The three buckets
71% of jurisdictions. Includes both competency licenses and consumer registration regimes.
22% of jurisdictions. Specific trades licensed statewide; general contracting verified locally.
8% of jurisdictions. All contractor licensing handled by cities and counties.
Put differently: 15 of 51 U.S. jurisdictions have no statewide general-contractor license (29%). In those places, "is this contractor licensed?" has no single statewide answer — it depends on the city or county, and on whether the work touches a state-licensed trade.
Statewide: 36 jurisdictions
A single statewide license OR a statewide registration with a public lookup. This bucket mixes rigorous competency licenses (exam + bond) with consumer-protection registration regimes — see the methodology.
States: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin.
Trades only: 11 jurisdictions
No statewide general-contractor license. The state licenses only specific trades statewide (commonly electrical, plumbing, and HVAC); general contracting is verified at the city or county level.
States: Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Wyoming.
Local only: 4 jurisdictions
No statewide contractor license at all. Licensing is handled entirely by cities and counties, so requirements vary by jurisdiction.
Methodology
We verified each state's official licensing authority directly against that agency's own site, and classified every jurisdiction into one of three models. The classification field lives in our public state-licensing registry, so this study is computed from the same data that powers ProFix's per-state verification pages.
- "Statewide" means the state itself — not the city — is the registry of record, with a public lookup. Crucially, this bucket includes registration regimes like Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Vermont, where a contractor registers with the state but does not necessarily sit a statewide competency exam. We do notimply that every statewide regime is a rigorous competency license — California's CSLB (exam + bond) and Pennsylvania's Attorney-General home-improvement registration are both "statewide" here, but they are very different instruments. The per-state scope text in the registry says which is which.
- "Trade-only" means the state licenses only specific trades statewide (commonly electrical, plumbing, and HVAC) and there is no statewide general-contractor license; general contracting is verified at the city or county level.
- "Local-only" means there is no statewide contractor license at all — cities and counties license contractors, so requirements vary by jurisdiction.
The source for each row is the state's own board or authority, named and linked in the table below. We link the agency homepage (very stable) rather than deep query URLs that boards rotate. This is a classification of licensing structure, not a ranking of how strict or consumer-friendly each regime is.
All 51 jurisdictions, grouped by model
Sorted by licensing model, then alphabetically. Each row links to the ProFix verification page for that state, which routes you to the official authority. The authority column is the agency stored in our registry as the source of record.
Homeowner takeaway
Do not assume a contractor is "state-licensed" just because they work in your state. First find out which bucket your state is in, then verify with the right authority — the state board if there is one, your city or county building department if there is not. ProFix's verification hub routes you to the official authority for any U.S. state.
Frequently asked questions
Do all 50 states license general contractors?
No. Of 51 U.S. jurisdictions (50 states plus DC), only 36 have a statewide general-contractor license or registration with a public lookup. In 15 jurisdictions there is no statewide general-contractor license — 11 license only specific trades statewide, and 4 leave licensing entirely to cities and counties.
Does 'statewide' mean the contractor passed a competency exam?
Not always. The statewide bucket mixes true competency licenses (exam plus bond, e.g. California's CSLB or New Mexico's CID) with consumer-protection registration regimes (e.g. Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont) where a contractor registers with the state but does not sit a statewide competency exam. We label these honestly in the registry's scope text rather than implying every statewide regime is equally rigorous.
If my state has no statewide license, how do I verify a contractor?
Check with the city or county building department where the work will be done, and verify any state-licensed trades (often electrical, plumbing, and HVAC) on the relevant state board. ProFix Directory's per-state verification pages point you to the correct authority for each jurisdiction.
Where does this data come from?
Every entry is verified against the state's own official licensing authority — the agency name and homepage are stored in the registry and shown in the table on this page. We link the stable agency homepage rather than fragile deep-link query URLs that boards rotate.