Septic Contractor Licensing Statistics by State (U.S., 2026)

Compiled by The Septic Guide (https://thesepticguide.com/). License: CC BY 4.0. DOI (all versions): 10.5281/zenodo.23550642; this version 1.0.1: 10.5281/zenodo.23643824

Match rate is not a compliance rate. The match rate reflects how the directory was sourced from state license rosters. It is not the share of septic businesses that are licensed. States with 0 matches (15 jurisdictions) are places where no statewide roster exists or was loaded, not places with unlicensed contractors.

Aggregate counts of septic service providers in The Septic Guide directory, how many are matched to an official state license or certification list, the agencies and license types behind those matches, and each state's licensing rules (state vs. local licensing, whether a public roster exists). No row-level contractor records (names, phones, addresses, websites, license numbers) are included.

Headline: 28,546 providers listed in 44 states + DC; 27,065 (94.8%) matched to license/certification lists from 26 state agencies. Snapshot as of Oct 21, 2026.

Files in this package

File	Rows	What
data/septic-providers-by-state.csv	45	Providers, license-matched, match rate, phone/website counts, services, licensing level
data/septic-providers-by-county.csv	1,828	Providers and license-matched by county/parish
data/license-types-by-issuer.csv	421	Providers holding each license type, by issuing agency
data/state-licensing-rules.csv	51	50 states + DC: who licenses septic work, credentials, roster availability
data/summary.json	–	National totals
METHODS.md, DATA-DICTIONARY.md, CITATION.cff, LICENSE		Documentation
summarize.py		Prints national totals, zero-match jurisdictions and top states (Python 3, standard library)

Run: python3 summarize.py

The data files are byte-identical to the Zenodo record (version 1.0.1). Also on Hugging Face: https://huggingface.co/datasets/chimneyrepairguide/thesepticguide-septic-licensing-statistics

Caveats

• Counts are directory counts, not official state totals; a state's own roster may be larger.
• No providers for AK, HI, ME, MT, VT, WY. Zero license matches: CO, DC, IN, IA, KS, KY, MA, MO, NV, NJ, NM, PA, UT, WA, WI.
• One business can hold several license types, so license-type rows don't sum to provider totals.

Citation

The Septic Guide (2026). Septic Contractor Licensing Statistics by State (U.S., 2026) (Version 1.0.1) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23550642