Which states do not license roofers

What the data shows

Four kinds of rule. 23 states and DC issue a state license for roofing work. 15 states keep a registration list: the roofer pays a fee and shows proof of insurance, but takes no trade exam. Eight states leave licensing to cities and counties. In four states, Texas, Georgia, Maine and New Hampshire, we found no state license and no common local one. Each state's page in our roofing license guide gives the rule and the pages we read.

Where the firms are. Texas has 20,406 roofing establishments, more than Florida (9,000) and California (7,849) together. Per 10,000 homes, Texas also comes first at 16.8, then Oklahoma (13.4), Colorado (13.3), Georgia (11.8) and Arkansas (11.4). DC (1.0), Nevada (2.3), New York (2.9) and New Jersey (3.3) have the fewest.

Most firms have no employees. Nonemployer firms, mostly sole proprietors, make up 83,068 of the 107,441 establishments, or 77 percent. The share runs from 92 percent in Mississippi and 88 percent in Texas down to 44 percent in Washington. The nonemployer counts are our estimate from a wider Census group, not a published figure.

Wages. The median roofer wage is highest in Illinois ($37.45 an hour), New Jersey ($36.83) and Minnesota ($35.81). It is lowest in Oklahoma ($21.00) and Mississippi ($21.61). New York, where the state does not license roofers, has the sixth-highest wage, $31.74.

What the table cannot tell you. It does not show whether a license changes the quality of the work or the number of complaints. It counts each firm in the state of its address, not in every state where it works. In the eight local-only states, the rules change from one city to the next, so ask your building department. Missouri's row has medium confidence, because the state's pages were thin.

The table

Method

• One row for each of the 51 jurisdictions (50 states and DC). We read each state's own licensing pages; "Checked" is the date we read them.
• License kinds: 4 none, 8 local only, 15 state registration, 24 state license.
• None: The state does not license roofers, and we found no common city or county license. Proof of insurance and a written contract matter most here.
• Local only: The state does not license roofers. Your city or county may. Ask your building department what it asks of a roofer.
• State registration: The state keeps a list of registered contractors. The roofer pays a fee and shows proof of insurance, but takes no trade exam.
• State license: The state issues a license for roofing work. The roofer meets the state’s rules to get it, and you can look the license up.
• Confidence "medium" means the state's pages were thin or unclear. Read them again first when the rules change.
• Roofing establishments are NAICS 238160 (roofing contractors): employer firms from County Business Patterns 2023 plus nonemployer firms (sole proprietors) from Nonemployer Statistics 2024.
• Nonemployer Statistics publishes sole proprietors for the wider specialty-trade group only. The nonemployer count is that group count times each county's roofing share of employer firms, so it is an estimate, not a published figure.
• Firms per 10k homes divides establishments by housing units from the American Community Survey 5-year 2024 (table B25001).
• Median wage is the hourly median for roofers (SOC 47-2181) from BLS OEWS, May 2025.
• A number we do not have shows as 0.
• Sorted by license kind (none, local only, registration, state license), then by establishments, largest first.