The National Council of Architectural Registration Boards has released its annual NCARB By The Numbers report—the organization's annual data assessment on architectural education, demographics in architecture, diversity in architecture, and more. This year's report—the ninth since the first NCARB By The Numbers in 2012—presents statistics gathered in 2019 from NCARB's 55 members boards in all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The number of architects rose to 116,000 licensed practitioners in 2019, a 1% increase from 2018, and a 10% increase from the number of architects recorded in 2010—a notable rise in comparison to the overall U.S. population, which increased just 6% over that same decade. NCARB also found an almost 10% increase in the number of architects who obtained out-of-state licenses in 2019, suggesting increased mobility within the field. The number of candidates completing core licensing requirements, however, fell by 20% from 2018 to 2019 with only 4,000 candidates completing the requirements in 2019—a total that hovered just above the decade’s average of 3,852.
NCARB reported an increase gender, racial, and ethnic diversity along the path to licensure in 2019. Overall, gender equity remained steady at most career stages in the profession, but there were slight decreases in the proportion of women starting the experience and examination programs. Although NCARB has not found equal proportions of male and female architects at any career stage, the organization has seen an increase in the proportion of women at later career stages, such as completing all core licensure requirements and holding an NCARB certificate. Women have also continued completing licensure requirement more quickly than their male counterparts, this year completing education, experience, and examination requirements in 11.9 years on average, compared to 13.2 years for men, and 12.7 years for all candidates.
NCARB also saw an increase in diversity across architectural career stages in 2019, most notably with a higher proportion of people of color who completed the experience program and began the Architect Registration Examination. The growth in representation at all stages was seen in a higher proportion of Hispanic/Latino and Asian individuals—there was no increase recorded in the representation of Black or African American individuals across the profession.
While more women than men identify as a racial or ethnic minorities within the profession at all career stages, a larger proportion of men identify as Black or African American. According to the report the disparity "suggests that there may be additional barriers preventing African American women from progressing in the profession."
For a section of the report, NCARB partnered with the National Organization for Minority Architects to gather more information on elements of licensure that could impeded or disproportionally affect minorities and other underrepresented groups. The organizations sent a survey to 70,000 architecture professionals, and received more than 5,000 responses from licensure candidates, recently licensed architects, and individuals who stopped pursuing licensure. With 2,300 responses from people of color and nearly 2,500 from women, the study found that Black or African American licensure candidates and architects are five percentage points less likely than their white peers to agree that finding a supportive firm is easy. People of color are also seven percentage points more likely than their white counterparts to stop pursuing licensure while working at a firm.
Respondents of color were also less likely to agree that they were fairly compensated compared to their peers, with just 45% of Black or African American respondents and 47% of Asian respondents agreeing to feeling fairly compensated compared to 53% of white respondents. In addition, 40% of African American respondents reported witnessing or facing discrimination at work, as compared to 26% of white respondents. Asian respondents were the second most likely group to face discrimination at work, with 28% recording having witnessed or faced discrimination themselves.
To see the complete NCARB By the Numbers report, visit ncarb.org.
