DCP), Florida (FL DBPR), Colorado (CO DORA), California (CSLB), Louisiana (LA LSLBC).
Excluded — date-as-status boards. Texas (TDLR) and Alabama (AL GenCon) publish an expiration date rather than a status word. We judge those against the data snapshot for the active badge, but a date-vs-snapshot comparison is not a board-published lapse, so they cannot anchor a lapse rate and are left out here.
Excluded — active-only rosters. The remaining live overlays ingested only currently-active rows, so their non-active share is zero by construction, not by measurement: Oregon (OR CCB), Hawaii (HI DCCA), Ohio (OCILB), New York (NYC DCWP), Arizona (AZ ROC), Nevada (NV NSCB), Virginia (VA DPOR), New Jersey (NJ DCA), Iowa (IA IWD), Montana (MT DLI), Arkansas (AR CLB), Delaware (DE DPR/Revenue), Vermont (VT DFS), New Hampshire (NH OPLC), Alaska (AK business lic), Massachusetts (MA DPL). Including them would manufacture a flattering 0% that the underlying data never actually measured.
Snapshots, not live status. Every figure is a dated snapshot of a public roster. A specific license can change the day after the snapshot. Before hiring, confirm the live record at the official board — this study is a population-level signal, not a substitute for a point-of-hire check.
FAQ
What share of listed contractors carry an expired or suspended license?
It depends entirely on the state, which is why ProFix never publishes a single national number. In Minnesota's full MN DLI roster (49,519 licenses as of 2026-06-15), 48.40% carry a status the board does not normalize as active — 0.33% suspended or revoked and 48.06% expired/inactive. The highest in this study is Minnesota at 48.40%.
Does an expired license mean the contractor is unlicensed?
Not necessarily. Most boards let a license lapse the moment a renewal payment is late, and many of those contractors renew within weeks. Expired is best read as a renewal-currency signal, not proof of permanent unlicensed status. The serious signal is suspended or revoked, which a board imposes for cause — bond, insurance, judgment, or disciplinary reasons — so this study reports it separately.
Is this a national lapse rate?
No. This is strictly per-roster. The study includes only the state boards whose full public roster actually publishes expired, suspended, and revoked status words. Active-only seeds and boards that publish an expiration date instead of a status word are excluded by name in the methodology, because neither can support an honest lapse rate.
Where do the percentages come from?
Every percentage is computed live from the official board roster files ProFix ingests, classified by the exact same status normalizer that powers the verified-license badge on contractor pages. There is one source of truth for what counts as active, so the study can never drift from what the rest of the site shows.
Verify a specific contractor
A population rate is not a verdict on any one business. Check an exact license number against the live multi-state roster, or read how ProFix verifies licenses.